Video Interview and Opening - Wolf Kahn, The Early Years, 1950 - 1970

Wolf Kahn, by Justin Spring. 1996.




For some reason I have been looking at Wolf Kahn's early works, mostly in my copy of the book by Justin Spring.  Why did I overlook these before?  Because I am working on subtlety in my studio, Kahn's early monocolors and minimalist works are an inspiration to me.  I really love the ones where he just pushes one or two intense colors through a tonalist surface, such as the one titled Sunset, 1967.


By coincidence, the Jerald Melberg Gallery, in Charlotte, NC,  just finished an exhibition of Wolf Kahn's early works, from the fifties and sixties.  Here is a video series with a very informal interview of Kahn, and if you want to get a better look at some of the paintings, go to the website for the exhibition.

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Stop Thinking About It

Silver Forest & Clearing
Pastel
6 3/4 in. x 5 3/5ths in.
Casey Klahn

Stop thinking about your artwork.  This is the message I say to myself.

Snow Event

I Blame The Groundhog

Write This Down And Put It In Italics

Aperture Bright

11" x 14"

Charcoal & Pastel

Casey Klahn

Wolf Kahn:

I’m not so involved in description because I think that the greatest sin an artist can be accused of is telling people things that they already know. And you can write that down and put it in italics. Our aim as artists is to use ourselves as agents for expanding possibilities; and if you’re just doing something that’s conventional and everyday, you’re not doing it right. Of course, we constantly struggle against our own conventions because that’s one of our worst difficulties—trying to avoid doing something that we already know how to do.

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Studio Dreams

My studio, pictured in the third frame from the right.

Studio Interior - easel and walls.

 Snow and my studio back door.  Gotta get those skirts on.

Studio Interior - north light and palette, easels.

When I googled artist's studio photos, it instantly struck me what were authentic and well-worked in studios.  Some were beautiful, and others cozy.  I dream of a studio that is big and busy.


Willem de Kooning and his studio in the Springs, Long Island.


The Parrish Art Museum.
Getty Images.
flikr.









Russel Chatham in his Livingston, Montana studio.  I follow his work.
h/t Loriann Signori.




The following link offers my sage advice on how to run your studio.  Spoiler:  don't be like Eric Satie.
Ten Life or Death Studio Tips, The Colorist.


I want to do a post on ten more tips.  Stay tuned.


I found this review of artist's studios at a blog named minutia: Artist's Studios.  My fave was Sigmar Polke's studio in Cologne, Germany.  I noticed he goes months without visitors - shades of Satie!


My studio dream is to build a big box connecting the north end of my current structure with high ceilings, north light and a deck.  I want limited or no windows to the south and west.  The trailer part will be office, framing and storage, which are tasks that are now done there in addition to being my studio.


I'm not complaining, though.  Many artists would be happy to have the space, and locale, of my wonderful studio.

Bat Trees

Zane Carriker.

Face & Hands

First posted in 2007.

Face & Hands

Graphite

Casey Klahn

More process stuff in the figures vein, this time a portrait sketch, from the imagination.

This sketch is @ 12 years old.

Faroe Islands and The Ukraine - Take a Visit With Me

Webpage of Artist Pól Skarðenni, Faroe Islands

Do you remember when I brought to your attention the way that artist Sonya Johnson represents the Four Corners area of the American Southwest?  I am always amazed when an artist nails his or her landscape so well.  Let me bring you two more artists I saw this week whose works hit the mark artistically.


Pól Skarðenni is an oil painter whose images of the Faroe Islands are so fascinating that I wanted you to see them.  I haven't been to the Faroes, but I did spend a few months on the Aleutian Islands, and there is an affinity with that area in these paintings.  Hat Tip to Katherine Tyrrell, of The Art of the Landscape for making me aware of this artist.


The next artist came to me via the Follow tool in Blogger.  He is number # 347 in my follows, otherwise known as Sergie Kovyka-Aliyev.  Sergie Kovyka-Aliyev is from The Ukraine, and I envy his spare use of the pencil to render his landscapes.  He inspires me to go out and draw every tree I see.  He blogs at KOVYKA, Sky, Steppe.

Studio Mash

This is a photo journal of the week's studio events.  More happened, but those paintings already went in the flat files. 

 Flat Files and Studio Library

 Degas Copy on the Easel; New Drywall

 Deer Heaven Sketch

 Bull Pine, Informal Photo

Ballerina, Unresolved

le sot Matisse

NASA Messenger image of the Matisse crater on Mercury
Photo: NASA

The village idiot, in other words.  Henri Matisse was known in his home town of Bohain, France as a ner-do-well.  A weirdo, who on the national level was called a "wild beast."   What caused this buttoned-down man of the north to become the wild man of art?


My posts on Henri Matisse.


Hilary Spurling:

Matisse said the act of painting was for him like kicking down a door, or slitting an abscess with a penknife.

Henry Matisse on his painting:

I do it in self-defense. 

You would do well to read Spurling's article about the sartorial Matisse and her biography of him. 


Matisse's Pajamas


Now the Vatican will open a Matisse room to house a collection.

Frog Pond Poetry

Zane The Fabulist.

The Wall

A New Section of Drywall

The Wall.

Here is a short update on my studio activities.  Last week was spent less on making art, and more on remodeling the west wall of my main studio space.  When I first occupied my studio, I replaced the floor boards and added vinyl linoleum.  Out went the green shag carpet.  But, I decided that the 1970's era wood paneling was okay for the time being, since it had a neutral color, at least. 

Adding one wall of drywall has been on my to-do list since then.  Since people are threatening to visit my studio in the near future, I made the effort to "git er done."  Of course, I choose the week I caught the flu, with body aches, to hang and paint drywall.  Live and learn.

At the same time as this minor remodel, I took an inventory of my work to be framed.  Right now I have about 41 pastels that I may frame.  But, if I know me, there will be some brutal culling before they make it to the framing stage.  On the other hand, I also rescued a couple of almost thrown out pieces. 

Wildlife Run By.

One of these days, I am going to post about the wildlife that roam past my studio in the country.  Last week I saw a wolf.  I have twice before thought that I'd seen wolves, but this time I had the binoculars and there was no mistaking it.  


See a wildlife painting that I did at my blog Pastel.

Matisse Places

Here is a documentary by the Beeb that takes you to many of Matisse's historical places.  I enjoyed it, and I took some Matisse lessons into the studio with me yesterday.  

Henri Matisse - Hommage

Music - Arabesque No. 1 in E Major composed by Claude Debussy.
Video by Philip Scott Johnson.

I Went To The Uffizi In Florence, Italy, This Morning

                                    

Google Art Project