Quotes About Ambiguity In Art

The Red Madras Headress
1907, O/C
99.4 x 80.5 cm
Henri Matisse
Barnes Foundation, Merion, PA 

Looking for an anchor to tie your art to?  You won't find it here, partner.  Instead, I bring you ambiguity. 

Artist's Quotes

"There is in every artist’s studio a scrap heap of discarded works in which the artist’s discipline prevailed against his imagination." Robert Brault.

"To sum up, I work without a theory. I am conscious above all of the forces involved, and find myself driven forward by an idea that I can really only grasp bit by bit as it grows with the picture." Henri Matisse.

"I paint in order not to cry." Paul Klee.

"But the Devil whoops, as he whooped of old: 'It's clever, but is it Art?'" Rudyard Kipling.

"No great art has ever been made without the artist having known danger." Rainer Maria Rilke.

"Whoever wishes to devote himself to painting should begin by cutting out his own tongue." Henri Matisse.

"Not only do I not know what's going on, I wouldn't know what to do about it if I did."  George Carlin.

"What garlic is to salad, insanity is to art." Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

"An artist's career always begins tomorrow."  James McNeill Whistler.

"One must beware of a formula good for everything, that will serve to interpret the other arts as well as reality, and that instead of creating will only produce a style, or rather a stylization." George Braque.

"If I knew what I was doing, I'd be doing it right now." Keith Urban.

"Truth and reality in art do not arise until you no longer understand what you are doing and are capable of, but nevertheless sense a power that grows in proportion to your resistance." Henri Matisse.

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Please accept the following document, which is a copy of these quotes on ambiguity, as a gift from me.  Right click to open the image in a new folder, and then save and print.

Matisse and Respect

Sometimes Weather
9" x 7"
Pastel
Casey Klahn

"Matisse respected nobody and nothing,"  Maurice Boudot-Lamotte.


More at The Colorist on Matisse.

Why Write?

"Artspeak" is a bewildering mess of verbiage and mental calisthenics.  Kathy Cartwright asks: why write essays about art at all?   It's good to think about why we write. Someone once said that if you don't state your artistic direction then others will do it for you.  That's why I like to write about art and my own direction.  


One reward for writing about art is that on occasion you get some recognition.  Over the weekend, ArtSlant posted my article on Matisse on their Facebook page.


I think that someone who spoke about one's art direction was Alyson B. Stanfield.

Boulder

Erratic Boulder

6.25" x 8.5"

Pastel & Charcoal

Casey Klahn 

We had snow a couple times this week. Maybe when spring gets here, I'll think about doing some more of these boulder scenes.

Another note.

I grew up around the Pacific beaches. I recall, as a kid, my uncle driving onto the bridge in his pick-up truck and the span had been washed away by a tidal wave (old term).  He broke his arm, and us youngsters got a kick out of seeing that old bridge down in the water like that.  I also felt a 6.5 earthquake, and that is the extent of my experiences with natural disasters, since I completely missed any volcanic fallout when that big one went off in 1980. 

Also, I have been to Japan, which is a beautiful and serene country. Not unlike the boulder in this painting, solid and solitary in her beauty.  

We are watching Internet news and videos of the unimaginable situation across the ocean in Japan. My prayers and thoughts go out to the many who are affected by this natural disaster.

Kids Those Days

Our friend Adam Cope reminds us why drawing and painting one's children is something artists are fond of doing.  In a very well blogged report, he takes us through a chef's tour of some tender and poignant children's portraits.


I was happy to find his link to a blog titled ArtKids, Artistic depictions of children.

Rembrandt 

I remember best the one by Rembrandt that is a sanguine chalk sketch of two matrons and a toddler.  It's in the gaze of the child that this one comes alive.


Let me add these two reactions I had to this subject.  


Last night I watched an interview by Charlie Rose detailing an exhibition of Henri Matisse works, and one of the major works is this one of Pierre Matisse taking his piano lessons.  It has layers and layers of meaning, and I always enjoy studying this painting, which has to do with the First World War. It is interesting to note that Pierre is depicted as an adolescent, but when Matisse painted this, his son was serving as a soldier.


You know when you go to a Charlie Rose interview, you will be tied up for an hour, so be forewarned.


Secondly, I want you to see the work of Antti Rautiola, of Finland, whose subjects are children.

Studio News - Winter 2010-2011

Studio News - Winter 2010-2011

Casey Klahn

1. There are over fifty new artworks in my two flat file cabinets, waiting for the framer. I don't actually expect all fifty to make the final cut - what I do is eliminate the worst third or more after I get a better look at them (and come to my senses). This process I wrote about previously: The Axe Falleth. 


These artworks are also waiting for the formal photographs, and then they go to the Photoshop technician and the archiver. We now have the latest Photoshop program in the house, but I think I'll stick with my old version 1-point-oh. I mean, if it was good enough for Fred Flintstone, then it's good enough for me. 

2. The direction of my art is evolving. I am trying to simplify my colors. That means that I am developing smaller ideas, or maybe I want to say more singular ideas. 


Subjects are the prairie, especially the trees and up the hill, and the Hoquiam River. Also, I am going bigger. I continue to struggle with doing full sheet work, but I am creating many pastel paintings that are in the almost full sheet sizes. Is it the opening dimensions that I struggle with? Possibly. I typically do not compose well with traditional opening sizes, but am prone to work in "custom" sizes. It has to do with my way of composing images - from the inside out. By the same token, I do respond very well to the Golden Rectangle - which is, again, not a standard opening size. I drive my framer nuts.


3. I have been cleaning, organizing and doing minor changes in my studio. The biggest addition is the sheet rock wall, where I have a nice, white wall space that is well lit.  Visitors are expected, and studio sales may become a major part of my vocation in years to come. 


I also installed another track light bar. The biggest challenge has been having too much light from snow reflection. Even pulling the blinds was not enough. I finally hung a blanket over my north windows to cut the harsh light. 


A new microwave oven keeps me in the studio for lunch, which gives me more time for art making.


Did you see Cindy Michaud's new modular custom studio space? It is well thought out and worth your look: New Studio Reveal. 


4. It has been record-cold around here. My studio is nice and warm, except when the wind hits my east or north windows. They may be insulated windows, but there are gaps opened up by the loss of squareness that comes from moving a trailer once or twice. Also, the front door, which opens into my studio, has lost it's weather stripping and I haven't replaced it - as simple as that would be. Good thing there is always Duct tape.


4. This blog continues to be a popular place for readers to find out what goofy ideas are in my head about art and I guess they come here looking for what art I am doing lately. I always say the pictures are coming, and then I post old images that I have on file. New readers like to see these, and maybe my old readers have missed one or two. 


5. On a personal front, I just finished reading a private, unbound  memoir of an American who spent the Second World War as a POW in Japan and The Philippines.  He was an army officer who survived the horrific Bataan Death March and was imprisoned in 5 camps altogether.  His humility and courage is typical of his generation, and it must be said, atypical of people in general.  


6.  If you are someone who comments here often, and yet don't find your blog on my text blog roll, send me a note so I can fix that.  I am not as attentive to that as I should be.  I just found one that made me say, "Doh! How could I not have her on my blog roll?"

River Corner, Red
3.5" x 3.75"
Pastel
Casey Klahn

My wonderful daughter turns 8 on Monday.  

Photo Credits:  Lorie Klahn

Video Series Takes You Into Degas' Studio, Home and Head

Drawing: Casey Klahn

Go here for a six-part video series that is a great tour of Montmartre and Degas' studio in the form of a re-creation.  The focus is on his later works.  Warning: pastel exposure.

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

Drawing Mary

First published November, 2009.

Mary Cassatt, After Degas - detail
@ 32" x 26"
Charcoal
Casey Klahn

At the Easel

I like studying the master works of artists like Edgar Degas. This work is a copy of his well known Portrait of Mary Cassatt.

Hottest Blogs for 2011 - Sonya Johnson

When you see the big molten-lava orb, then you know it's time for a Hottest Blog entry.  This is where The Colorist points out the hottest artist's blog that you may not be reading yet.  But should.


The Hottest Blogs for 2011 will also be noted one at a time, or maybe sometimes two at a time.  Look for the molten orb periodically throughout the year.


Have you seen Sonya Johnson's blog, Sonya's Daily Art Journal?  Her oils and pastels of the Durango, Colorado region are an instinctive and accurate fit for the four corners area, a high and arid region of the American Southwest.  She observes this area effortlessly, and also has no problem with the estimable bigness of the desert and the mountains of her home.  Sonya's blog is one to watch for 2011.

Picasso Biography Videos

This series of biographical videos on Picasso is very informative.  For some reason my mind works better with the chronological revelation of what happened, versus the all-at-once story that you get when you read a one page bio.


Now, I am beginning to get a handle on what Picasso did.  The link to the first vid of nine is here.

Dusk With Orange

Dusk With Orange

@ 5" x 7"

Pastel

Casey Klahn

Elements of Art

Deborah Secor: Today's Art Class

Deborah Secor has an art class blog, and has done me the compliment of referencing The Colorist as a resource.  That's a nifty thing, since I admire her pastels, and her teaching.  I recommend you look at the link, as her list of  Basic Art Elements, and artists who emulate them, is noteworthy.

Tuesday Tree

Tree Rous
3.5" x 3.75"
Charcoal & Pastel
Casey Klahn

On re-claimed la Carte.

Charcoal River

Charcoal River

@9" x 14"

Charcoal, Chalk & Pastel

Casey Klahn

Charcoal, chalk and pastel on Rives BFK Heavyweight.

These tools allow me to express more than any other media.  Maybe they are the reason for the deep, dark passages in my finished pastel paintings.

Courage In The Breed

Here is an essay first posted in early 2009.  Inspiration for the artist, I hope.

I was driving to the city yesterday, past snow-clad fields, and I noticed a farm dog running like his tail was on fire. I thought to myself, "I wonder if he's...he is! " He was facing down a coyote intruding in his domain, and then I noticed that it was two coyotes.

"...courage is essential to the artist." Henri Matisse

I regarded that as an amazing display of courage by that dog. A pair of coyotes can easily defeat even a full grown deer, and the matter was simply that the dog had his range to defend and nothing was going to keep him from doing that! 

The antipathy between farm dogs and coyotes is well known, and as a matter of fact the dog's behavior was common to his breed.

What characteristics are common to your own breed? The artist is known for artistic integrity, and presenting an abundance of that is having courage.

For a review of these traits, see the following posts: Artistic Integrity and Artistic Courage - Get It!

Have you defended your artistic space lately?

Motivational Poster Time

Make your own  Automotivator.

Or, Maybe This Draws A Picture Of My PC

BTW, My PC looks Like This

Tech Issues

I'm having tech issues here at the studio.

Let's hope they end sooner, rather than later.  I'll try to post as I find internet kibbles available.

The better news is, I do have a dozen or so new pictures to post and you'll get to see those when The Colorist gets back up.

Struggle

Studio and Struggle

My current studio work.  

I have been working diligently on the Hoquiam River series, because I want to have at least twenty paintings come the exhibit.  So far, so good.  Maybe there is a thread that unifies them.  They have been spread out over time, so I wonder.

It was time for a break, and so I tried to develop an image from Italy.  I was happy, but with reservations. That isn't too bad for a genre I don't specialize in.  

Riva Practice

Today, I had a short day in the studio, and had to call India for you-know-what.  The technician says my internet dish is old.  Good one.  Anyway, I got into doing some people on the street, in the Margaret Dyer style.  I want to explore those some more, as I am a huge fan of hers.  There is a thread of unity in her work and the work of Edgar Degas.

I liked the way Celeste Bergin mentioned at her blog that she does paintings for practice.  Then, she whips out a fantastic piece of a mother and child on the beach (see the link).  Hello.  Genius at work.

File this under miscellany.  I only found it the other day, and yet it is a series of posts done in the summer of 2009.  Sadie J. Valeri attended a residency involving the Hudson River Fellowship, and worked en Plein Air in upstate New York for a month.  I read the whole series with my mouth wide open.  That means I am in awe of the wonderful work done by Valeri, and I especially loved the use of graphite and chalk, and pen and ink washes.  Beautiful.

Cheers!  I'd better post this before my satellite dish falls over.