Updates from Terri on Her Art Journey
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True confession: I’m fascinated by Vincent van Gogh, his life, art and faith in Jesus Christ. It probably began about eight years ago, when my son and I visited the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and saw “Starry Night” on display. Two years ago, as a retirement gift for my husband, I replicated this iconic image as a “Diamond Art” project and, later, in a 10” x 10” acrylic painting (both pictured above). But only recently have I come to understand that, according to Dr. Kathleen Powers Erickson, this painting is symbolic of Vincent’s belief in the afterlife, and that is perhaps why I’m so drawn to van Gogh and his story.
As I’ve looked for inspiration on my art journey (and have mentioned in a previous blog post), I came across a post-impressionist art movement called “cloisonnism.” It employs a technique of outlining colors and results in a style similar to that found in stained-glass windows. As I also mentioned in that post, Vincent van Gogh was an early adopter of this art form. And this is what motivated me to do some research on this tortured artist. My art education began with a book written by Ingo F. Walther and published by TASCHEN, called simply “VAN GOGH.” The cover jacket summarizes the story of this anguished master: “Today, the works of Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) are among the most well-known and celebrated in the world. In Sunflowers, The Starry Night, Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, and copious other paintings and drawings, we recognize an artist uniquely dexterous in the portrayal of mood and place through paint, pencil, charcoal or chalk. Yet as he was deploying the lurid colors, emphatic brushwork, and contoured forms that would subsequently make his name and inspire generations of Expressionist artists, van Gogh battled not only the disinterest of his contemporary audience but also devastating bouts of mental illness. His episodes of depression and anxiety would eventually claim his life when, in 1890, he committed suicide shortly after his 37th birthday.” (By the way, I highly recommend TASCHEN’s “Basic Art” series of books, offering succinct, slimline introductions of 78 artists from Bacon to Warhol. A New York Times review says, “These seductive little books have slick production values, excellent illustrations, and smart texts.”) For me, Walther’s book was an introduction to Vincent’s ART. But it just made me more curious about the artist’s LIFE and what inspired him. To get another perspective, I watched on Netflix last week a biographical drama called “At Eternity’s Gate.” The movie was made in 2018, directed by Julian Schnabel and stars Willem Dafoe; it was a brilliant performance by Dafoe, who looks exactly like Vincent! Named after one of van Gogh’s first successful lithographs, depicting an old man seated by a fire, his head buried in his hands, it is an appropriate title for a movie that conveys the total despair of the struggling artist. But in this version of the story of Vincent’s life—and death—he doesn’t die from suicide, but rather from an accidental shooting. I’d like to believe that’s what happened, but Vincent took the true story to his grave. Remarkably, Vincent spent only the last ten years of his short life as a painter, and although he completed more than 400 works of art, he sold very few. Vincent wrote, “I can’t change the fact that my paintings don’t sell. But the time will come when people will recognize that they are worth more than the value of the paints used in the picture.” Neither Walther’s book nor Schnabel’s movie get into Vincent’s early life. A deeply religious man in his youth, Vincent studied to be a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church. As a missionary to the coal miners in the Belgian Borinage, he gave all his possessions, including most of his clothing to the miners. The hierarchy of the Church considered Vincent’s behavior to be eccentric and, thus, rejected him, so at the end of 1879 he left the church, embittered and impoverished. And so began Vincent’s artistic career, making drawings of the simple life of the Belgian peasants around him. After van Gogh’s “conversion” to art, he rejected the religion of his parents, and pursued his art with his former religious zeal and mission. He claimed, “Our purpose is self-reform by means of a handicraft and of intercourse with Nature—our aim is walking with God.” Thus, art rather than preaching became Vincent’s chief form of religious expression. Although most of van Gogh’s biographers view this transition as a rejection of religion, Kathleen Powers Erickson, in her 1998 book, “At Eternity’s Gate,” posits that Vincent’s faith in God and eternity, as well as his respect for unadorned piety and the word of God, remained firm. In fact, she notes, that van Gogh continued to study the Bible even after abandoning his ministerial calling and still held the Bible in high esteem. As an artist, van Gogh remained fascinated by Christ. He described Jesus as “the supreme artist, more of an artist than all others, disdaining marble and clay and color, working in the living flesh.” During his preparation for ministry, Vincent admired Christ’s humility as a common laborer and “man of sorrows,” whose life he tried to imitate. Fittingly, his preoccupation with Christ is visually apparent in his painting, Pieta, in which he depicts the Christ figure with the features of his own face and red beard, languishing in the arms of Mary. Dr. Erickson points out in her book that van Gogh wanted to show that though he had rejected institutional religion, he remained profoundly religious and firmly believed in a spiritual life after death. He once wrote to his brother about his “terrible need of—shall I say the word, religion. Then I go out at night to paint the stars.” In the stars, as well as in the everyday facets of the simple life of the peasants, he felt the presence of the divine. Along with the old man in At Eternity’s Gate, Vincent believed that he, too, would find an eternal home after death. Van Gogh’s life, art and faith are a welcome source of inspiration for me. Next week, I will share a sample of one of my Vincent-inspired paintings.
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In my blog last week, you may recall that I wrote that setting 90-day goals has been a practice I started as I began my “art journey,” and that it’s only by setting goals that I’ve been able to accomplish as much as I have over the past nine months. You may also recall that one of my goals for the next three months is to sell my first piece of art. I ended that blog post with a simple plea: “please let me know if you’d like to be the first buyer of a piece from Terri Thompson Art Store. You’d be fulfilling my goal (and making history!).” Well . . . I got my first buyer THIS WEEK (even ahead of schedule)! One of my former students, Peter Kibiriti, must have felt the desperation in my message, and he commissioned a painting. It’s posted here under the headline “MY FIRST COMMISSIONED PAINTING!” It was such a pleasure to paint, not only because the subject matter is so pleasant, but mostly because I was painting for someone I truly love. The painting is called “Kibi’s Bird.” To keep it affordable and easy to ship, I painted it (in acrylics) on an 8” x 8” canvas panel. Assuming Kibi likes it, I will mail it to him, and pray that the postage to Nairobi, Kenya is not ridiculously expensive. Kibi has commissioned a second painting of a bouquet of flowers, so perhaps I’ll finish that one this week and ship the two out together. These two paintings will be added to my portfolio here on my website. Kibi will have the originals, of course, but if you’re at all interested in purchasing a reproduction, you can do that from my art store on Fine Art America at www.7-terri-thompson.pixels.com If you’d prefer to have your very own TAT original, just let me know. I’m in the mood to paint, and I’d love to paint something special for you. In the meantime . . . thank you, Kibi, for being my first buyer and, in so doing, making history! When I began my “art journey” in earnest in October, 2020 (in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic), I started setting 90-day goals. During the first three months, I established a morning ritual to get inspiration, started journaling daily, created a weekly schedule for studying and taking art lessons, and developed a studio practice. I even started using social media to connect with various artists’ groups, set up an Instagram account and Facebook business page, and bought a domain name for my eventual website. Check, check, check . . . I accomplished everything I set out to do in those first three months!
At the beginning of this year, I made another set of 90-day goals. These were a bit more ambitious, including attend a three-day conference for painters (on Zoom, of course), make at least 65 pieces of “ART,” and build a working website. My biggest accomplishment for this period was publishing my website. With the help of my beautiful daughter April, we launched www.territhompsonart.com in early March, 2021, and I’ve been writing a blog post every week ever since. Unfortunately, where I fell short during the first quarter of this year was in my production schedule. Instead of making 65 pieces of art, I made only 50 paintings during the first three months of 2021. It’s a lesson worth learning. Perhaps a more realistic goal is to paint just 50 to 60 pieces during a 90-day period and to scale down the size of each painting. I think that’s doable, but I need to be careful not to give up quality in exchange for quantity. After all, I’m still a beginner and have much more to learn about technique and, more importantly, my own identity as an “artist.” On April 1, I made another list of 90-day goals, which means that my deadline is almost up! So how have I done? My biggest goal for the second quarter of 2021 was to get involved at a local art gallery. That was also rather ambitious, considering we were barely out of the coronavirus woods! But guess what?!?! Soon after I got my COVID vaccination, I joined City Lights Art Gallery in Henderson, Nevada. City Lights is a nonprofit gallery, staffed by its 100 volunteer members. It’s small and cozy, and what I especially like about it is their mission to promote local art and art education by offering scholarships to students, mini-grants to local schools, as well as a variety of art classes to beginners, like me. City Lights also holds art competitions. So, because one of my goals for this quarter was to enter a juried competition, I entered the gallery’s photography competition. Don’t get excited; I didn’t win. But two of my photos (“Plein Air Painter in Central Park” and “Reflections on Burr Pond”) are now on display at the gallery. And that was another of my 90-day goals: to exhibit at a gallery! Honestly, if I hadn’t set these goals for myself, I probably would never have done any of it. That’s why it’s important to set goals. IT KEEPS YOU ACCOUNTABLE. It’s almost time to set my goals for July-September 2021. In addition to keeping all my previously established goals, such as maintaining a regular studio practice, journaling daily, seeking inspiration, and writing this weekly blog, I’m going to add one enormously ambitious goal: sell my first piece of art! So, please let me know if you’d like to be the first buyer of a piece from Terri Thompson Art Store. You’d be fulfilling my goal (and making history!). Ever since I took the picture of that fellow painting in Central Park (the photograph I included in my 4/19/21 blogpost), I’ve been intrigued by anyone who could paint in the open air. Little did I know there’s actually a term for the act of painting outdoors. It’s called “en plein air.” My first attempts at painting en plein air are posted here. As you’ll see, I haven’t gone beyond my backyard. But it did make me curious about the art of plein air painting, so I did some research. According to Wikipedia, the theory of “en plein air” painting is credited to the French painter Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes (who lived from 1750-1819). In his treatise written in 1800 and entitled “Reflections and Advice to a Student on Painting, Particularly on Landscape,” he developed the concept of landscape portraiture by which the artist paints directly onto canvas in situ within the landscape. The invention of portable canvases and easels made the practice possible, and painting in the open air enabled the artist to better capture the changing details of weather and light. Before the 19th century, most painting activities had been confined to the studio. That’s because before the oil paint tube was invented in 1841 by American portrait painter John Goffe Rand, artists mixed their own paints from raw pigments that they often ground themselves from a variety of media. That made portability of painting inconvenient, if not impossible. What made plein air painting possible and popular was a combination of portable canvases, easels, tubed oil paints and the ingenuity and creativity of painters like Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley and Frederic Bazille. In the early 1860s, these four young painters shared an interest in painting landscape and contemporary life and together they ventured into the countryside to paint in the open air. They discovered they could paint in sunlight directly from nature and they began to develop a lighter and brighter manner of painting. It was a radical practice at the time, but by the end of the 19th century, the theory became a well-established practice. The movement expanded to America, starting in California then moving to other American locations notable for their natural light qualities, including the Hudson River Valley in New York. It was in New York City that I saw my first plein air painter. Now that I live most of the year in the sunny state of Nevada, I’m much more interested in nature and in learning how to paint by capturing natural light, shade and color. As I’ve explored the possibilities of painting outdoors, I came across an amazing organization of artists called the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association (LPAPA). Based in Laguna Beach, California, LPAPA was founded in 1996 with a mission to preserve the history of the plein air painting movement of 19th century California and to foster a network of artists nationwide. Recently I had the pleasure of meeting LPAPA’s president, Toni Kellenberg, who has inspired me to keep plugging away on my blog, as well as my painting. Painting outdoors has its challenges, of course. Bugs in the paint. Nosey onlookers. Environmental conditions, such as weather. Here in Nevada, it is so hot that my acrylic paints dry out before I can even get them on the canvas. One friend noted that in Minnesota plein air painters using watercolor need to work fast before the water freezes! Perhaps when it comes to plein air painting, I’ll have to switch to oil paints. For the time being, I’ll just paint from my backyard where I can keep my paints wet and jump in the pool when it gets too hot! |
AuthorTerri Thompson is a journalist-turned-visual artist, who is on an "art journey" and exploring how to tell her stories through her watercolor and acrylic paintings and photographs. Categories |