California Girls

Oil on Canvas Panel, 5 x 7

(c) Peggi Kroll Roberts

A collector recently asked me what artists' work I personally collect.  Great question!  I could write several posts on this topic, but for today I will just take the theme of "California Girls" and talk about three of my favorites.

Oil on Canvas Panel, 6 x 8

(c) Peggi Kroll Roberts

When I collect from fellow painters, I seek work that is not only pleasing to look at, but that can also teach me something. The top two images are paintings by Peggi Kroll Roberts.  I have taken several classes with Peggi, and can vouch that she is a wonderful and generous teacher.  Just looking at the impasto paint on these canvases, I remember watching Peggi load up her brush and make her beautiful marks.  It reminds me not to skimp on my paint, and to be expressive with my mark-making. 

"Across the Fields"

Oil on Panel, 12 x 12

(c) Sandy Ostrau

Another California girl whose work I admire is Sandy Ostrau.  I have never met Sandy, but I have seen her paintings in several different venues, and find it stunning.  I think we both love geometry in paintings, and she is a master with geometric forms.  She makes simple blocks of color absolutely sing.  And although they are not "descriptive", in the sense of being detailed, her paintings still convey a sense of the time and space in which they exist.  Just looking at my two little Ostrau paintings (see bottom image) spurs me forward in the quest to simplify and to master color relationships.

"Red Horizon"

6 x 6, Oil on Panel

(c) Erin Lee Gafill

My most recent acquisition is a little painting by Erin Gafill.  It's called "Red Horizon".  Even though it's only 6x6 inches, it has a much larger impact.  To my eye, Erin's paintings have a definite meditative quality.  They convey the sense of being fully present.  Her still lifes, like the little cobalt jar I purchased earlier, speak of the majesty of simple things.  And they never look labored--they seem to flow organically off the brush.  I've never met Erin either, but I almost feel as if I know her, having watched her on UTube and having heard her talks.  Maybe someday!  Meanwhile, looking at her paintings creates a sense of serenity and reminds me to be present and quiet with my subject. 

Oil on Paper, 5 1/2 x 7 1/2

(c) Erin Lee Gafill

Hope you'll enjoy these paintings as much as I do.  I'm concluding with shots showing their placement in my home.  Thanks for reading!

It's Back!

Torrit Greys

This week I got an announcement that the 2021 Torrit Grey has hit the shelves!  Years ago, I was befuddled by a similar promotion at the local art supply store, which promised me a free tube of Torrit Grey paint if I bought a certain amount of goods made by Gamblin. Nowadays, I am a huge fan, and eagerly await each year's release of Torrit Gray.  Here's the story...

Gamblin Artists Colors is one of the largest paint manufacturers in the US. Their factory uses an air filtration system made by a company called Torit. The air filters trap pigment dusts that escape into the air during the paint mixing process. Every spring, Gamblin cleans the dust out of its filters. Instead of dumping the pigment dust in a landfill, they use it to make a special paint, which they call "Torrit Grey". How cool is that?

Because the combination of pigments cleaned out of the filters is never the same from year to year, the color Torrit Grey is never the same either. Recently, Gamblin has started labeling the tubes of Torrit Grey with the year of manufacture. So now we can collect tubes from various "vintage years", if you will, just like we would collect wines from different vintage years. It's a limited edition pigment!

Not only is Gamblin's approach very earth-friendly, it has the added lure of the mysterious: You never know what the next batch will be like until you open it. It often tends toward green, because one particular pigment, Pthalo Green, has an extremely strong tinting strength. Sometimes it is a truer neutral gray, like the 2013 vintage shown below.

Torrit Grey is great mixed with other colors. In his book "Landscape Painting Inside & Out", Kevin Macpherson advocates for scraping your palette as you work, and stashing the scrapings on the side, to be used in mixing other colors. Many painters call this their "mud". Kevin even suggests buying empty tubes and filling them with your mud, rather than discarding it at the end of a painting session...another great recycling approach. Here's to more earth-friendly ideas!

Emilio Sanchez Forever

 

Every now and then the US Postal Service publishes a new stamp that makes it worth waiting in line at the post office.  And this year we got one: stamps featuring the work of Emilio Sanchez.  Postage stamps are one of the rare things in life in which the interesting ones cost the same as the plain ones--so why not go with the gusto??  And the Sanchez stamps indeed exude gusto!

"35 Calle Sol"

Emilio Sanchez

Emilio Sanchez was a Cuban born artist (1921-1999), who began his art studies at the Art Students League in New York.  He painted a variety of subjects, but was especially fascinated by the play of light and shadow on brightly colored forms.  The buildings of the Caribbean and other regions proved to be perfect vehicles for his exploration of light and shadow and color.  But he also depicted scenes from New York, such as the one just below.

"Looking West from My Studio"

Color Lithograph, 19 x 17 1/2

Emilio Sanchez, 1968

Sanchez has been compared to Edward Hopper and Georgia O'Keefe in the way that they simplified the environment.  One critic said they created an "abstract stillness of the built environment"--I could not say it better.  By eliminating extraneous details, Sanchez reduces these structures to their essence, and they take on universal meaning.  Though the details are eliminated, the colors are so true, and the shapes so accurate, that the structures remain very believable.  In fact, they almost seem alive.

"La Ventanita"

Emilio Sanchez

I love the way that Sanchez knows how to zero in on the most telling, most interesting shapes.  He zooms in on one part of a structure, but that one part tells us everything we need to know to picture the entire structure in our minds.  Or to sense the place that it occupies. Believe me, selecting just the right slice of a scene to achieve this feat is easier said than done.

"Una Pandemia"

Color Lithograph, 29 15/16 x 22 1/4

Emilio Sanchez, 1973

I have purchased my Sanchez stamps, but I am tempted to keep them to look at, rather than to use them to mail letters. I hope this will inspire you to check them out. And for the curious, I'm closing with a shot of Sanchez himself.  I may be crazy, but something about the decisive planes of his features reminds me of his paintings...

Emilio Sanchez