A Marathon Read!

"Mountains and Sea"
Oil and charcoal on unsized, unprimed canvas, 86 1/2 x 117 1/4 inches
Helen Frankenthaler, 1952

I just finished reading Mary Gabriel's HUGE tome, Ninth Street Women, about five painters who were key players in  the Abstract Expressionist movement. The book weighs in at  926 pages (small print too!), but 165 pages are footnotes and a bibliography. Let's just say the book is well researched. The painters in question are Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell and Helen Frankenthaler. The book tells their stories, starting with early days of grinding poverty, when they sacrificed all to forge forward with a new way of painting. Ultimately the painters found fame and fortune, but not without a cost. 

"Milkweed"
Oil paper-and-canvas collage on canvas
Framed 84 x 59 inches
Lee Krasner, 1955

Abstract Expressionism was born in New York in the 1940's. It placed New York on the cutting edge of the world art scene. The abstract artists "did not want their work to tell a story, but for their paintings to be appreciated as painting, the way a concerto is appreciated for its sound."  It's quite beyond the scope of this post, and probably beyond my understanding, to describe Abstract Expressionism in detail. But I wanted to share some favorite quotations from the book. Reading about the lives and struggles of these artists was instructive, and these are quotes that can speak to us all. Enjoy!

"Artists should only allow themselves

to be influenced

by the greatest artists"

--Attributed to Malcom Hackett,

art teacher of Joan Mitchell

"City Landscape"
Oil on Canvas, 80 x 80 inches
Joan Mitchell, 1953

"[For the viewer] to be astonished 

takes only a second,

but the artist who produced the painting

had worked long and hard."

--Mary Gabriel

"Your best work

is what you think

is the worst."

--Attributed to Elaine de Kooning

"Leo Castelli"
Oil on Canvas, 54 x 30 1/2 inches
Elaine de Kooning, 1953

"Many artists have a subject

to which they return

time and time again,

because the familiarity frees them

to concentrate on the act of painting."

--Mary Gabriel

"The secret ingredient

of great art

is what is most difficult to learn:

it is courage."

--Boris Lurie

"The Persian Jacket"
Oil on Canvas, 57 1/2 x 48 inches
Grace Hartigan, 1952

"In the course of an artist's life,

a 'certain magic' happens once,

maybe twice,

which produces a breakthrough."

--Helen Frankenthaler

"For an artist, 

satisfaction is antithetical to creation."

--Mary Gabriel

A Fine Finn

"Self-portrait, Black Background"
Oil on Canvas, 45.5 x 36 cm.
Helene Schjerfbeck, 1915

Let me introduce a wonderful painter whom I had never known until recently: Helene Schjerfbeck. Schjerfbeck is a Finnish painter whose figures and still lifes are as fresh and inspiring as if they were painted yesterday--even though she died in 1946, at age 83. And might I say that, like a true painter, she died  with her easel beside her bed!

"Still-life in Green"
Oil on Canvas, 33.5 x 50 cm.
Helene Schjerfbeck, 1930

A good friend saw a Schjerfbeck exhibit last year at the Royal Academy in London. My friend suspected that I would love Schjerfbeck's paintings, and sent me the exhibit brochure and some postcards of her favorite paintings. 

"Red Apples"
Oil on Canvas, 40.5 x 40.5 cm
Helene Schjerfbeck, 1915

Well, my friend was right: I love Schjerfbeck's paintings! I admire them for their straightforward compositions, simple forms, and soft areas of color. Her works, especially her still lifes, have such a serenity and peacefulness. In distilling the subjects to their barest essence, she has developed a form of abstraction that I find very appealing.

"Head of a Girl Crocheting"
Oil on Canvas, 36 x 33 cm
Helene Schjerfbeck, 1904-05

Schjerfbeck typically used very thin applications of paint. In fact, she often left areas of the canvas completely unpainted, and actually caused the texture of the canvas to play an important role in the painting. I love the way this approach lets us see her hand at work. We can see that there's lots of scraping going on--signs of the painter's struggle.

"Maria"
Oil on Canvas, 57 x 73 cm.
Helene Schjerfbeck, 1909

If you'd like to learn more about Helene Schjerfbeck, the catalog of the exhibit is available on Amazon. Check it out!

Staying At Home

"Uptown"
8 x 8, Oil on Linen mounted on Board
(c) Lesley Powell 2020

With COVID-19 continuing to spread, it appears that I will not be traveling this year. That's quite a change for me. Last year  I had wonderful experiences painting in California, in  Provence, and in Paris. But I'm looking on the bright side: there is a lot to be discovered from one's own surroundings.

"Dilworth Artisan Station"
12 x 16, Oil on Linen
(c) Lesley Powell 2020

I'm illustrating this post with recent paintings of my hometown of Charlotte. Some are inside my studio. And I'm sharing quotes by some of my favorite artists and writers, on the topic of mining your immediate surroundings.  Enjoy!

"The fine things of this world were never accomplished by globe-trotting.  All creative work is the testimony of some fine brain to the things, and thoughts, and sights, that are near at hand."  --John F. Carlson, Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting

"Door #1"
12 x 7, Oil on Linen mounted on Board
(c) Lesley Powell 2020

"If your everyday life seems poor, don't blame IT; blame yourself; admit to yourself that you are not enough of a poet to call forth its riches; because for the creator there is no poverty and no poor, indifferent place."  --Ranier Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet  

"Your life's work lies in the courtyard just outside your house."  --Frank Hobbs, interview in Painting Perceptions

"Pears, Three"
12 x 16, Oil on Linen
(c) Lesley Powell 2020

"We run 2,000 miles to see one of the 'nine wonders' of the world, while right under our own eyes, perhaps in our own back yard, something transpires that is worth nine times nine wonders. Do not be a tourist-painter."  --John F. Carlson,  Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting