'I CAN tell a person's humour and mood by looking at what they are painting,' said oilpainting tutor Sylvia McGahon.
' They tend to do a dark study if they're depressed or will use more flamboyant colours if in good form. People come to me saying they can't paint, but then surpass themselves with a real work of art.'
Mary Martin is proud of her two paintings, Lost in Time and The Old Cottage. 'I only started painting 10 years ago in Lifestyle and really enjoy it. I started on pastels, progressing onto acrylics and now I'm using oils which is my favourite.' As well as learning to paint, Mary also enjoys the social aspect of the classes where she finds other participants very encouraging.
Exhibiting for the first time is Anne Miley from Drogheda who painted scenic views in Carlow and Cork from photos taken by her husband. 'I have a great sense of satisfaction that my work is hanging here and that others can look at it.'
With local views, Maureen Moore painted the former An Oige hostel on Clogherhead, the Nanny Cottage in Laytown and a castle in Galway. 'I find oils a favourable medium to work in. It's great that Lifestyle was given the opportunity to mount a group exhibition here.'
Viewing the exhibits was artis Pat Walsh who commended the huge amount of work. 'It's a very peaceful pursuit from which I gain huge enjoyment.'
Now in his 80s, Eamon Faulkner from Bettystown took up painting in 1996 when he retired as daughter Eileen signed him up for a class. 'I never knew I could paint but found I had a hidden talent! I love the company and camraderie of the weekly class as it's a social outlet for me too.' Although bearing a pricetag, Eamon's daughter Eilleen and granddaughters Kate and Ciara Hanlon don't want him to part with his three paintings!
Commenting on the large attendance, Lifestyle Training Coordinator Rita McQuillan said it was a credit to the art group participants and tutors. Over 40 works are on display, including work by the late June Lowthe, class participant who passed away recently.
Although no romances have been attributed to the art class, old friends were reunited when two Drogheda-based ladies both aged 82, and originally from Dundalk and who hadn't seen each other since they were children, met again at the class!
Lifestyle directors Bridie Durnan and Nancy O'Mordha were impressed by the art work exhibited and that the participants could learn to paint from scratch! 'It's great recognition for Sr Ann who started off Lifestyle in the corners of the Boxing Club hall with a boxing ring in the middle and classes going on around it. The group progressed to prefabs and now have a state of the art building.'
Opening the exhibition, Deputy Mayor Richie Culhane said, 'These works of art are testament to the competence and professinalism of the tutors, Loreto Brodigan and Sylvia McGahon, and to the artists themselves who have created unique masterpieces in their own right.' He also congratulated Lifestyle coordinator Mairead Meade and Rita McQuillan who run this truely remarkable facility.
2011年7月28日星期四
2011年7月25日星期一
The Art of the Tour de France
It is always a bittersweet Sunday and a gentle letdown in this small household when the Tour de France comes to an end. I won't be right again for a few days. Because for three weeks every July, the Tour is the epic, 24/7 teevee centerpiece around here, an electric widescreen oil painting in high-definition, an endless animated landscape across which moves every color and shade and shape found in nature and human nature.
Over mountains and rivers, through forests and fields of lavender, hundreds of men expend themselves for thousands of miles in an act of perfect futility. They travel nowhere and for no purpose, carry no message, no medicine, bring no material relief or practical ease. All at such great cost. Like simile or metaphor, like poetry or music or dance, they are of no absolute use to anyone. The race is an expression of the unnecessary, as is art itself.
And like any great work of art, the Tour de France is both the world as it is and the world as we imagine it to be.
So there's always something mythic and beautiful and cruel in the Tour, something of grace and squalor, of bravery and cowardice, of profit and loss, of rising to the summit only to be pushed back down. It is forever a story of the universal balance. Of the return to order, however cold and indifferent. What few feet you might gain on the Fates you are never allowed to keep.
Knowing this as Andy Schleck made that suicide move last Thursday, made his last-gasp climb into the clouds, it was easy enough to sense Cadel Evans on the road behind him, inexorable, persistent as a muffled drumbeat. There's a reason the rockfall of the Col du Galibier looks like a scattering of headstones. Schleck waited too long and then spent himself in two days of blinding incandescence. Evans burned on like July itself, as implacable as taxes.
By the time trial on Saturday, Evans was a man right where he wanted to be, in command of himself and maybe his outcomes. In this, he exceeded his expectations and ours, and in his success will rightly be thought of as a great champion of the sport for years to come. The rest is just statistics. A rising blur in red and black, Cadel Evans made very great art indeed.
(And for the critics and schoolmarms and killjoys who fret the intrusion of self-medication or pain management or performance enhancement into all this sporting art, I ask this: Do we begrudge van Gogh his absinthe? Do we deny Coleridge or Keats or Berlioz the doping pipe? We do not.)
But what lessons can be made from it all I'm never sure. There's no clear lesson in any art. Truth is beauty? Got it. Beauty truth? Right back atcha. The universe bends toward justice? Okeydoke, but it may not do so in time to help you win this race/his heart/her mind. France is beautiful, bien sur, and to see it pass beneath the wheels of a carnival as loud and gaudy as this might make it doubly so? All this seems right to me.
But to make such terrible human effort to no purpose at all? To sacrifice so much in service of so little?
Maybe that's what art is. And maybe that's what sports are -- an act of defiance in the face of the faceless. An answer against silence. Maybe that's why we're here.
Over mountains and rivers, through forests and fields of lavender, hundreds of men expend themselves for thousands of miles in an act of perfect futility. They travel nowhere and for no purpose, carry no message, no medicine, bring no material relief or practical ease. All at such great cost. Like simile or metaphor, like poetry or music or dance, they are of no absolute use to anyone. The race is an expression of the unnecessary, as is art itself.
And like any great work of art, the Tour de France is both the world as it is and the world as we imagine it to be.
So there's always something mythic and beautiful and cruel in the Tour, something of grace and squalor, of bravery and cowardice, of profit and loss, of rising to the summit only to be pushed back down. It is forever a story of the universal balance. Of the return to order, however cold and indifferent. What few feet you might gain on the Fates you are never allowed to keep.
Knowing this as Andy Schleck made that suicide move last Thursday, made his last-gasp climb into the clouds, it was easy enough to sense Cadel Evans on the road behind him, inexorable, persistent as a muffled drumbeat. There's a reason the rockfall of the Col du Galibier looks like a scattering of headstones. Schleck waited too long and then spent himself in two days of blinding incandescence. Evans burned on like July itself, as implacable as taxes.
By the time trial on Saturday, Evans was a man right where he wanted to be, in command of himself and maybe his outcomes. In this, he exceeded his expectations and ours, and in his success will rightly be thought of as a great champion of the sport for years to come. The rest is just statistics. A rising blur in red and black, Cadel Evans made very great art indeed.
(And for the critics and schoolmarms and killjoys who fret the intrusion of self-medication or pain management or performance enhancement into all this sporting art, I ask this: Do we begrudge van Gogh his absinthe? Do we deny Coleridge or Keats or Berlioz the doping pipe? We do not.)
But what lessons can be made from it all I'm never sure. There's no clear lesson in any art. Truth is beauty? Got it. Beauty truth? Right back atcha. The universe bends toward justice? Okeydoke, but it may not do so in time to help you win this race/his heart/her mind. France is beautiful, bien sur, and to see it pass beneath the wheels of a carnival as loud and gaudy as this might make it doubly so? All this seems right to me.
But to make such terrible human effort to no purpose at all? To sacrifice so much in service of so little?
Maybe that's what art is. And maybe that's what sports are -- an act of defiance in the face of the faceless. An answer against silence. Maybe that's why we're here.
2011年7月21日星期四
Learning to take my time
This week, I took some time out from being a journalist and tried to be something new: an artist.
Art-A-Fair offers daily art workshops, so I decided to take a stab at one — oil painting with festival artist Richard D. Keyes.
I was looking forward to the Wednesday class, but at the same time I was apprehensive because the extent of my artistic ability is drawing stick figures, stars, Christmas trees and hearts. Even a simple landscape seemed daunting. Blending colors would be pushing it.
I showed up right on time at 10:30 a.m. Keyes was waiting.
Jaye Saha of Laguna Niguel sat beside me. She had some experience painting and seemed to understand the task ahead.
The last time I remembered painting was in kindergarten, and I'm pretty sure it involved using just my fingers.
Keyes, 81, has been at the Art-A-Fair for 21 years and started painting in 1957. Patient and full of knowledge, Keyes turned out to be a valuable ally as I embarked on my painting journey.
First, Keyes had us choose an image. He shared photographs he had taken of various beach scenes and a book of landscapes.
I chose a desert scene with palm trees. I trusted him when he told me it wouldn't be difficult. After some preliminary sketching, the paints were out.
I became obsessed with finishing and realized that while one talented young woman was spending the full two hours on clouds, I was already onto the foreground and figuring out how to touch up my palm trees.
At first, my setting looked less like Palm Springs and more like some far-off planet. My sky was a strange combination of grays and peaches, the mountains were a vibrant shade of purple, and the ground was a hot fluorescent green.
Keyes looked at my painting and nicely suggested I might want to make the colors less "intense."
The former Long Beach City College art teacher sat down in my chair and showed me how to "fill in the blanks," so to speak. Instead of solely focusing on the bigger picture, I needed to think about the details.
He mixed various shades of paint with ease and showed me how to consider the distance and where the sun might hit the palm, shading the base.
I realized how a tendency of mine — to see a goal ahead and run toward it — had crept into a day of artistic relaxation. Without knowing it, Keyes and the class made me realize the importance of slowing down and taking my time.
Whether it's creating a new color or adding a detail, it's important to stop and pay attention to the small things.
Art-A-Fair offers daily art workshops, so I decided to take a stab at one — oil painting with festival artist Richard D. Keyes.
I was looking forward to the Wednesday class, but at the same time I was apprehensive because the extent of my artistic ability is drawing stick figures, stars, Christmas trees and hearts. Even a simple landscape seemed daunting. Blending colors would be pushing it.
I showed up right on time at 10:30 a.m. Keyes was waiting.
Jaye Saha of Laguna Niguel sat beside me. She had some experience painting and seemed to understand the task ahead.
The last time I remembered painting was in kindergarten, and I'm pretty sure it involved using just my fingers.
Keyes, 81, has been at the Art-A-Fair for 21 years and started painting in 1957. Patient and full of knowledge, Keyes turned out to be a valuable ally as I embarked on my painting journey.
First, Keyes had us choose an image. He shared photographs he had taken of various beach scenes and a book of landscapes.
I chose a desert scene with palm trees. I trusted him when he told me it wouldn't be difficult. After some preliminary sketching, the paints were out.
I became obsessed with finishing and realized that while one talented young woman was spending the full two hours on clouds, I was already onto the foreground and figuring out how to touch up my palm trees.
At first, my setting looked less like Palm Springs and more like some far-off planet. My sky was a strange combination of grays and peaches, the mountains were a vibrant shade of purple, and the ground was a hot fluorescent green.
Keyes looked at my painting and nicely suggested I might want to make the colors less "intense."
The former Long Beach City College art teacher sat down in my chair and showed me how to "fill in the blanks," so to speak. Instead of solely focusing on the bigger picture, I needed to think about the details.
He mixed various shades of paint with ease and showed me how to consider the distance and where the sun might hit the palm, shading the base.
I realized how a tendency of mine — to see a goal ahead and run toward it — had crept into a day of artistic relaxation. Without knowing it, Keyes and the class made me realize the importance of slowing down and taking my time.
Whether it's creating a new color or adding a detail, it's important to stop and pay attention to the small things.
2011年7月18日星期一
Art that adapts to the venue
Betrant Peret as a DJ at the Esperantopolis 2011, a cultural event featuring a variety of arts, held at the French Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City last month.
A space, an atmosphere where art interacts with life in a way that everyone is comfortable, no matter what his or her background, no matter what the person’s age, no matter what the person’s relationship to art – Esperantopolis 2011 aspired to create this space.
Betrant Peret, his partner Sandrine Llouquet (a Viet kieu artist), and Sophie Gambart of the French consulate organized the multi-art exhibition at the French Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City last month.
The show brought together works by some 20 French and Vietnamese artists, including graffiti, photography, installation art, plays and hip-hop performances.
Event-goer Mai Thao discovered “many strange things at the unique cultural event,” including a fashion show of “remakes” by a Vietnamese designer.
“I was also moved by the graffiti by Seth. The French artist’s talent amazed me,” she said.
“The story of the Vietnamese lady in his painting somehow expressed people’s feelings about changes caused by urbanization.”
For Peret, the show succeeded in one of its key aims, because the audience seemed to feel at home.
“Esperanto used to be a utopian language in the early 19th century. The ambition of that language was to be universal… and polis, in Greek, means the city,” said Peret, explaining the title of the exhibition.
“That is what we had in mind… Could we consider art and art events as this universal zone?”
Peret said he together with the co-organizer, Sophie Gambart, wanted to create an event with high-quality art for everybody without assigning any theme or topic to it.
“To me, it’s really important for everybody and anybody, from the xe om (motorbike taxi driver) to the director of a gallery, to feel comfortable in the environment of esperantopolis.”
It was not the first time Peret, a graduate of France’s Ecole National des Beaux Arts de Bordeaux, had tried to create this universal space.
He has organized many events and exhibitions “in the spirit of esperantopolis,” mainly in France, but also in the US, Germany, Cuba, Singapore and other countries, before he came to Vietnam.
As an artist and an art event organizer with more than 20 years’ of experience, Peret said he’s always been interested in the relationship between a venue and the public.
Any venue has potential for displaying art work, while art has to adapt to the venue, which allows the venue to generate its own public, he said.
“I would say that painting or organizing an event is nearly the same to me, it’s a question of composition, a question of how to invest, to use a delimited zone.”
“I like the public, any public, to be able to feel happy and comfortable in any location… then art becomes part of the environment and the public, too.”
The 40-year-old artist had earlier developed the idea of an “Art Total” that blurs the borders between art and life, creating “ephemeral and utopian moments.”
Over the last four years he has felt that his shows in Vietnam have been reaching an increasingly larger, mixed audience of both Vietnamese and expatriates, and that there is a greater expectancy for such events.
So he aims at an Esperantopolis 2012 which is “bigger, stronger and longer.”
Asked about his journey to Vietnam, Peret said that after he and his partner Llouquet had completed a lot of projects in France, they decided to come here to start doing “some exchanges between the two countries and the two cultures… to try to be part of the exciting adventure an emerging country like Vietnam can provide.”
He is also a founding member of the artists’ collective, Mogas Station, which brings together French, German, Japanese, American and Vietnamese artists.
“The energy we can find in Vietnam is super strong, that is the fuel we need to go on, in life and art.”
A space, an atmosphere where art interacts with life in a way that everyone is comfortable, no matter what his or her background, no matter what the person’s age, no matter what the person’s relationship to art – Esperantopolis 2011 aspired to create this space.
Betrant Peret, his partner Sandrine Llouquet (a Viet kieu artist), and Sophie Gambart of the French consulate organized the multi-art exhibition at the French Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City last month.
The show brought together works by some 20 French and Vietnamese artists, including graffiti, photography, installation art, plays and hip-hop performances.
Event-goer Mai Thao discovered “many strange things at the unique cultural event,” including a fashion show of “remakes” by a Vietnamese designer.
“I was also moved by the graffiti by Seth. The French artist’s talent amazed me,” she said.
“The story of the Vietnamese lady in his painting somehow expressed people’s feelings about changes caused by urbanization.”
For Peret, the show succeeded in one of its key aims, because the audience seemed to feel at home.
“Esperanto used to be a utopian language in the early 19th century. The ambition of that language was to be universal… and polis, in Greek, means the city,” said Peret, explaining the title of the exhibition.
“That is what we had in mind… Could we consider art and art events as this universal zone?”
Peret said he together with the co-organizer, Sophie Gambart, wanted to create an event with high-quality art for everybody without assigning any theme or topic to it.
“To me, it’s really important for everybody and anybody, from the xe om (motorbike taxi driver) to the director of a gallery, to feel comfortable in the environment of esperantopolis.”
It was not the first time Peret, a graduate of France’s Ecole National des Beaux Arts de Bordeaux, had tried to create this universal space.
He has organized many events and exhibitions “in the spirit of esperantopolis,” mainly in France, but also in the US, Germany, Cuba, Singapore and other countries, before he came to Vietnam.
As an artist and an art event organizer with more than 20 years’ of experience, Peret said he’s always been interested in the relationship between a venue and the public.
Any venue has potential for displaying art work, while art has to adapt to the venue, which allows the venue to generate its own public, he said.
“I would say that painting or organizing an event is nearly the same to me, it’s a question of composition, a question of how to invest, to use a delimited zone.”
“I like the public, any public, to be able to feel happy and comfortable in any location… then art becomes part of the environment and the public, too.”
The 40-year-old artist had earlier developed the idea of an “Art Total” that blurs the borders between art and life, creating “ephemeral and utopian moments.”
Over the last four years he has felt that his shows in Vietnam have been reaching an increasingly larger, mixed audience of both Vietnamese and expatriates, and that there is a greater expectancy for such events.
So he aims at an Esperantopolis 2012 which is “bigger, stronger and longer.”
Asked about his journey to Vietnam, Peret said that after he and his partner Llouquet had completed a lot of projects in France, they decided to come here to start doing “some exchanges between the two countries and the two cultures… to try to be part of the exciting adventure an emerging country like Vietnam can provide.”
He is also a founding member of the artists’ collective, Mogas Station, which brings together French, German, Japanese, American and Vietnamese artists.
“The energy we can find in Vietnam is super strong, that is the fuel we need to go on, in life and art.”
2011年7月14日星期四
2nd Affordable Art exposition aims to make you a collector
The Affordable Art Exposition is back again, hoping to make a collector of you! After a year of waiting the 2nd Affordable Art Exposition is coming with a brand-new look. The President of SogoArt, Chen Hong-ping, notes that “we have integrated digital technology this year. It enables people to view the arts of Taiwan in greater depth and broadness than before.”
The 2nd annual Affordable Art Exposition for Taiwan is sponsored by the Council for Cultural Affairs of the Executive Yuan, the Taipei City Bureau of Cultural Affairs and the Chinese Art Managing International Commerce Association (CAMICA). It will run for ten days from Friday, July 22, to Sunday, July 31, at No. 162, Section 1, Jianguo S. Rd. and No. 47, Alley 103, Xinsheng South Rd. in Taipei. It will take place in three different halls, with each hall representing a specific artistic topic. The exhibition will include contemporary oil paintings and creative art wares in Hall 1, color calligraphy and affordable art in Hall 2, and technical creative art, comprehensive art works and new creative arts in Hall 3.
The most unique part of the exhibition will be the extension application of multimedia high technology to present the works. All art works have been digitally transposed to computers, and visitors can browse through all the artworks quickly on a computer. In addition, the exhibition halls will also feature large-scale LCD screens displaying a 24-hour dynamic broadcast of the art works, so that the Affordable Art Exposition “never takes a break” throughout the whole exhibition.
The exposition has gathered artists from many different fields to accomplish this great task, Chen Yong-sen will show “The godfather of contemporary plastic colors”; Kuo Dong-ron,“The world in the thumb of the artist”, Zhan Ashui, “Painting in the water”, Yang Nian “The local painter”, Lin Jin-pio “The grotto painter”, and Zhang Jie “Lotus master”. In the area of color ink paintings, Hu Nian-zu and Li Qimao are showing “Masters of the Human Form”; Wang Kai, “A portrait master of great learning and integrity”; and Wu Chang-peng, “Watercolor scenery”. In addition there will be images from the oldest, middle and youngest generations, of oil painters, including works by Liu Changfu, Pang Yi, Chen Ming-fang and Wang Xiao-wen.
70% of the artistic works in the Affordable Art Exposition will be priced between NT$3,000 and NT$200,000. These prices are intended to break through the stereotype which says that art must be unaffordable and priceless. Visitors with an entrance coupon will receive a complimentary gift and a chance to draw for a painting valued at NT$1,000,000.
On the last day of the exposition, there will be an auction of 30 art works with bid prices starting at NT$1. Chen Hong-ping notes that “We want to set up a perfect interaction platform so that Taiwan can have people take in art works and then take them home to enrich their quality of life and enjoy the pleasure which art brings!”
The 2nd annual Affordable Art Exposition for Taiwan is sponsored by the Council for Cultural Affairs of the Executive Yuan, the Taipei City Bureau of Cultural Affairs and the Chinese Art Managing International Commerce Association (CAMICA). It will run for ten days from Friday, July 22, to Sunday, July 31, at No. 162, Section 1, Jianguo S. Rd. and No. 47, Alley 103, Xinsheng South Rd. in Taipei. It will take place in three different halls, with each hall representing a specific artistic topic. The exhibition will include contemporary oil paintings and creative art wares in Hall 1, color calligraphy and affordable art in Hall 2, and technical creative art, comprehensive art works and new creative arts in Hall 3.
The most unique part of the exhibition will be the extension application of multimedia high technology to present the works. All art works have been digitally transposed to computers, and visitors can browse through all the artworks quickly on a computer. In addition, the exhibition halls will also feature large-scale LCD screens displaying a 24-hour dynamic broadcast of the art works, so that the Affordable Art Exposition “never takes a break” throughout the whole exhibition.
The exposition has gathered artists from many different fields to accomplish this great task, Chen Yong-sen will show “The godfather of contemporary plastic colors”; Kuo Dong-ron,“The world in the thumb of the artist”, Zhan Ashui, “Painting in the water”, Yang Nian “The local painter”, Lin Jin-pio “The grotto painter”, and Zhang Jie “Lotus master”. In the area of color ink paintings, Hu Nian-zu and Li Qimao are showing “Masters of the Human Form”; Wang Kai, “A portrait master of great learning and integrity”; and Wu Chang-peng, “Watercolor scenery”. In addition there will be images from the oldest, middle and youngest generations, of oil painters, including works by Liu Changfu, Pang Yi, Chen Ming-fang and Wang Xiao-wen.
70% of the artistic works in the Affordable Art Exposition will be priced between NT$3,000 and NT$200,000. These prices are intended to break through the stereotype which says that art must be unaffordable and priceless. Visitors with an entrance coupon will receive a complimentary gift and a chance to draw for a painting valued at NT$1,000,000.
On the last day of the exposition, there will be an auction of 30 art works with bid prices starting at NT$1. Chen Hong-ping notes that “We want to set up a perfect interaction platform so that Taiwan can have people take in art works and then take them home to enrich their quality of life and enjoy the pleasure which art brings!”
2011年7月12日星期二
'Preconceived Nomad' show pushes boundaries
'Art is a perception of mind," reads the brochure to "Preconceived Nomad", an exhibition of oil paintings by Amnad Vashirasurt. The new paintings, it continues, set out to explore "the mystery hidden within the idea of creativity and faith in life", and they do a strong job of exploring the impressions that can be presented, and emotions explored, through an artist's personal touch.
The colourful explosion scenes, Black Suit and Sand Mine Field, are inspired by the Iraq war film The Hurt Locker, and while the concept of motion is well rendered, the exploration of the subject seems to lack depth, reminiscent almost of a video game.
More powerful are the paintings that probe spatial atmosphere. A good example is The Mist Princess, a blurred image in grey and white of a woman moving through the woods. The entire painting conveys motion and transience, despite the fact that it's austere in its use of colour and detail.
Another painting simple in mood, approach and execution is Hide Angel Wings, where a house in light sandy brown is visited by an angelic figure in white.
In contrast, Orange Wood and The Last Summer, pure orange and red respectively, are vibrant in colour but perhaps less effective.
Best are the Chagall-like landscapes such as the title piece, Preconceived Nomad, or others where motion is touchingly rendered, such as Pool in My Heart, which portrays a swimmer moving across an indoor pool.
Amnad explained that many paintings were inspired by a recent trip to Europe, specifically Hungary and France, and it's clear that the main artistic influences are European. Amnad admitted that Marc Chagall is a major inspiration, something apparent from the choice of colour, if not necessarily the subject matter. But the sense of the nomad in many of the paintings, an explorer of inner and outer territories, is very personal, poignant and relevant.
The paintings move anywhere between Impressionism and post-modernism, and it is encouraging that abstract Thai art seems ever more confident in moving among genres, exploring both past and present art forms and increasingly competent at pushing the boundaries of new experimental forms.
One curator of a neighbouring gallery commented that this exhibition had less impact for him than Amnad's first and very successful exhibition at Artery Gallery in 2009, "Imagery Region".
Nevertheless, the new series is, as art director or Artery Gallery, Punnapa Parimethachai, commented, "deep, pronounced, intense and delicate". Some of the experiments in feeling and impressions work better than others, but as a whole the paintings are very effective at taking us through Amnad's perceptions of his nomadism, preconceived or accidental, and back into our own.
The colourful explosion scenes, Black Suit and Sand Mine Field, are inspired by the Iraq war film The Hurt Locker, and while the concept of motion is well rendered, the exploration of the subject seems to lack depth, reminiscent almost of a video game.
More powerful are the paintings that probe spatial atmosphere. A good example is The Mist Princess, a blurred image in grey and white of a woman moving through the woods. The entire painting conveys motion and transience, despite the fact that it's austere in its use of colour and detail.
Another painting simple in mood, approach and execution is Hide Angel Wings, where a house in light sandy brown is visited by an angelic figure in white.
In contrast, Orange Wood and The Last Summer, pure orange and red respectively, are vibrant in colour but perhaps less effective.
Best are the Chagall-like landscapes such as the title piece, Preconceived Nomad, or others where motion is touchingly rendered, such as Pool in My Heart, which portrays a swimmer moving across an indoor pool.
Amnad explained that many paintings were inspired by a recent trip to Europe, specifically Hungary and France, and it's clear that the main artistic influences are European. Amnad admitted that Marc Chagall is a major inspiration, something apparent from the choice of colour, if not necessarily the subject matter. But the sense of the nomad in many of the paintings, an explorer of inner and outer territories, is very personal, poignant and relevant.
The paintings move anywhere between Impressionism and post-modernism, and it is encouraging that abstract Thai art seems ever more confident in moving among genres, exploring both past and present art forms and increasingly competent at pushing the boundaries of new experimental forms.
One curator of a neighbouring gallery commented that this exhibition had less impact for him than Amnad's first and very successful exhibition at Artery Gallery in 2009, "Imagery Region".
Nevertheless, the new series is, as art director or Artery Gallery, Punnapa Parimethachai, commented, "deep, pronounced, intense and delicate". Some of the experiments in feeling and impressions work better than others, but as a whole the paintings are very effective at taking us through Amnad's perceptions of his nomadism, preconceived or accidental, and back into our own.
2011年7月4日星期一
Picture perfect
Visitors to Kean Anderson's home can't enter a room without seeing examples of her artistic talent. On nearly every wall, there are oil paintings of bucolic rural landscapes, snow-capped mountains, flowery meadows, a haunting sunset. There are portraits of family members. Even her pet macaw, Chloe, and cocker spaniel, Sammy, have been rendered in two lifelike dimensions.
The Malay-born Anderson has two pieces to which she's particularly attached.
One flowed from her brush after a phone call from home with word that a sister was diagnosed with breast cancer.
"It was very scary," Anderson said of the news.
She poured out her worry on canvas and rendered a scene that would not be out of place hanging alongside Monet's "Flowering Garden at Sainte-Adresse."
It depicts a tranquil lake among woods and flowers.
"I put a lot of feeling in my paintings," Anderson said. "It's very peaceful." She said she imagined herself in the scene, sitting in contemplation.
Her sister survived her bout with cancer, but another inspiration did not.
A rural scene of flowers and open meadow was dedicated to a customer of Anderson's, a server at Coyote Canyon. He was an elderly farmer who died in his late 90s.
"I always took care of him and made sure he was happy," she said.
Graphic artist in Malaysia
Although her oil paintings are art-gallery worthy, Anderson came late to the medium.
She was a graphic artist for an advertising firm in Malaysia for 13 years, and decided to make the leap to art director, a position for which she needed more schooling.
Her plan was to pick up some English and art history classes in Michigan then study art direction in California before returning home.
During summer break while she was in Michigan, she and fellow students decided to get jobs, so they journeyed to Chicago, where a national employment agency placed her at Hong Kong Buffet in Salina.
Here she met and fell in love with Steven Anderson and has been in Salina ever since.
But until she walked into Salina's Hobby Lobby store about a half dozen years ago, she'd never worked in oil.
"I always wanted to but I never got the chance to learn," she said.
Her graphics art job confined her to other media: watercolors, pastels, pencil drawing.
"I walked in and saw a bunch of ladies painting," she said.
The group comprised students of Flo Nelson, who had been teaching art classes at the crafts store for a number of years.
She's very good
Anderson said Nelson didn't need a hard-sell approach to interest her.
"I joined them the next week, and I haven't stopped since," Anderson said.
"She's very good," Nelson said. "I don't have to help her hardly at all."
When she does, it's welcome.
"Flo is fantastic," Anderson gushed. "She can see things I don't see. I just love her."
Anderson, who also goes by "Cynthia," said creativity runs in the family. Her siblings all are accomplished artists. Her father, who immigrated from China to Malaysia as a young boy, is an accomplished Chinese calligrapher.
Except for portraits, which are commissioned, Anderson doesn't actively sell her work. The Andersons have no children. Their dogs fill that role, but next on the hard-to-part-with-family-member roster are Anderson's paintings.
Might have to sell some
She confessed she'll have to break down and sell some eventually because she's running out of space in her home.
"I paint every week, whenever I have time," she said.
Nelson said Anderson's technique has improved to the point she considered her a likely successor.
" 'No,' " Anderson told her. " 'You have to stay here forever.' "
The Malay-born Anderson has two pieces to which she's particularly attached.
One flowed from her brush after a phone call from home with word that a sister was diagnosed with breast cancer.
"It was very scary," Anderson said of the news.
She poured out her worry on canvas and rendered a scene that would not be out of place hanging alongside Monet's "Flowering Garden at Sainte-Adresse."
It depicts a tranquil lake among woods and flowers.
"I put a lot of feeling in my paintings," Anderson said. "It's very peaceful." She said she imagined herself in the scene, sitting in contemplation.
Her sister survived her bout with cancer, but another inspiration did not.
A rural scene of flowers and open meadow was dedicated to a customer of Anderson's, a server at Coyote Canyon. He was an elderly farmer who died in his late 90s.
"I always took care of him and made sure he was happy," she said.
Graphic artist in Malaysia
Although her oil paintings are art-gallery worthy, Anderson came late to the medium.
She was a graphic artist for an advertising firm in Malaysia for 13 years, and decided to make the leap to art director, a position for which she needed more schooling.
Her plan was to pick up some English and art history classes in Michigan then study art direction in California before returning home.
During summer break while she was in Michigan, she and fellow students decided to get jobs, so they journeyed to Chicago, where a national employment agency placed her at Hong Kong Buffet in Salina.
Here she met and fell in love with Steven Anderson and has been in Salina ever since.
But until she walked into Salina's Hobby Lobby store about a half dozen years ago, she'd never worked in oil.
"I always wanted to but I never got the chance to learn," she said.
Her graphics art job confined her to other media: watercolors, pastels, pencil drawing.
"I walked in and saw a bunch of ladies painting," she said.
The group comprised students of Flo Nelson, who had been teaching art classes at the crafts store for a number of years.
She's very good
Anderson said Nelson didn't need a hard-sell approach to interest her.
"I joined them the next week, and I haven't stopped since," Anderson said.
"She's very good," Nelson said. "I don't have to help her hardly at all."
When she does, it's welcome.
"Flo is fantastic," Anderson gushed. "She can see things I don't see. I just love her."
Anderson, who also goes by "Cynthia," said creativity runs in the family. Her siblings all are accomplished artists. Her father, who immigrated from China to Malaysia as a young boy, is an accomplished Chinese calligrapher.
Except for portraits, which are commissioned, Anderson doesn't actively sell her work. The Andersons have no children. Their dogs fill that role, but next on the hard-to-part-with-family-member roster are Anderson's paintings.
Might have to sell some
She confessed she'll have to break down and sell some eventually because she's running out of space in her home.
"I paint every week, whenever I have time," she said.
Nelson said Anderson's technique has improved to the point she considered her a likely successor.
" 'No,' " Anderson told her. " 'You have to stay here forever.' "
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