"Blueprints" 30x34 oil on linen, begun Aug. 10, 2009

Still Life with Oysters (Finished)

Still Life Demonstration by Russell W. Gordon

Time lapse demonstration of a first sitting on a still life with oysters. Total sitting time of 1 hour reduced to 49 seconds under changing natural light conditions in studio. Several additional sittings are required to bring the painting to a high degree of finish. Initial drawing done in charcoal over a green-umber base tone. Support is a medium-toothed stretched linen with lead gound.

Thoughts on the Importance of Real Experience in Art

Last night my children and I were watching a movie. My son John asked me how the actors did their job so well. I told him that a good actor knows how to get into character by practice and study. But a character can be made more real by the recall and application of the actor's personal experience or by a direct study. The singular human experience can be material for a subjective interpretation. As a theater student at Emerson College I was trained in method acting. I was taught to build a character by recalling personal experience and its emotion. Sadly for the theatres out there acting was not to become my profession:) I have been selling paintings since I was 17 years old. I am in awe by the artist who conveys the beauty in our world. The ability to take ordinary life and arrange it so that we can understand it in an elevated way, takes me away. Music, painting, ballet, theater, cinema, poetry, writing, architecture what would our world be if we did not have the arts.

Often, what is behind the art becomes the truth of the art, not just technical skill. It is the idea made real by experience, feeling and desire. I opened the window, the wind blew the curtain, the sky was blue, the tide was almost in, I could hear the waves, I can remember the glare on the water, I turned and saw the sunlight on her dresser, I could smell her perfume. My grandmother was behind all of what nature offered that afternoon. When I think of her I think of the rectangle of color, light and shapes out the window. I know painters that have waited thirty years to complete a painting. Can you imagine waiting a lifetime for it to feel right. That's not stupid that is being truthful.

I have made a few paintings to see if I could do it and to get a feeling for what the painter does...I wanted to know how it felt to paint if I were to continue to sell art. I know that I may never understand each painters reasons or how they do what they do but I do understand how difficult it is to really paint. I have great admiration for the committed, skilled and talented for a person that can see something you can't and show it to you so that you can understand it. I believe that exceptional art holds its value, because it is rare. A good painting transcends an ordinary reality by beauty and gives insight into the artists life.

-AMC

Modern Realism in our National Museums

Hello to all,

In our continued attempts to bring you closer to what is happening in representational art in America we welcome you to our art forum. We also encourage you to visit the What's New page at the Tree's Place website.

The exceptional realist, measures himself against the masters of the past in order to develop the necessary skills to better express himself as master of his own art. It is by the study of the past and the exposure to ingenuity that strengthens artistic character. It is my opinion that the most talented of today's realists are not just creating a topographical account of the world we live in, but present the figure, landscape and still life with subjective undertones for today that are unique to the artist, the subject and the viewer.

It is my hope that there will be a renewed sensibility towards acquiring exceptional representational art in our national museums and institutions. There is an unmistakable beauty and truth that continues to underscore the most ordinary of life, it lives within the consideration, understanding and interpretation of the world we live, this type of depth has survived tens of centuries and continues to the present.

Sadly as our artistic world has grown over the centuries it has also become divided. I do not understand why someone would want to see shapes organized in a way that distort the world that we live in or to be told that something is because "I" say it is that way. I am a protagonist of how things look in the natural world. I believe that there is a natural order. Now I am not a painter but I am captivated by the capabilities of the classically trained painter. The most knowledgeable of our modern realists can elevate an object into a subjective naturalistic view that is so absolutely riveting that you can't imagine that it can be done. It is beautiful at face value and if you care, it is beautiful for its transcendent underpinnings. It is not an easy job to render truth, and for those that do, in an exceptional way, they deserve the merit of being accepted into our museums.

Students that choose to become classical realist painters today (because that is who they are) should have the opportunity to seek the best of modern classical realism in the context of its rich historical past. With that being said, modern realism should hang within the realm of the masters of the past in our institutions. Today's art students will therefore have the opportunity to examine the continuum of classical art into our present day. The representational gallery has become the "learning institution" in place of the national museum. Many students come to Tree's Place to study the great paintings that are on exhibit. I guess that that is OK but I know that it is not satisfactory.

I challenge our nations acquisition committees that they might leave their offices and headhunt our galleries in search of great representational painters. It is not enough to rely on donations and bequeathed works. It is unacceptable to think that a gifted contemporary realistic work of art might find way to an auction house in order to provide funds to purchase a conceptual work of art, based on the interests of a committee. Within this chasm of diversity dwells the misunderstood notion that representational art is not as modern, viable, or important of an artistic expression as the abstract.

I disagree.

-Alison Collins