Monthly Archives: September 2015

Colby Adams Sanford: Religious Art

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Colby Adams Sanford creates incredible religious pieces with acrylics, wood, and reclaimed materials. He was profiled previously for his paintings in China. Sanford says of his unique style, “Reclaiming materials and making them something beautiful – a metaphor of what Christ can do for us.”

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How did you get started commercially? It has always been my dream to be able to support my family through my painting. A dream that my sweet wife has helped me realize is possible more than anybody. I just had to jump in. There was one point in China that I had this huge pile of completed paintings and not really enough space to put it all in our tiny China “apartment”. (I use quotes because we didn’t even have a kitchen–a hot plate on a card table is not a kitchen!) So I spent the week nights making a website. I put my paintings on there and surprisingly enough, stuff started to sell. I did a show when we came back to visit one summer and I sold more than half of the pieces! I am definitely still just getting started, but I have loved meeting people face to face and talking to them about my art.

How do you utilize Instagram? Instagram and I have a love/hate relationship. It pushes me to get things done every day because I try to be consistent in posting, but it also puts up such a blinded view of life. I try to keep it up as a constant connection to the people that I love and that take time to follow me, who I am, and what I do. To all of you who are following along, thank you!

Visit Colby Adams Sanford’s website.

Follow Colby Adams Sanford on Instagram.

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Ali Cavanaugh: Immerse

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Ali Cavanaugh has a new series of watercolors on clay panels called Immerse (first three images) with a reception on September 18 at the Gold Gallery in Boston. Although we typically profile Mormon artists we are going to make an exception for the fantastic Cavanaugh who I would call an honorary Mormon artist. She received a BFA from Kendall College of Art and Design and during her years in Santa Fe developed her modern fresco process on kaolin clay. Cavanaugh’s  paintings have been featured in the Huffington Post, Fine Art ConnoisseurHi-Fructose, The New York Times Magazine, and American Artist Watercolor. Cavanaugh is Catholic and lives in St. Louis, Missouri with her husband and four children.

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Tell us about your background and your art. It was midway through art school (the early 1990s) when I started longing for a baby, for a family of my own. My mom and I were abandoned by my drug addicted father and I knew without a doubt that having a baby was going to be the experience that brought healing and closure to the black hole that was deep in my core. I met my husband, we fell in love, got married, and 3 days after college graduation I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Neve. There are no words to describe that profound experience of holding your first born. I soon discovered that this whole new world of ‘my little family’ was everything I dreamed it would be. The unconditional love that I experienced from my baby and husband set my heart on fire. The artist in me wanted to make my baby’s entire existence a work of art. I cherished every minute of her life as something so special unique, mindful that every moment was unrepeatable. I relished in the idyllic world that I had created and that I could re-experience my childhood vicariously through her. My first painting of Neve was when she was still in utero in 1994. Although I did paint a few pieces of her during those early years, it wasn’t until she was about five that she became an integral part of my art. As she grew I began to be inspired by more than just our mother daughter bond. I discovered that she was an incredible model. The unexpected compositions that she would come up with while modeling inspired me like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. Almost every time I looked at her I would visualize a perfect painting. I found that she was an inexhaustible subject and I became obsessed with painting her. As she approached 17 yrs old I knew that our relationship was going to change. I knew that my art was going to change, that a season of my life was coming to an end. I knew that she’d be moving out, going to college, and starting a life of her own. I have to be honest, when Neve did move out and started college I felt like one of my limbs had been torn from my body. Over time I healed and adjusted to the change.

Explain your series Immerse. I took time off in 2014 to step back and evaluate my work and the era that I felt was coming to an end. My new baby, Saoirse, just turned two years old. This is one of my favorite ages of children because it is when the baby starts to become a person. They grow more animated as their language develops and their physical mannerisms become more adult-like. In February of 2015 I painted my first painting of Saoirse and instantly fell in love with her as my muse. Her expression is open and honest. The innocence, the energy, the whole dynamic was a huge shift from my previous eight years of work of mostly young teen women with inward, private emotion. This spring my watercolor technique rapidly changed as I responded to the presence of a younger person in my paintings. I limited my palette to blues and greens to reflect a dream state. I began pouring and dripping watercolors instead of controlling each paint stroke with tiny brushes. My approach previously was that I took my idea and then painted every square inch with perfection and control. With these new works, I let the waterfall and move and dry and then it speaks to me. I then respond by laying down more color. The painting and I go back and forth as if we are in conversation. My new approach is to allow space for surprises. I have become forgiving in my process so that I can leave unexpected mishaps in the final painting. I have the freedom and skill to develop areas where I intend for the emotion to be more direct, while I embrace the imperfections left by the spontaneous creative process.

What are you working on next? I have my first museum show at the Ellen Noel Art Museum in Odessa, Texas scheduled for spring of 2017. I will be spending the majority of 2016 working on that exhibition. I have several portrait commissions in my studio that will get wrapped up over the next few months. I also have a series of paintings of a beautiful little 3 year old that have been praying for that has Pulmonary Vein Stenosis among other things. He fights everyday for his life. He is a living saint and his story moves me deeply, so I have to paint him. I will have that show locally in our small town probably sometime in 2016.

Visit Ali Cavanaugh’s website.

Follow Ali Cavanaugh on Instagram.

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Greg Newbold: Landscapes

 

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Greg Newbold is an accomplished illustrator and painter. Newbold will be exhibiting new work at the Evergreen Framing Co. & Gallery this month. The Afternoon of Art show will include his work along with fellow gallery artists Aaron Fritz, Claire Tollstrup and Jodi Steen. The opening reception will be held Saturday afternoon September 19th from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. Newbold lives in Utah. He was profiled previously at The Krakens for his illustration of Alibaba’s Jack Ma.

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Tell us about this new series of paintings. I think my choice of subjects when it comes to landscape painting stems from my childhood. I was always enamored by grand vistas and the play of light. I remember staring at sunsets and soaking in the colors, amazed at their fleeting beauty and how quickly they were gone. We kept animals on the family homestead when I was young. My widowed great aunt lived on about a dozen acres in the home where she and my grandma grew up. She always had chickens and sheep as well as an occasional beef cow. I spent several years feeding and caring for the animals after school to help her out. Each spring would bring new lambs and the ritual of sheep shearing. My dad grew a huge garden which entailed many sweaty afternoons of weeding and harvesting. We also bucked many truckloads of hay. I think those experiences were ingrained in my memory and I gravitate toward farm and livestock subjects now as a result. I also love the landscape of this great state and have always been drawn to the red rock vistas of Southern Utah. The range of terrain in this state is astounding and every one of the paintings in this show is someplace I have been to and photographed or have painted on location.

What do you enjoy about painting landscapes? Landscape painting on the surface seems pretty straight forward. See something you like, and paint it. Easy, right? That notion can’t be further from the truth. I have found location painting (or painting en plein air) the most challenging and rewarding of artistic pursuits. When you are on location, you are at the mercy of time, weather and the elements. The entirety of the landscape is in your view and most of the time, I find that simply editing the scope of what I see down to a manageable chunk to be the most important step. I have to choose which sliver of awesome to try to capture on my panel. Then, if lighting conditions allow, I may have an hour to two hours to distill what I see and translate it to a few well placed strokes of paint before the shadow patterns are completely changed. The color that I see in nature, as opposed to what a camera sees, was the biggest revelation I have had from painting outdoors. I may not capture things exactly as I want them in the field, but the color notes are critical to conveying an authenticity to the viewer. Sometimes I tickle these studies in studio to finish them the way I wanted to in the field, sometimes they serve as the basis for larger paintings. Regardless, the experience of actually being there and seeing with my own eyes lets me take the information I gain from my photos and inject reality into my paintings. Learning to paint is a constant quest because there is always more to learn, but I love the challenge of trying to improve. Maybe someday I’ll reach a point where I can actually put down in paint my exact intention. For now, I am happy with close.

What are you working on next? I have a lot of irons in the fire. My gallery career is a pursuit that I am intent on growing, but at the same time, my commercial illustration work is what pays most of the bills and I always have projects going on there. I have a couple of big things in the works that hopefully I will be able to talk about in the coming months, but for now, it’s confidential. This year has also seen some new national clients like Barnes & Noble that has been a lot of fun. I get a kick out of knowing my work is in every single B&N store nationwide. On the gallery front, I will continue to supply as much new work as I can to my galleries David Ericson Fine Art and Evergreen Gallery in Salt Lake City, UT. I have also committed to doing the Art & Soup fundraiser in March of 2016, so that should be fun. I’ll be painting quite a bit between now and then, I am sure. In between, I’d like to get away on a couple of painting excursions to southern Utah. There’s nothing like being out in the wild to recharge the artistic batteries!

Visit Greg Newbold’s website.

Visit Greg Newbold’s blog, Life Needs Art.

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Wilson Ong: Painting is a Privilege

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Wilson Ong is a painter and teacher. He grew up in the Bay Area of California and received a BFA in painting and drawing from BYU. He furthered his studies at the Art Students’ League in New York City, NY. Wilson lives with his family in Corning, New York.

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Describe yourself as an artist. I think that as an artist I can describe my approach as classical and academic. My interests within that spectrum have spanned from artists as Rembrandt, Norman Rockwell to divergent artists as Gustave Klimt. Recently, I’ve reviewed the work of Léon Augustin Lhermitte whom I have always enjoyed. Despite my interests, I don’t paint much like those masters, but I continue to learn from them. Museums are great and books are the next best teachers for me. I really do enjoy the figure and the portrait, however, I continue to explore the still life genre and landscapes. I’ve done a number of jobs that did not involve art, but being an artist has always given me the greatest challenge, the greatest personal sense of accomplishment, and ultimately a depressing amount of frustration and loneliness.

You once said, “I think painting is a privilege.” My parents are immigrants and “making it” in America consisted of a lot of hard work. I grew up working in the family restaurant, cleaning dishes, busing tables, food prepping (I’m decent with a knife). Of course as children we were required to do well in school (math was not bad, but English classes were a drag) and excel in college prep classes. During my youth, I often felt trapped and turned to drawing as a way to escape, plus it was always an enjoyable activity. Nevertheless, I was always reminded that my purpose was to work hard, get a good education and get a good job. Even though I say that, my parents did support my art in their own way. I don’t think they understood what I was about, but I was always allowed to purchase a modest amount of art materials when I needed to. Painting now is my medium of choice and I’ve had the opportunity to sell my work and support my family creating art for several years (it is not as romantic as it sounds). Of course in the back of my mind I’m prepared to flip burgers again (as well as doing the plethora of other jobs I’ve held in the past). I also know that there are others that would want a slice of what I have had or achieved, so I avoid being elitist when I speak of what I do.

You paint a lot of religious art. Talk about how you approach these pieces. That’s an interesting question, because I don’t think that my output of religious work is that significant. About five years ago I did paintings for a woman who was self-publishing a book titled “Portrait of a Woman and Jesus.” The bulk of my religious work is comprised in this group of paintings. This project was closely directed as she had a fairly specific vision of what she wanted. We worked well together and I was honored that she considered me an answer to her prayers. When creating these pieces and others, it is always important to know what the parameters are, that I need to work within. Personal connection is important to me so I do my best to empathize with the subject matter and imagine myself as a participant of the scene being painted. This may sound a bit sentimental, but I am careful to select the music and media I listen to or watch during the process. I think that the emotional content on the faces of the figures has always been an emphasis to me regardless of subject matter, so being keen to this is natural. Sketches are created and are approved, rejected, or adjusted. Depending on the complexity of the project, color studies are executed. The final paintings are then, again, approved, adjusted, and (unfortunately) sometimes rejected. The religious paintings that I have done for myself are a bit more difficult, because they are under the standard of my own personal vision and expectation, which may evolve and expand during the creation process. These paintings generally are started with a few rough sketches and resource materials with limited planning. There are quite a bit of changes in a process of this nature, yet in the end I find the journey with these projects much more satisfying than otherwise.

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Explain your series of animal portraits. I think the explanation of these animal portraits are pretty self-evident. They are just fun and quirky. I’m able to take my classical training and apply them to a very non-serious subject matter. It would be comparable to exercising and eating healthy and then taking a break from it all to sit in front of the tube and pig out on junk food. I will do these from time to time as it allows me a release from doing my more serious work (wow that sounds so elitist). Personally, I enjoy doing them and I find myself tickled by the wit of each piece.

Visit Wilson Ong’s website.

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Caitlin Connolly: Creative Enthusiast

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Caitlin Connolly is a painter and creative enthusiast. She received a BFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Utah and currently lives with her husband in Utah.

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You once said, “I don’t think of myself as a religious painter, but I do strive to be a spiritual painter.” Explain. “Spiritual painting”, for me, is thrilling because it has so much to do with exploring and creating the unknown. Art often becomes my medium for exploring purpose in life and moments of truth. I experience truth in so many ways – human relationships, nature, music, words, art, conversation, introspection, and through religion too. Religious painting, in my mind, might have more to do with translating already existing narratives or answered questions into a visual experience. Spiritual painting gives me the freedom to discover new things, create new stories, and suggest new truth. Striving to be a spiritual painter is very challenging to me because there is always more to learn and a never-ending amount of truth that needs to be shared.

Tell us about your Internet nom de plume ‘LadyHue’. One of my first creative projects a number of years back was starting a blog called Hue and Hum about the early creative pursuits of my art and my musician husband. It’s no longer published, but it was a fun first step in my creative journey. It allowed me to share images of paintings I was making with an audience and it also gave me the unexpected opportunity to learn how to write using my voice. It was a very fun and exciting project where I was able to challenge myself, laugh, share, and grow. My online name, ladyhue, followed suit from this project, and acts as a bridge connecting me from where I began to where I am now.

You have said you like to explore ‘the feminine experience’. Do you feel like you are understanding yourself more through your art? I have learned a great deal about myself, but feel as though I’m still only scratching the surface. I have a hard time understanding myself, I get lost in my head easily and find it difficult to separate truth from fiction, imagination and reality. I think I need a practice like painting, which is slow and patient, to give me a longer amount of time and meditation on a specific subject. I’m still not sure if that’s a woman thing or a me thing and I don’t know how much I am like them or they are like me. So I guess I haven’t figured it all out yet.

What are you working on next? There are a number of paintings that have been begging to be painted–I am working on those. Also, I’ve spent the last few months writing, which has been a new fun project. I’ve been writing for years now, but only for myself, not for anyone else. Recently there were a number of stories that came to mind that I’ve been spending nearly all my time trying to capture them and turn them into words. I’m not sure what they’ll become yet, short stories or a novel or simply imaginary fun, but I am excited to find out.

Visit Caitlin Connolly’s website.

Follow Caitlin Connolly on Instagram.

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