Tableau Vivant

Tableau vivant (plural: tableaux vivants) means "living picture". The term is French and describes a group of costumed actors or artist's models, carefully posed and often theatrically lit to replicate a painting or photograph.

Throughout the duration of the display, the people participating do not speak or move. The approach thus marries the art forms of the stage with those of painting or photography.

The Three Fates Tableau Vivant, by Nele, Eva, Kato of Belgium.

Last year I was contacted by Nele, Eva and Kato, 17 year old art students from Belgium.

"First of all we want to say that we really like your work. That's why we've chosen to imitate 'The three fates'. Our teacher of art at school gave us an assignment: turn a painting into a 'living work' ('tableau vivant' we call it). And that's what we did with 'The Three Fates'.

Wow, I was amazed at what a great job they did capturing the essence of the painting and honored that they'd choose my painting. There is poignancy in the fact that my painting, which is of my artist friends; Diane Feissel, Sadie Valerie and Alia El-Bermani, are founders of the Women Painting Women movement, has inspired young women artists on the other side of the world! Thank you Nele, Eva and Kato for sharing your work with me!

The Three Fates, 30x40, oil on panel 

In 2012, I heard from Tami Ross, 

"I am a film student at SCAD (savannah College of Art and Design) in Savannah, GA.  This quarter I am taking a lighting class and our first project was to take a painting that inspires us and re-create it with a little narrative. I used 'Power Struggle' and wanted to share my short film with you."



Awesome! Her male model even has a cleft chin like Pete. She did a great job creating her own narrative for the painting.

Power Struggle, 30x40, oil on panel

Inspiration for posting this now, is an amazing video of a Night Watch tableau vivant sent to my email inbox this morning.


And here is the painting.

The Night Watch or The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq (Dutch: De Nachtwacht),
1642 by Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn.

Enjoy!

Art Renewal Center, International Salon, 2012 Results Are In!

I'm so pleased to announce that Ode to Melancholy has won a Chairman's Prize in this competition and The Three Fates was named a finalist.

The show is a wonderful collection of realist artists so be prepared to spend a long time enjoying the work on the site! Art Renewal Center International Salon 2012

Awesome Art Collectors and the Gallery Work-VS-Museum Work Debate

I am so appreciative of my collectors. Their patronage and love of art allows me to do this crazy thing I do called painting.

In American Art Collector's June, 2012, issue there is an article about my new collectors, Committed to Collecting, Chip Eresman and Diana Garcia are dedicated to art and country. By Eric Christopher Cohler, Photography by Francis Smith. You may purchase it at any major bookstore.

It covers their journey to being collectors, the hows and whys of their collecting. Diana and Chip purchased The Three Fates at the recent Women Painting Women - The Expedition and Beyond at Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA.

Red Kimono by Mia Bergeron, (from the 2010 Women Painting Women Invitational)  and work by Martin Poole and Ray Donley

The Three Fates in it's new home in their dining room. Over the fireplace a Thomas Beuchner, and to the right Ray Donley

Art by Jeffrey Johnson, Jorge Alberto, Larry Preston, Alejandro Rosemberg, Phillip Geiger, Martin Poole, Kevin Fitzgerald

This article brings up a subject I've been wanting to blog about for a while. "Do you make work for museums or galleries?" 

It's a debate I have never understood. I've heard artists say that they are not going the gallery route and that they instead paint museum quality work, as if it's an either, or, thing.

What!? Does that mean that artists that show in galleries are not producing museum quality work? Does that mean that if artists produce work for a gallery show they produce lesser work? Why is work made for private collections and work made for museums two different things?

There are two reasons why I think this is a harmful attitude for artists to have and a sign that the artist is buying into dysfunctional nonsense perpetuated by certain parts of the art world.

1. It may keep you from making the work you want to make.

I certainly expect that my work will be in museum collections, but museums or private collections, it makes no difference in my mind as to the kind of work I make. I paint what is provocative to me, making the best possible paintings I can. The trick is to find venues that do a great job connecting your work with savvy collectors, people who relate to the work, people that love the work enough to want to live with it.

On the practical side how much work of living artists do museums actually buy? Will you ever be able to support yourself and your work on museum sales? Is being a starving artist really a prerequisite to making high quality, provocative work? Not hardly!

Underlying this attitude is the idea that an artist that has financial success must not be making real work, meaningful work. Baloney!

2. The gallery work-vs-museum work question has an underlying condescending attitude toward collectors.

It doesn't give collectors any credit for knowing what is good art worth collecting. Should museum curators be the only ones getting to decide who is making good art? I don't think so.

My collectors really GET my work. They relate to it on an emotional and intellectual level. They are not seduced by technique or pretty colors that match their sofa. They GET art.

This gallery work-vs-museum work attitude by some is intimidating and may keep potential collectors out of galleries. How is that beneficial to artists or the art world?

I've been lucky enough to meet many of my collectors and have become friends with them. The similar life experiences we have shared, the things that inspired me to paint the work and inspired them to want to live with the work, are the experiences that make us friends. We just happened to have been introduced through the medium of my painting.

How sad for artists to miss out on these wonderfully rewarding relationships. All because of a dysfunctional attitude carried over from our art school days!

But as Dennis Miller says after one of his rants, I may be wrong.

If this is an interesting topic for you, you may find Tom Wolfe's book, The Painted Word, a good read. It explores many of these ideas about the dysfunctional nature of certain parts of the modern art era.

Principle Gallery Opening!

Women Painting Women - The Expedition and Beyond opening on April 13, 2012 in Alexandria, Virginia, was great fun.

American Art Collector Ad, April 2012

American Art Collector preview article, April 2012

Twelve of the thirteen artists who's work is on display were in attendance. (We missed you Kate Stone.)

It was a great experience for the artists and their new collectors. How often are the artists, their models and their collectors in the same room?

Here are the happy new owners of The Three Fates, and my models for the painting, Diane Feissel, Sadie Valeri and Alia El-Bermani.  

It's always a treat to meet new collectors and to have an opportunity to ask them why they relate to the work. After meeting Diana and Chip I have no doubt The Three Fates is going to a good home.

They enjoyed meeting the models/artists, and getting everyone's autographs in the catalog of the exhibition. The catalog is still available and on sale for $15.85 (marked down from $19.00). The publisher, MagCloud is having a spring sale through May 13, 2012. 

It was pretty much standing room only and the air was crackling with awesome energy.

Linda Tracey Brandon with her new collector and model/artist Mia Bergeron.

My daughter Carly, and my friend, Washington, DC area
artist Tricia Ratliff. 

Tricia did a wonderful interview on her blog, Agile Arts Journal, of Diane, Sadie and Alia, the three Women Painting Women bloggers. Check it out, it has some great insight about the show.


I went back the next day to take some pictures of the installation with out the crowd.

Kate Stone

Sadie Valeri, Alex Tyng, Rachel Constantine

Cindy Procious, and a table for the catalogs and the
American Art Collector Magazine.

Sadie Valeri's glorious self portrait and a peek into the yellow room.

Alia  El-Bermani, Catherine Prescott, and Stefani Tewes.

Figure paintings look especially nice on those signature pumpkin colored walls at Principle Gallery.

Linda Tracey Brandon, Kate Stone, and Sadie Valeri

One need look no further than this section of the gallery to see how inspired by each other we are. Left to right, Diane Feissel's painting of Rachel Constantine, Alia El-Bermani's painting of Diane Feissel and my painting of Diane Feissel, Sadie Valeri and Alia El-Bermani.

Mia Bergeron

My little still-life, Hand in Glove.

I love this view of Rachel Constantine's self portrait and Alia El-Bermani's painting facing each other.

Stefani Tewes, Rachel Constantine

Some studies from The Expedition done on location in Charleston.

Shannon Runquist over the fireplace.

Stefani Tewes

Alex Tyng

You can see all 39 pieces in the show in the catalog. The show is up through mid May. Here's the video slide show preview of the exhibit.

Here's a complete list of artists and links to their websites that have work in the show at Principle Gallery:
Mia Bergeron,
Linda Tracey Brandon,
Rachel Constantine,
Alia El-Bermani,
Diane Feissel,
Catherine Prescott,
Cindy Procious,
Shannon Runquist,
Kate Stone,
Terry Strickland,
Stefani Tewes,
Alexandra Tyng,
Sadie Valeri

The Three Fates - Completed

The Three Fates, 30x40, oil on panel

This painting is for Principle Gallery's April 2012 show,  "The Expedition and Beyond" 

Work by 13 artists, introduced through the Women Painting Women phenomenon of 2010, who continue to be challenged and inspired by each other. 

We were introduced through the Women Painting Women Blog, the Robert Lange Studios Invitational Show of Nov. 2010 and really got to know each other during the Expedition, a painting retreat on Sullivan's Island SC. Here is a preview of a catalog about this experience and The Expedition and Beyond.

This allegorical painting of Diane Feissel, Sadie Valeri and Alia El-Bermani as The Three Fates is my tribute to them and the generosity of spirit I find in this group of 14 artists. 

The Three Fates are Greek goddesses who spin, measure and cut the thread of life. Together they each represent a part or portion of the whole.

Rather than spinning, I've changed Diane's job to rolling out the canvas, Alia is measuring it and Sadie is cutting it.

I wanted to have them doing something, building a canvas, that would show them as being the supporters of women painters and the art community that they are. I chose traditionally masculine tools for them to be using.

I've also included items for each of them that is personal to their work. The personal items are not necessarily feminine things, wax paper, weeds or animals but in the incarnation in which I've chosen to use them they become feminine, jewelry, clothing or hair adornment.

As women artists we work and compete in a man's world without losing touch with who we are as women.

Notice Alia is wearing flowering weeds in her hair, a shout out to her recently completed series of paintings honoring southern weeds. Sadie is wearing a ruff made of wax paper to represent her beautiful wax paper still-life paintings. Diane is wearing a bracelet of a cat cameo in tribute to her Fabrication series about animals.

I frequently use symbols in my work, as in this current body at Peterson-Cody Gallery. I include things if they make sense to me and not worry too much if other people will get them and usually it works out okay. It seems if you are talking about universal human themes, since we all have those in common, most people will relate to the work.

The Three Fates - In Progress

Here's a complete list of artists that will be in the April show at Principle Gallery:
Mia Bergeron,
Linda Tracey Brandon,
Rachel Constantine,
Alia El-Bermani,
Diane Feissel,
Catherine Prescott,
Cindy Procious,
Shannon Runquist,
Kate Stone,
Terry Strickland,
Stefani Tewes,
Alexandra Tyng,
Sadie Valeri

The Three Fates - In Progress

My current obsession is a painting I'm working on for Principle Gallery's April 2012 show,  "The Expedition and Beyond"

Work by 14 artists, introduced through the Women Painting Women phenomenon of 2010, who continue to be challenged and inspired by each other.

The Three Fates, 30x40, oil on panel, (in progress)

This is an allegorical painting of Diane Feissel, Sadie Valeri and Alia El-Bermani as The Three Fates. In real life these models are artists and the Women Painting Women bloggers. The painting doesn't even have one complete pass of color yet so I still have many days left go on it.

I've included items for each of them that is personal to their work.

Alia is wearing flowering weeds in her hair, a shout out to her recently completed series of paintings honoring southern weeds. Sadie is wearing a ruff made of wax paper to represent her beautiful wax paper still-life paintings. Diane is wearing a bracelet of a cat cameo in tribute to her Fabrication series about animals.

Diane, Sadie, Me and Alia after the Robert Lange Studios Women Painting Women Invitational, November, 2011.

It's making me very happy to be working on this painting! I met all these women through the Women Painting Women experience, and since have become good friends. I'm so grateful to them for modeling.

The four of us, along with 10 others will be showing work that we did on a painting retreat in Charleston, SC in the fall of 2010, and work that was inspired by our trip. (a complete list with links to all the artists in my next post about the finished painting and show)

Here's the set up in my studio, where I work from a monitor and from prints. I set my palette up on a French easel to ease the strain on neck and shoulders. An added benefit is that the light on the palette is the same as the painting when it's set up this way.

This is a close-up of my palette. I generally pre-mix at least 4 strings of flesh colors, working back and forth between the strings to get small nuance of color.

Here's a reflection on how the WPW reminded me of my senior show "I've Gone Full Circle".

There is a preview of the catalog for the Expedition and Beyond. Here's a post about the Expedition.

WPW and the 2010 invitational in the press. 

More pictures when its complete.