This month, as my eldest brother waited to close on a house, he lived with me. And just to make things more interesting, he adopted a rescue dog, Stella. I have never lived in such chaos, or had so much fun.

Thank goodness I have the planning skills of Frederick Taylor, because it has not been easy to get to the studio.

ARTIST DNA - Georges Seurat, Briget Riley and Me

I have been thinking a lot about what I call “artist DNA,” whereby the work of one artist leaves an indelible mark on the work of another artist. Usually when I pursue such correlations it is because I have seen something in a work that reminds me of another artist. Later I do some research to find out if the correlation has some basis in fact or if it is just a coincidence.

This time that process was reversed. I was reading Bridget Riley’s writings in The Eye’s Mind: Briget Riley, Collective Writing 1965-2009, In her piece, Seurat as Mentor, she describes a journey she took by first copying Seurat’s painting, Le Pont de Courbevoie, then also his tonal conté drawing Man Dining (The Artist’s Father). In the process she learned what Seurat would call “ma méthod”, which was his process, his underpainting, the size and color of the brush strokes that were applied next, and then the finishing refined dots of color. Riley was successful in making a credible copy of his painting, but when she applied the same methodology to her own painting, she felt it failed. It was not until she copied his drawing that she discovered something that she could successfully apply to her own work.

I cannot possibly convey to you all the intricacies of her observations, But everything she wrote spoke to the thought process I engage with when I work on my new paintings.

Below are the painting and drawing by Seurat that Riley copied, followed by Riley’s painting Pink Landscape, and Hidden Squares followed by details of my current work.

For the rest of paintings in my current series Click HERE.

BLOGS ABOUT ARTIST DNA

FROM THE LIBRARY : RENOIR: AN INTIMATE BIOGRAPHY, BARBARA EHRLICH WHITE

I am not a huge fan of Renoir, but as an Impressionist artist who outlived all his colleagues except Monet, his life story intersects with everyone from the movement. 

Today as women are trying to regain autonomy over their bodies, this biography is particularly insightful about the perils and consequences that faced both men and women when there was no possibility for planned parenthood. Most of the Impressionists didn’t marry, either because they couldn’t afford to, or they didn’t want to be officially be financially obliged to their mistresses. Renoir had two children with one of his models and both were abandoned, a son to they knew not where, and a daughter to a foster family. 40% of foundlings died in childhood.

While Renoir kept in touch and gave support to his daughter, his mistress never acknowledged either child’s existence. Renoir, kept his daughter’s existence a secret from his wife and the children he had with her until after his death.

I for one, do not want to go back to that time.

ART SPOTLIGHT: THE MATISSE DRAWINGS

In the 1980s I did a series of pastels based on Matisse’s “The Conversation.” Like Riley, I was looking for guidance from the master. These drawing ultimately morphed into completely abstract works, which I turned into paintings on shaped canvases, which ultimately revisited the images of Matisse. 

See Matisse Series here.