Clyde Aspevig- "He's alive"

AM: When you begin a landscape painting, what is going through your mind? What are you asking yourself—what is your aim and purpose?

CA: My first concern when beginning a landscape outside is capturing the overall feeling of light as it affects the forms. I use broad brushstrokes to block in the overall color and values of the masses while simultaneously trying to create movement. As I progress, my intuition drives me to concentrate on the idea or purpose behind what I’m painting. The further elaboration of the concept comes, later in the studio. Field studies supply you with information that you can then use on a more complete painting.

AM: You say that you have constructed your own form of realism, in that you suggest detail with such painting effects as scumbling, impasto, and transparent glazes and let the viewer’s imagination interpret the rest. Can you explain how you do this while achieving such highly realistic effects?

CA: I try to paint the landscape the way the human eye sees. I do not really paint every detail, even though it may appear that way. Instead I concentrate on the overall summary of shapes and silhouettes as they appear against the light. The detail comes from textures and the layering of paint, which create effects or abstract shapes that explain detail.

I try to blend the scene into the concept of a whole by using various techniques involving soft and hard edges to explain focus, distance, and depth. If you overstate the detail the painting becomes boring. I try to approach realism in a way you normally wouldn’t expect. The surface quality of the painting, if done properly, should enhance the mystery of how the overall effect works. Methods such as scumbling and glazing add to that mystery. When the unity of the whole is achieved, the work is successful. The fun part about painting is how much variation and interest you can achieve in building the parts that make the whole.

From: http://www.artistdaily.com/blogs/pleinair/archive/2009/01/22/en-plein-air-a-conversation-with-clyde-aspevig.aspx

Edouard Manet- "The Father of Impressionism"

More than in his teacher's studio, Manet learned to paint in the Louvre by studying old masters. He was particularly impressed by the seventeenth-century Spanish artist Diego Velázquez, contrasting his vivid brushwork with the "stews and gravies" of academic style. Manet began to develop a freer manner, creating form not through a gradual blending of tones, but with discrete areas of color side by side. He drew on the old masters for structure, often incorporating their motifs, but giving them a modern cast…   

Viewers were not used to flat space and shallow volumes in painting. To many, Manet's "color patches" appeared unfinished…

From: https://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/gg90/gg90-over1.html#jump

Additionally, Manet utilized many different colors to represent one tone, and one actuality. Rather than working with color scales Manet preferred strongly contrasting tones that appear to be one-dimensional. Thus, although the flat tone of his paintings appear simple, they were difficult to produce, especially considering Manet's aversion to layering paints.

From: http://www.artble.com/artists/edouard_manet

TRADITIONAL ARTIST- Ed Maryon

Ed Maryon (1931 – 2005)

“The ideas I strive for in my painting seem very evident in the work itself.  I enjoy subject matter for its own – whether it’s found in nature or our man-made environment.  But I also take pleasure in the ‘formal’ or abstract properties that exist in all subject matter.  Trying to resolve the problem of merging these two often-conflicting aspects is the interesting on-going challenge.”

“Each painting is an experiment in finding a way to give order to the shapes, colors, and textures that make up a particular image or painting motif.  It’s like piecing together a puzzle.”

“In teaching watercolor, I try to cover techniques of tone over tone, use of opaque and semi-opaque color, subtractive method, and controlled use of the pigment.  I purposefully spend a good part of my class time with projects that will benefit the illustration students and those who can utilize the medium in a very controlled manner.”

“I’ve read reputable books that explain how painting must proceed only from light colors to dark colors, and that once in place colors cannot be changed.  These are incorrect observations.  The medium [watercolor] is really quite flexible.”

“Although he maintains a rigorous, disciplined palette, his work has a serenity of color and design that follows facile control.  Seasonal moods, different times of the day, and varying emotional feelings come through.  Behind each piece is a somnolent glow like a stained glass window and simplification of design elements, which can be fairly abstract on occasion.” – George Dibble, Salt Lake Tribune (date unknown; ca. 1990)

“Ed’s paintings are always optimistic.  There’s no agenda, nothing morose about them.  He organizes the abstract and uses colors without reservation.  His paintings are unique from anyone else, and his influence is profound.” – Diana Gardiner

“A filigree of lines shoot across Ed’s watercolors, breaking them up into fascinating realistic and abstract designs.  It is so cleverly done that if each picture were divided into one-inch squares, dozens of superbly designed mini-paintings would result.” –Richar P. Christenson, Deseret News, 16 October 1983

“Serious drawing is an informal investigation of ideas, and an important part of the creative process.  That is where personal ideas and styles can develop most naturally.  I’m not talking about sketching, which can be a waster of time, but about serious probing of all kinds of ideas without the formality that a painting usually demands.  I like the idea of this “soliloquy” kind of process.