Fall 2020 Newsletter

The painter, Susan Lichtman, quotes one of her painting professors as saying, 

“Paint what you know, paint what you can”.

I think that is valuable advice. It’s not uncommon for an artist to be seduced by somebody else’s subject matter or expertise or some exotic location looking for subject matter. Sometime ago I settled in to being content painting what I find in my day to day world and just try to paint it best I can.

Sunrise in the Neighborhood • 8x10

Open Studio/Painting Sale!

Here is the link to sign up.

I'm working on having my first ever open studio and sale on Saturday, November 21! (If Covid spikes up too much we'll postpone till spring). We'll be considering all the necessary health precautions. My studio is large enough to handle a fair amount of people with distance and it opens up into a large yard. We will use an online sign up sheet with times to attend. I think it will be a lot of fun! You would be able to see old and new paintings along with seeing a little of how I work in the room where it happens. Some of the paintings will be available at special Covid prices, others at regular price. In addition to paintings, there will be some very affordable prints. But don't let purchasing keep you away, if you're just interested in seeing what I do, you're invited! Here is the link to sign up. 

Here are a few of the paintings that will be there.

Last Light at Bulldog • 6x6 • Oil on panel 

Hot Dogs On Central • 18x20 • Oil on Canvas 

Phoenix Art • 24 x 24 Oil on canvas 

Morning Light on Washington St • 8x8 • Oil on panel 

Diving Lady • 24x30 • Oil on canvas

Along the Canal • 8x10 • Oil on panel 

Desert Forms • Oil on panel • 8x10 

Catching Up  

Here are a few things that have been going on over the past months.

It's of course an unusual time. The virus has had some effect on us. We were supposed to be in Colorado right now, serving a mission for our Church, however that has been postponed because of Covid. We still hope we will eventually be able to go. Fortunately, I have been given a multi-painting commission that has turned out to be wonderful. Because it is a surprise gift, I can't say much about it, but it's been keeping me busy. 

Halloween  

It's a good time to make some masks. We had our grand kids over to the studio and painted on some palm fronds.

Our grandkids with their masks.

.

Utah

As a young teenager, my great-grandfather, William Lindsay, sailed across the ocean from Scotland, drove a wagon across the plains with a company of Mormon pioneers and settled in the Heber Valley of Utah. Although I’ve never lived there, it has always had a sense of home to me. My mother lived the first years of her life there before her family moved a few miles away to Park City (back then a rough mining town). Most every summer of my life I have traveled back to that area, first with my parents and for the last 40 years with my own family. Here are a couple of paintings from this summer’s trip. Still an idyllic place but changing fast.

Zoey Frank Workshop

Much of my career has been comprised of land and cityscapes. For sometime I've been wanting to do more figurative work. So earlier this summer I participated in a figure composition workshop led by Zoey Frank, a very gifted artist. Grounding in the history of painting from early renaissance to contemporary figurative painting, we’ve analyzed paintings and then begun developing our own composition.  

Analytical studies of paintings by Titian, Van Der Weyden,
Carpaccio and Piero della Francesca
(Clockwise from top left)

One of the historical pieces I studied is “the Departure Of The Ambassadors” by Carpaccio, a Venetian painter of the 1400’s. I’ve long been fascinated with the large space in which the figures are situated. I very loosely based my own composition on some of the visual ideas contained in the Carpaccio. Next newsletter I'll show you the finished painting or, come to my Open Studio and see it!

That's it for this round. Looking forward to my favorite time of year here as the weather finally starts to cool off and the sun, instead of the color-bleaching overhead inferno, is dropping down into the southern sky creating that beautiful light.

Hope to see you at my studio in November.

Stay well,

Allen