Art, Nature & Soul #40

Contemporary Abstract Realism~Again, I turn to Fractals, like patterns within patterns, where as the echoe creates & defines the whole of the big picture. Chaos, is the unlike variable within all scenarios, that are inevitable, if not invited. Here I’ve created a composition using representational images, landscape, buidings, and figures, breaking them down to their essential elements to create a more abstract expressionist composition. A bit of grafitti, drawing and words have been layered within, to provide both context and a more contemporary image. Where by, each viewing, can be a new discovery for the viewer.

This is a commissioned piece, entitled, 'Gold On the Green' at 74.5" x 50.5" and has been delivered and hung in its new home. It was a challenging piece, based on the St. Andrews Golf Course, Scotland. If you look closely, you'll find the City of St Andrews, the old clubhouse, a monolith, the Swilcan Bridge, 2 golfers, a map of the the old, new and adjacent courses and numerous golf terms , written in throughout. This piece took months of building up, and tearing down, to create a contemporary, yet desired balance between representational and abstract qualities. It now hangs in the collectors game room, which has an ample play area and a mini-golf course, taboot.

It's a mixed media piece, where the the splash of 18k gold leaf, has become my trademark signature of sorts, in these type artworks. I began by layering acrylic paint, including both interference & irridescents, in my drip & splash manner. Then began adding oil, blocking in shapes & color. Glazing over to knock down, having to many literal representational figures, leaving just a suggestion. Then added oil pastel for enhanced contrast and line. Ebony pencil is used to add more line, symbols, maps, words and text within the layers. Finally 18k gold paint is used for enhanced line, 18k gold leaf is applied, then a final glaze, in this case, for added cohesion.

Al always your comments & quetions are welcome.

~Richard Sperry

‘Gold On The Green’ 74.5”x50.5” framed mixed media on canvas SOLD, (in private collection)

GOLD ON THE GREEN 72”x48” mixed media on canvas

DETAIL

Framed. in it’s new home.

Art, Nature & Soul#35

I don’t know if it’s art, but it’s certainly, quite the performance, poetic & funny, as well.

*Thoughts on Bananas, has everybody gone...? ~I do not like them warm, I do like them frozen & dipped in chocolate, making me generally indifferent to the plight of the banana as a food, as they do not factor significantly in my life. But, that's me & I can be a real piece of work at times...others however, really, reeeeeally like them! Especially if they involve duct tape. Then they're willing to spend $120,000. for said banana. C'est la vie !

That said, when I was in High School, 79' ish,as a sophomore, in speech class, we had an assignment. Me being generally, the shy, quiet type, who did not like being on stage with an intense fear of being laughed at, had figured out a way to assure that I was laughed with, instead of at, or at least, that was my thinking.

My speech was to be on, "How To Peel A Banana". Me being a fan of the film 'Alien' and comedian Gallahger had come up with a simple idea. Like the original graphic for 'Alien', I went to the chalk board and drew a picture of a banana on a grid and wrote beneath it, "In space no one can peel it." In the original film graphic was the image of an alien egg on the grid and the words, "In space no one can hear you scream". Then with a bunch of bananas, in hand, I individually took one at a time, trying various comedic approaches to getting them out of the peel. One using a potato masher, two a hammer, three squishing it in my hands, four smashing it under my foot & five slicing/stabbing it with a knife. I tried several other approaches, including a meat tenderizer, as the speech went on, with the class roaring with laughter. It went on until I finally pulled out another banana in which I had sewed a zipper on, unzipped it, pulled out a piece of boloney that I had stuffed it with, saying, "If this boloney doesn't work, try this," to which I took the last banana and peeled it normally, taking a big bite out of it, saying blaaahk, that turned to an ear to ear smile on my face, the end. A+ Leading me to the theisis,'What is the use of a banana, if not to peel and eat?"

"Tra la la, la la la la…

One banana, two banana, three banana, four.
Four bananas make a bunch and so do many more.
Over hill and highway the banana buggies go
Comin' on to bring you The Banana Splits Show."

Briefly, as I’ve expounded on this in another blog~In the late 80s, I was in my early twenties, there were 3 extremely controversial art exhibits. One, 1988, a painting of Chicago Mayor Harold Washington in drag, two, 1989, the American flag displayed on the floor, with guests invited to walk across it and sign a guest book, three, 1989, art photographer recently deceased of AIDS complications, Robert Mapplethorpe, NY City exhibit closed as profanity. My reaction was too create my own surreal painting merging all three aspects as a rebutt to the controverisial aspects. I still have this painting, tried to show it at “WORLD TATTOO GALLERY" back in the day, but to controversial, bahaha. In short, all of the arts are about communication, everything from the earliest cave paintings in France to bananas, duck taped to walls and eaten in 2019, even if you do not like what it has to say. Besides everythings worth, what someones willing to pay for it, at least to them. Here we are, at the beginning of a new decade, with new ideas and thoughts, so, be sure you convey yours.

*Note to self~ Go to the Art Institute Chicago, by January 26, 2020, see the 'Warhol' exhibit, a 'Top Banana' of 60's pop art movement, then peruse the museum, take it all in and if there's time, hit a few of the art galleries in the area. Oh, btw, Andy Warhol also produced at least one of Velvet Undergrounds albums. Now thats one cool banana pop icon! Become a member of the AIC and explore the diverse artistic visions throughout history ;>

Art, Nature & Soul #33

More important than trying to copy the world around us, is how we see, then how its expressed and conveyed in our non rep and representational forms in our artwork.

Earlier this past fall 2019, out walking one morning, I noticed the first light hitting just the top of this Maple Tree, some 15+ years ago, I noticed that this is where the color changes first happen on the leaves. It was at the point where the leaves where glowing that yellow, orange, red, punch color…or a glowing Ranier Cherry one. It occured to me to paint one version as an abstract and another as a representational interpretation. How we build up the details, or take them away will determine the translation between more design orientated and realistic paintings.

For as long as I can remember I’ve drawn as well as painted both abstract and more realistic images, seperately, then have merged them into mixed singular concept. A great many, dare I say, most people like more representational art. It’s easy to relate to, identify with and put your self into it. I get that, that said, many, many peope ask me about abstract artwork, because they don’t get it. Over the years I’ve found the most simple way to explain it and show it. For the most part, abstract work is about breaking down the design elements of what we see and the more realistic is building up those elements & the details to various degrees. Then I’ll show them, by creating a square or rectangle window, using it as a viewfinder and placing it over a section of a representational artwork. In picking a more interesting area of a painting, showing that all the same design elements apply, thus creating an abstract.

In these studies, these paintings, I specifically set forth or average the amount of detail in both, approximating them at a similar level. Neither is to broken down or built up, in detail too much, as to mis the point. Sometimes I paint on location, other times from photos, still others from my imagination. In this case all 3 apply. I began with a toned canvas, decided on a more high key lit color and went to work. Here’s the results. For the abstract translation, I painted just the upper section of the tree against the sky and for the more representaional one, the whole tree, & treeline against the sky, keeping both on the subtle line of impressionism. Here are the results.

Please feel free to comment and ask questions.

~Richard

Fall Maple Translation 1 & 2, 18”x18” each oil on canvas

Art, Nature & Soul #32

Abstract Realism

Abstract realism is difficult to explain because of the infusion of two distinct styles of art: abstract and realistic. Abstract Realism is the infusion of the elements of design with the depiction of real life in visual art. Realistic imagery is still there, it is sometimes distorted and given fantastically invented abstract forms. . Abstract art is art that doesn't have a definable focus. It is art that exists through patterns, colors, texture and line without the need for an external motivation. Realistic art consists of art that aims to replicate nature. When these two elements combine to create an abstract impression of real life, you get abstract realism.

Being more of expressionist inclined this battle of fusions and ideas, can be found in my lifetime of artwork. Initially seperate concepts for me, I’ve worked diligently to combine them. The concept can be combined in varying degrees of abstract and realism. Rembrandt, most may think of as realism except for, when you get up close to the work, rather than line, we see edges. Edges where blobs of paint create patterns & the design elements abstractly, to which the representational subjects mass is defined and conveyed more realistically.

For me it becomes a spiritual admission. Where as my thoughts on the vary essence of life & meaning is conceptualized in paint. All life is connected atoms, not lines that sepearate entities, but edges blurring one into the other, stardust energy, if you will. Fractals, Chaos & Universiality combining the physical and concious worlds. In my paintings, a more thoughful & emotional gesture is intended, using symbols and mythology.

His name is Gray~He was a hunter of sorts who loved everything beautiful. Narcissus was proud, in that he disdained those who loved him, wanting them to prove their devotion to his striking beauty. Narcissist is one who has a fixation with oneself and one's physical appearance or public perception. Once, during the summer, he was getting thirsty after hunting, and he was lured to a pool where he leaned upon the water and saw himself in the bloom of youth. Narcissus did not realize it was merely his own reflection and fell deeply in love with it, as if it were somebody else. Unable to leave the allure of his image, he eventually realized that his love could not be reciprocated and he melted away from the fire of passion burning inside him, eventually turning into a gold and white flower.

‘Gray, Shades of Narcissist, 30”x30” mixed media on canvas (acrylic & oil paint, 18k gold leaf and paint pen, & ebony pencil)

Your comments & questions are welcome

~Richard

Art, Nature & Soul #29

On occassion I’m commissioned to do more decorative abstract artwork, as well. This piece was taylored to this collectors home with little information. That being primarily of color & size, as the client already liked and knew what I do and that’s the key. Being an artist and doing commissions, can be tricky because it’s a meeting of the minds, both collector and artist merged.

At 60”x15” and horizontal the important part for me was giving it a focal spot. This was achieved by using silver leaf and stronger color at the center and tapering off as the piece expanded the depths of the horizon. The rest was basic design elements: color, line, texture, shape, space & so on. Beyond my typical approach, which begins with a three color acrylic splash painting, followed by laying in the my oils, increasingly, I began to utilize a ‘Scraffito’ technique to scratch into previous layers of color, thus giving more line, direction & texture, plus adding in 18k gold or silver leaf as I’ve done in this work.

The piece then completed, sent an image off to the customer for their approval and was framed in a simple black gallery frame, delivered & hung to their delight.

Commissions welcome & as always feel free to comment or ask questions

~Richard

commissioned artwork in its home

Art, Nature & Soul #17

What is ART? More importantly who decides. Are the answers based on academics or emotive ones, is it because it's realistic or non-objective, does the fact that a painting was done in oil rather than acrylic have any weight, or perhaps it's the fact  that it was painted 'en plein air', instead of in a studio, gains us some insight.

Whether, it's highbrow/middlebrow/lowbrow, who cares. Van Gogh, Monet, Vermeer and El Greco are several visual artists, who had gone, rejected or un-recognised in their own lifetimes, someteimes both. So many others were discovered and advocated for, by persons of influence and decisiveness, within their lives, such is the case with Jackson Pollock. Personally, I know of at least three instances of persons being summoned to the court of high success. What they all had in common was the abitlity to put themselves out there, at all costs, until they gained an audience with that person or persons of influence, sometimes by happy accident. Once this happens, your in, it's art, for many this happens posthumously,  their efforts go un-recognised until some future date and sometimes never.

 What can be known for sure, is that being an artist of any sort is an uphill battle all the way. It takes an unbridled passion, discipline and fortitude.  As for me, my 'pallete' is extremely large and varied, when it comes to 'what is art'. It's an endeavor, often thoughtful, historical and relevant, to its time and speaks to the context of the creator.  It's what inspired a person to create something of a non-utilitarian purpose. A person who is merely struggling to grow as a human, as artist and make their statement about life and the world around them, as they experience it, see it.  The history of art, what it is, and who decides, is as long and complicated as the story of human history itself.  Whether you started creating at age, 1 or 101,  create in crayons, oil or other materials; are the most apt realist or most compelling minalmalist abstract artist, who decides if it's art are the people who purchase your artwork, show it, collect it, now, or in 25, 50 or 100 plus years, later.

While you may 'like' or 'not-like' it, if it's in a museum the broader concensus, is that it's art. But, that's another subject. fore it ,speaks to your personel sense of aesthetics. That said, most people,  seem to rely on the leaders, for their decision making, as to whats good, what's art, and fall in line with such. So when those persons of influence, that gallery that took a risk, the art fair that juried you in, that exhibit you were allowed to participate in, that magazine that wrote an article, those individual family members, friends and persons from around the globe, decide to purchase and acquire a piece of your work, declaring it to be art. Thank them, for in the final analysis, what art is, is in fact in the eye of the beholder, so it's most important to be grateful to those who behold yours, declaring it 'ART'.

Thanks everyone; family, friends, patrons, collectors, sponsors and benifactors, for your continued support and as always feel free to comment. ~Richard

'Eye of the Beholder' 36"x36" acrylic on canvas (yr.20  ) in private collection

Art, Nature & Soul #13

Trying to engage a broader, more universal, world wide audience and have them relate to or see themselves, as participant, in my artwork has been a goal for a great many years. Whether an abstract, landscape, or figurative work, I've worked toward a person having an emotional response to the colors, textures, patterns, composition and design of a given painting. 

In the more figurative works done at this time, I eliminated any standard visual impact that could be used to judge, criticize or discriminate and gave the persons an equal basis regardless of economic status, sex, age, race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, mental illness or ability, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity/expression/dysphoria, sex characteristics, religious, creed, or individual political opinions in which to express themselves, their being, their love.

This smaller work, done utilizing a drip,  splatter, splash technique I had developed over a great many years.  Shifting from my abstract work into a more figurative piece, carving with palette knife, then using sculpting tools to create edges, add line, and so, the figures emerge embracing, with a  passionate kiss, untouched by human evaluations, identified on their own terms.

'Another Kiss' 12"x12" acrylic on canvas (2012) available 

Art, Nature & Soul #12

Inspiration comes in many forms and from many avenues. I grew up in a little one bedroom yellow house, until age 7, in a nearby suburb of Chicago. The house was set back further from the road, as compared to others in the neighborhood. Me, my mother, father, sisters, & on occassion, extended family members lived there,  when they needed a place to stay temporarily.  

Memories flood back from days gone by. An early memory being  one of the great mystery of snow. Around age 5, I had scooped up some snow and saved it in a metal & lidded minnow bucket, to save for the spring, only to find when spring had come, the snow had melted. I suppose we all have these kind of experiences, but for me, it became a realization of a few things. One being, the awe of beauty, another of the inevitability of loss and still another of emmense possibilites of learning.

This piece was painted in 2011, at the plateau in my drip & splatter fusions of abtract and representational subject matters. I'm using acrylic and interference paints here. Swirling loaded brushes of color on a substrate, allowing them to drip, then  splattering them with h2o to encourage the process, followed by carving and directing the flow with a palette knife to create the subject and story, the painting is then completed with more splattering.   

Van Gogh & Gauguin have there yellow house experience and I had mine, a duality and juxtaposition of turbulence and joy.

'Yellow House' 19.5"x15.5" acrylic on board 

Your comments and questions are welcome.  

Art, Nature & Soul #8

A decade or so ago, I was creating primarily in acrylics, using a drip, splash, splatter and palette knife approach, with subjects being both abstract and representational in an attempt to merge the two concepts into a unified idea.

I love walking and nature and spend lots of time outside doing so, observing it and trying to take it all in. I'm fascinated with the idea of fractals and overcome with the idea that those patterns echoe and ripple, no matter how large or small, on and on into infinity and back. They whisper to me, that all life regardless of its differences, is connected to each other in a symbiotic relationship. 

There are paths to choose, decisions to make, and no matter which ones you do, to most there is a way re-route, if only  you keep moving forward, being true to yourself. Some of us take a more direct route to get to a destination as quick as possible. Others of us prefer the more circuitous routes and  scenic by-ways. I've been more of the latter, wanting for the thing that eludes us most, the abilty to put our whole selves in the moment and breath it all in.

This piece is inpired by a forest preserve by my home and one of the paths I've walked over a great many years. What began with a blank canvas, was stretched over strainer bars, primed, then slowly color glazes were applied, again and again, until, with a palette knife the path was clear and subtle details were added to journey's end.   

'Sky's the Limit' 24"x30" acrylic on canvas~SOLD     

Art, Nature & Soul #7

One of my favorite authors/thinkers once quipped, that the problem with abstract art is that it doesn't have a horizon line. Kurt Vonnegut also said and I quote, "I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center."

As more of an outsider artist, which is to say, an artist with very little formal training and making their way through the conformitities of the day, I'm more experimental in approach. As a boy of 12, I remember wanting for that eureeka moment and thinking that true art must be created in a vacuum. I doodled and drew often, mostly the people around me. Da Vinci, Dali, Van Gogh, Carravagio, & Pollock, were and are my primary artists of interest, as a child and young adult. 

From caricatures to realism, to the more surreal and impressionism, and on to post-impressionism and expressionism, I've created in pencil, pen & ink, soft pastel, clay, oil, acrylic, and a multitude of various fusions of mediums, exploring the possibilities.  Always with the idea in mind that I too could fuse ideas together into a single approach.

With this idea in mind, over a decade ago I began to blend my representational and abstract ideas together. This piece is one of the results of the process of bringing these ideas together. It is done in acrylics in a drip and splatter approach that is layered in a multitude of glazes. It is, I believe, one of my successful works of abstract with a horizon line.

Please feel free to comment.

'The Edge' 60"x48" acrylic on canvas by Richard Sperry

Art, Nature & Soul #6

From my earliest memories of drawing, my primary interests were of people. There are even ones in crayon, around my studio, that were done when I was 6 or 7 years of age. Throughout my childhood you could find me doing drawings of the people around me, mostly cartoon or caricature in style. Sometime in middle school my interests in Leonardo Da Vinci and a more realistic approach took hold as did my medium of choice being pencil. Later in high school, pen & ink cartoons, of all my classmates and teachers, then followed by some commissioned portrait works in soft pastel. While I found realism a struggle and favored the more stylized or caricature works, I had it my head to become a portrait painter and studied that for a time. In my 20s, I really wanted to study with a local rococo style portrait artist, but did not happen, then later took a Rembrandt style portrait class at the SAIC. Life is demanding, our priorities are often dictated to us, as such my openness to to impressionism, post impressionism and expressionism opened up a wide berth of creative outlets and opportunities for artistic growth.  I explored these arenas of art and found them more conducive to the particulars of my life. Over the past decade or so my primary subjects tend to be more landscape and abstract, either building up those basic design essentials or breaking them down into their essence. However, I still love people, doing realistic figurative work and sometimes I have the opportunity to do such. This was the case in this piece and became a merging of learning, mediums, subjects and ideas. Feel free to comment or ask questions. 

Thank you for your support. ~ Richard

'Dream Sequence #50' 24"x20" mixed media on canvas