From The Archives: The Tar Paper Project

I learned early on that it's not wise to pass up anything that presents a surface on which to make a mark. Thus, any flat surface became fair game for wildly experimental work and over the years I've painted on screen doors, dinner plates, plywood, car hoods, tennis shoes, and tar paper.

Like many unusual surfaces, the tar paper came to me by accident, leftover from a next door roofing job. A roll of the thick black paper lay abandoned in the weeds and after a month I grabbed it. With no clue for its use, the roll stood in my studio corner for another month.

One uninspired day, irritated because images would not come out of hiding, I cut off a piece of tar paper, took some pastels and began to draw. My first stiff-armed attempts ended up in the trash can, but, as I got used to the paper's odd spongy nature, some decent gestural images began to appear.

I stayed with tar paper long enough to complete a series of birds. Above are two that survived.

A Wild Beast In Tampa

The Tampa Museum of Art's classy new home is not even complete, yet has already landed a big one - the original Fauve himself, Henri Matisse. A Celebration of Henri Matisse will be the inagural exhibition of the Museum's instant landmark building on the Hillsborough River.

The exhibition will feature an extensive collection of Matisse's prints, paintings and sculptures and will be the first comprehensive showing of his work in the Tampa Bay area.

Parisian art critics first called Matisse a "Wild Beast" for his bold expressive colors and non-Academic style. He eventually won them over to become arguably the greatest artist of the 20th Century.

Read St. Petersburg Times Art Critic Lennie Bennett's story.

Thirty-six Years of Fine Art

Every January the Temple Beth-El in St. Petersburg stages a high quality fine arts and crafts exhibition, Art Festival Beth-El. The three day indoor event features award winning artists from around the country, and brings out a large following of supporters and collectors.

I will be exhibiting the above mixed-media paintings in this years Festival, in addition to ten framed drawings from a series called "Animals With Attitude." The Festival opens Saturday evening, January 24, 6-10pm, Sunday, January 25, 11am-5pm, and Monday, January 26, 10am-5pm.

Temple Beth-El is located at 400 Pasadena Avenue South, St. Petersburg. 727 347-6136 http://www.templebeth-el.com/

Heavenly Shades of Night

There is an astonishing exhibition of Vincent van Gogh's art at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). “Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night” runs through January 5, 2009 and then travels to Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum (February 13-June 7, 2009).

The van Gogh we usually think of, the painter of passion, audacity, and exuberant brushwork, is more evident in his daylight paintings, such as Sunflowers or Wheatfield with Crows. But in his night scenes we see more restraint and a willingness to slow down and soak in the muted nocturnal colors.

Van Gogh was fascinated by night and twilight all his life. He wrote to his brother Theo that the night is much more rich and alive than the day. Terrace of a Café at Night is a wonderful example of this thinking.

My own fascination with van Gogh began when I first saw his work in art books my father brought home from the library. His art, so different from the older Impressionists, jumped off the pages and immediately became part of my visual unconscious. Later in Art History 101 I learned how van Gogh, along with Paul Gauguin, changed the course of modern art.

Years ago, two friends and I travelled around France for a month and ended up in Paris for the last three days. Eager to at last go out on my own, I snuck off one afternoon to the Musee d’Orsay, that glorious railway station turned art museum on Paris’ Left Bank. For over two hours I wandered from gallery to gallery, following a historical timeline of modern art.

My feet ached and my stomach growled, but, realizing Late 19th Century Art was just ahead, I soldiered on. Somehow I got behind a group of Japanese tourists and, thankful for their slower pace, dutifully followed along behind. Presently, we entered a large maroon-painted gallery and the Japanese stopped dead. Their excited whispers faded away, leaving the room in silence and me wondering.

Gradually the shuffling throng parted and I could finally see what had so completely commanded their attention – a gallery full of van Gogh’s paintings. The affect on me was immediate and stunning. Here in one room hung many of the masterpieces I had known only through book reproductions. Here was The Starry Night and The Bedroom at Arles and the portraits of Postman Joseph Roulin and Dr. Gachet. I do not easily show emotion, but there in the Musee d’Orsay, Paris, France, 1989, surrounded by lots of Japanese and van Goghs, I cried.