Let There Be Light!

We are having a gentle slide into summer, with dry days and cool nights, not like a month ago when we thought summer would never come.  Recently, we visited a patron who has collected a few of my paintings. He wanted to show us how one of the pieces responded to light conditions throughout the day in his home. His excitement about having the natural light create its own effect on the colors and texture of the painting is a good selling point for this very “living” art.

Milky Way 16x20 acrylic on linen

When we visit art shown in those well lighted galleries, we miss the chance to let the painting put on its own show for us in natural daylight.  To test a painting in progress I often change the studio lighting to see what is happening on the reflective surface of the painted canvas. Over time, artists learn the tricks light can play in reflecting that image to us. Notice how I avoided talking about the cones and receptors of the eye. That’s the science of what is happening. The bottom line is how the image affects you, the viewer, and do you want this experience displayed in your environment to stimulate your life day after day. To me this is what makes living with original art so invigorating, the actual living with the art. 

I have been reading, yes I vowed not read too much this summer, but this really sounded too good to miss, so… I got involved in the upper level of the art collecting business again. This time the book is The Supermodel and the Brillo Box by Don Thompson . The book is a good peek into the world of many very rich art

Light Flashes 24x30 acrylic on canvas

collectors and the art houses that support their craving. It appears that some collectors have a genuine love for the art and the artists. They are happy to share their art pieces in galleries around the world. Then there are others who use the world’s art expressions as an investment, storing their art treasures in vaults never to be seen and experienced, locked away in temperature controlled darkness waiting for the right time to be released for profit.     

I feel that for visual arts to exist the treasures must be experienced to make an impact on our lives as the creative artist had intended. The art has to see the light so we too can see the light.   

Light is the most important thing. It animates a picture: it can change everything. 

Paul Collins, portrait artist

I have to get out into the sunshine right now, and you should too. I hope you are reading this where you can enjoy this glorious Spring Day.

By the way, I have the three paintings shown here at the Technology Innovation Center, downtown East Lansing, second floor of the old Barnes and Nobel Building. You can reach it from the skywalk connected to the Parking Ramp off Charles Street. The show with other fine art artists exhibits June 8 – September 28. 

Splash  20x24 acrylic on linen

I hope you are reading this in a place where you can enjoy such a glorious day.

Joel  www.joelellisart.com

Imagination in the Technology Innovation Center East Lansing

Helene's Cosmos 16x20 watercolor

When we get started talking about the artist’s process of creating that masterpiece, the phrase, you have a lot of imagination, often comes up. If an artist looks at a vase of flowers and paints what is seen, the rendering is much like the vase of flowers, but if the flowers “spark” to the artist, a creative flow begins to takes over and a deeper meaning of flowers is revealed. The result is a piece replete with imagination. That spark is the energy that fuels the imagination for the creator and the viewer, we have completed the circle. 

We can say the art piece spoke to us, and so the circle is completed. The artist has made contact with the mysterious part of our being and we are moved.

Flowers are a source of universal beauty, but what about the painting that does not have a clear  object, that splash of colors and swirling shapes that we like to look at and try to make the canvas-dance speak to us. The artist is inspired to find an avenue of expression through the creative imagination. Another level of experience is added to take the viewer on a deeper journey. If for some reason we, the viewers, have subtle reason to resist the higher level of exploration, we might slide past the work and mutter, interesting or nice try or I don’t get it.

Eleven Wonders 16x20 acrylic on linen

Imagination can be for everyone.  We have all heard folks with their hands to their face say to no one in particular, “I guess I’m not creative enough,” or “Where do they come up with stuff.” With the non-object view of the art, the artist is trying to take us on a deeper journey to enhance the enjoyment and beauty all around us. The simple things in life take on a more significant place in our environment. We can absorb the artist’s “spark” and enjoy the experience of the creative flow.

Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures. – Henry Ward Beecher

Flowers are coming, just imagine!

Joel

www.joelellisart.com 

paintings@joelellisart.com 

Post Script:

If you are out Sunday, March 9, and in or around East Lansing, you may want to enjoy some good music and snacks and fine art for the Miscellany exhibit at the Technology Innovation Center, 1 to 3 pm. upstairs of the old Barnes and Noble building. Use the walkway on the second floor from the parking structure.