KJ Interview and Historical References

Q: And you don't go out of your way to disguise your brush strokes. You've got this nicely rendered little grain bin, and then you've got this mark here. Do those marks have equal value, equal importance to you? I assume that they do.

A: Yeah, they do. I'm constantly walking this tightrope between wanting to describe something in reality, in a sense, and, at the same time, allow a departure from the reality with the paint itself. That the real reality of a painting is the way a painter applies the marks. But at the same time, there's a trick that goes on that fools the eye and allows you to see something, to represent something. Those things, I think, are something serious realist painters are constantly dealing with, working on and thinking about

Above was taken from an interview with Keith Jacobshagen. I can relate to what he is talking about because I deal with this a lot. Many times I find myself questioning how I want something to look. "Do I want it to look realistic or not?" This is an on going struggle that I think t I am losing.

It always seems like in my head I want a painting to look a certain way, and that there is one way to accomplish that. I would like to say that I want to approach the canvas in a more minimalist approach. That's not saying that I want to mimic that of a minimalist. I am trying to put on canvas just enough so that you know what is there. Rather than detailing a tree or a wooden post, I would like to put a mark that could be read as such an object. It is that moment I am remembering, so all the details are not there embedded in my brain.

Several weeks ago I read through the book "Spirit of Place" and I am going to share the artists (and hopefully post the painting) that I found to be helpful in one way or another to my own work.

1. Milton Avery "Tangerine Moon and Wine Dark Sea" 1959

"His process was reductive, gradually distilling an image to its most elemental shapes and patterns. The use of color was intuitive and expressive, freed from the dual constraints of nature and theory. Ultimately, they were lyrical expressions of the minor moments and simple pleasures of nature."

I chose this particular painting because I like how he has the uninterrupted horizon line like I do, along with the sky/land ratio.

2. Paul Resika "Horseleech Pond, Indian Red Sky" 1984

"...his ability to compress the particulars into their essential, emotive characters. The transient quality of the Cape light, is stripped of all that is superfluous, leaving only the pith of its fleeting mood."

This painting is not detailed at all. It is very painterly with evident brush strokes composing the clouds and trees. I like this because of that. The lack of detail makes it easy for me to project myself into the land.

3. Keith Jacobshagen "N.W. 84th St. & Agnew Road" 1983

"Something about the road paintings- they came about as a kind of way to go home- a formal epiphany of the journey. When I was a kid in the midwest it was a tradition to go for a Sunday drive. If the day was hot, then a country drive in the late afternoon to escape the heat of Wichita was a treat. I have fond memories of those warm late afternoons with their cool shadows stretching across gravel and dirt roads- sitting in the back seat of my father's Ford looking between my parent's heads at the road that seemed to move out, cutting through the wheat of grass fields. I think the space and thrust of those roads and how they defined the slight slope and flatness of the planes- the distance of things attracted me in an intuitive way."

This is perhaps my favorite painting in the book. It is the combination of the vast open skies and distance portrayed in his paintings that attract me to Keith Jacobshagen. Although he treats the paint differently than I do, it is this general feeling of the land that I try to capture. That feeling is one of expansiveness, of solitude.

4. Peter Poskas "Dawn, Nettleton Hollow" 1987

"His paintings of the farms, fields, and surrounding landscapes are distinctive in that he describes the nuance of change brought on by the progression of seasons, and the subtle shifts of mood created by the transient acts of light and weather."

I marked this painting because this scene reminds me of central new york in the winter. With the contour lines in the field under the pinks and oranges of the setting sky, it reminds me of a place where I once ran.

5. John Button "On Noyac Path" 1982

"...they emphasized nature's moods over its physical characteristic. If they painted what they saw, then it must be remembered that they selected those movements to retain. It was a move away from the objective stance of Contemporary Realism, but it was also the beginning of a return to the spirit of the luminists of the nineteenth century, who viewed the landscape with a sense of wonder."

I like the clouds in this painting that emphasizes the space. Placed low at the horizon line, the clouds help give off that glow at late evening after the sun has set. As you look up in the sky the more cool colors you see.

6. Robert Birmelin "Tidal Flats, Deer Isle, Sunset" 1978

"closer than courbet to his landscape sources [but] not as close as Millais is to his best pre-Raphaelite bramble thickets"

This painting is great because it does a lot to show off the distance. The horizon line is placed high in the composition to give me the feeling that I am standing in the foreground. He layers rocks on another to give a sense of the scale of them. The clouds in the sky emphasize the moodiness in the painting.

7. Sylvia Plimack Mangold "Zodical Light" 1980

Based on direct observation. "The trees and hills are all familiar subjects....I choose a subject I can return to over and over again so that the landscape is absorbed into a personal vocabulary. So that I can extend myself (my mood) into the mood of the space around me....."

I think her quote sums up what I am thinking. That personal vocabulary...extending her mood into the mood of the space around her...