4/30/2020 3:29:54 PM
“Creativity takes Courage.” – Henri Matisse
There are many inspirational quotes I like to use on my social media posts.
Today I’d like to throw light on self-doubt. Self-doubt is really quite universal. Not just artists suffer from this malady but most of us fall prey to these two words. All of us on planet earth have something special we can contribute. However, we also live in a world where the majority of us just follow a minuscule populace that has made it; be it in the arts, entertainment, science or philosophy.
“I am.”
I’d like you to look up the various theological and philosophical explanations of the phrase “I am”. You will find it quite fascinating how two little words can be discussed at length in academics and religion. Let’s just focus on the majority of us. In my opinion “we matter.” What we think and opine is of consequence.
This brings me to the question of self-doubt. As you know, art is not my background and I just stumbled upon creating art as a means to do something creative with paint. I also am a private person, albeit opinionated and unafraid to speak up. I’d much rather be in the corner of a room taking in the cacophony of a party and be amused. However, when you have a body of work, you must bring it out into the world. When you have an opinion, it must be voiced because if you don’t, none of us have the psychic powers of the omnipotent to know what you are thinking!
After I created 58 works in the 58th year of my life, late last July, it took courage to bring my paintings to an art competition in front of the critical eyes of the judge, the jury and the world. Almost a year later, I could care less. I will put my art out there if an opportunity exists.
While the pros and cons of art competitions are debatable, you will find that I agree with this article. While a vast majority of us are not sitting on loads of money there are plenty of competitions that charge no fee at all, like this daily art competition going on right now!
Why did I think up this post? For selfish reasons! I wanted to get some eyes on a competition I entered here, here & here! I hope you will be curious enough to click on all these links to see which ones are in the Boldbrush art contest!
“I am” and “we matter”. So go out and shine your light on this world.
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Thank you. And, as always, be curious & create!
Hyacinth
https://www.hyacinthpaulart.com/
4/29/2020 9:09:57 AM
Last year while in the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, my husband and I visited many museums and were lucky to see great works of art by Picasso and many others. One particular painting caught my husband’s attention. He stared at it for a while and could not figure out why it was called “dead birds”. He sent a picture to my daughter in New York and asked her what she saw in it without telling her the name of the artist. She responded back saying “I don’t know what the art means but I see a lot of bird feathers and claws.” He relayed this story at one of my artist talks on “Art & Health” during my exhibition in Dayton. In response to a question about art appreciation, he said while he did not visit museums growing up and could not interpret abstract art, his daughter had a keener eye to interpret some things in art and attributed it to being raised in a culture of art appreciation. My fondest recollections of visiting museums are from the Nizam’s museum in Hyderabad. My parents introduced us to the arts by taking us to museums, zoos, theater and movies. It left an indelible mark on my young mind, and I did the same for my children. During our travels there was always a visit to a museum or a gallery in the area. I took my children to the theater and zoos very early on in their lives. At first, my son would complain, “not another gallery mom,” but when he went off to college he took one of my paintings to his dorm room and ordered a tapestry of my artwork for his room. It really warms my heart when I see young parents take their children to museums and galleries and quietly whisper in their ears. I always compliment them for doing so even if I don’t know them. You will find that I am a proponent of the importance of art in the health and well-being of our society. If you follow along through my blog, I will make a strong case for it. In fact, if you are interested in becoming part of my study and being eligible to win an original piece of my art later this year, I encourage you to fill out the survey highlighted in yellow and found here. This is a good example of an article describing Arts in Health.
Dead Birds by Picasso
I couldn’t begin to explain Picasso’s cubism even if I tried, but if you’d like to learn how to paint like Picasso here is a video I recommend you watch. I highly recommend this course on Coursera. I enjoyed taking the course and loved Corey D’Augustine’s style of teaching. Studio demonstrations and gallery walkthroughs make this an engaging course if you want to learn more about abstract art.
If you want to follow along on my journey of art, please feel free to subscribe to my monthly newsletter here: https://www.hyacinthpaulart.com/email-newsletter
Thank you.
As always, be curious and create!
Hyacinth
https://www.hyacinthpaulart.com/
4/28/2020 1:20:23 PM
Why should you care what about what I paint, why I paint, or why I write this blog? Especially when I entice you to read, and then leave you with a cliffhanger? Well, it’s because I want you to help me learn by engaging with me on these blogs. Some of you out there may be more knowledgeable on certain subjects, and some of you will have your own opinion. I want to break down my thoughts and the artists’ process into bite size pieces, always giving you some valuable information about art and how I think it is related to the science of health and well-being.
Sometimes I look at paintings not just one by one, but as a group. That’s what I did last year with my paintings. I struggled to find out what it is I wanted to convey to the world through my paintings, and I took time to think about it. My artistic endeavors took off in the 58th year of my life. On a lazy summer drive home from Columbus, I promised my son I was going to finish 58 paintings to mark 58 years. When I looked at the 58 paintings as a group, one thing jumped out at me: the color! It was blinding and honestly, almost a bit too much! And then, I looked around my home – color abounds. My garden is colorful. My wardrobe is colorful. I did wear parrot green when it was not so cool, and hot pink when everyone else thought it was “Gauti” meaning from the village. I couldn’t care less.
Upon introspection and with considerable thought and observation, I began to see I lived in color. One year I decided to plant my garden in one color – red. It was so depressing to look at. Now how do you explain the color red to be depressing? Colors are interdependent – they can’t shine on their own. I swore never to do that again. I don’t think there is a color I am not inspired by. This observation took me back to my childhood. I wore color to lift my spirits, to cope with difficult exams and to brighten my day. When I looked around the world, people in the direst of circumstances wore bright colors. I wondered if color could be a panacea for depression. Does color uplift your spirits?
This brings me to Picasso and his Blue paintings painted mostly in the blue period (1901-1904) of his life. Historians think that these melancholic paintings mostly done in blue and later with a touch of pink, were done when he was depressed. It is said that he did not have a regular studio to work from, was short on funds and above all his friend Carlos Casagemas committed suicide in the winter of 1901. Almost all paintings of this period had melancholy writ all over. His subjects were societal discards, emaciated people, beggars and prostitutes. All had a sullen look, melancholic, cachectic and depressed. Slowly the blue period moved into the pink period where he added touches of pink to his paintings – a typical French influence as he slowly got out of his state of depression. Later his works became more colorful and joyful, and in 1907 he started the movement of cubism. I submit, I still don’t understand how his mind really worked when he pioneered this method!
Guitarist by Picasso
In 1937 he painted Guernica, a black and white painting done in grisaille, a technique using monochromatic grey tones. Picasso abhorred the military and he painted Guernica in protest of the destruction of this small sleepy town that was annihilated by the Germans’ aerial bombing under the authority of General Francisco Franco. He refused to let the painting stay in Spain while Franco was still alive, and pledged to allow it back when Spain became a democracy. Thus, in 1939 Guernica traveled to the MOMA in New York City, and then on to the rest of the world, until its return to Spain in 1981 after Franco’s death. The scale of the painting is massive. It was finished in 35 days, and is quite well preserved and alive 83 years later. I had the absolute joy and privilege of seeing this painting with my own eyes in 2019 at The Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, Spain! It is regarded as the most powerful anti-war painting in history.
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As always, be curious and create!
Hyacinth
https://www.hyacinthpaulart.com/
4/27/2020 11:41:16 AM
Continuing my obsession with the role of color in art, I want to explore works of the leader of the French Romantic Period - Eugene Delacroix. He is famously known to have said - "Color always occupies me, but drawing preoccupies me." Delacroix used colors masterfully in over 9000 paintings and drawings. He painted murals, portraits, landscape, still life, flowers, sketches and lithographs. When viewing a wide range of his paintings at a glance, two things jump out at once:
1. His use of color
2. Movement in his paintings.
Delacroix used color in his paintings quite masterfully, and had a very good understanding of tones and color harmonies. He was a master at using color to depict light and shadows and creating shapes by pairing different colors next to each other. He was prolific and worked in multiple medias and used different paint media for his creations. Van Gogh studied Delacroix’s use of color in his paintings. He used Delacroix’s color theory to form his own interpretation and consequently develop his unique style. Delacroix paintings are full of movement, and he was obsessed with drawing. He is known to have commented that “you better know how to sketch a man falling from the fourth floor of a building before he touches the ground.”
It is interesting when someone comments on your work and tells you that you need to develop and paint in just one style. For instance, I’ve heard the advice, “if you do still life, then just do still life!” “If you are a landscape artist, then just paint landscapes.” “A portrait artist must just paint portraits.” “An abstract artist should paint abstracts!”
I disagree!
I’d like to quote Cecilia Brendel of Olde Masters Galleria - my mentor in Dayton, OH who taught me how to paint with oils. She is a patient, encouraging and sweet teacher to learn from. She always says “Paint what motivates you!” I think that says it all!
The painting that accompanies this blog was one I did with her. This is an oil painting of a photograph I took in China. The minute I saw the place it looked like a painting to me. and I knew I had to paint it! So, I presented the photograph to Cia, as we like to call her, and without batting an eyelid she encouraged my maiden adventure with oils to paint what I consider to be one of my favorite pieces. It took me more than a month to finish this in 2018. For a long time, I did not want to part with it. In the end, I finally gave it away to the local public television station to help with their fundraising efforts. I hope the lucky recipient enjoys it for years to come.
Be proud of your creations. Own it! And, if you follow my blog, I will give you many examples of the greats who did just that! It’s funny - even Picasso started out painting landscapes, and then he did Guernica!
As always, be curious and create!
Hyacinth
https://www.hyacinthpaulart.com/
4/25/2020 8:34:23 PM
I thought my blog post today would be about the car caravan that I organized in appreciation of our neighborhood healthcare workers.
Instead, I’m going to talk about why color fascinates me. Color has always been an integral part of my life. It still is. Some of us love wearing black, some love white, and some just stick to blue. But I believe most of us are rather colorful beings. Color says something about our culture, our thought process, and a bit about where we come from. Not everyone can pull off a canary yellow or a chartreuse green. When I had something to do with men’s wardrobes - AKA becoming my husband's personal stylist - I decided he needed a bit more color in his otherwise drab wardrobe. Initially there was some resistance, but lately he’s bolder than I am!
It turns out that I am not the only one who is fascinated by color!
Unbeknownst to me, way back in 2000 when I was finding pieces to furnish our very first home, I kept going back to a carpet design which had the image of Wassily Kandinsky’s Composition VIII made in 1923. I did not know at the time that he was the father of abstract art and a great painter of Russian heritage. I only knew he had a Wikipedia page! Now, I am making an effort to study art on a deeper level. I'm trying to understand why is it I paint the way I do, and why am I drawn to abstracts and would spend my money on an abstract painting over a realistic painting any day. Please don’t get me wrong, I admire realism of the old masters, and will gaze upon “The Stone Breakers” by Gustave Courbet for long periods of time wondering, "how did he paint that?" I would frequent Thomas Kinkade galleries just to look and stare at the way he handled light. But I never bought a piece. I paint in both styles, I labor over realism and I ponder over abstraction; however, the result of either is colorful!
Consider this: Kandinsky said “Color hides a power still unknown but real, which acts on every part of the human body.” I do not know the exact date or time he said this, but it holds true to this day. Perhaps we have not taken the time to study the effect of color in-depth. But that’s not true either! If you look up color and health, over 3 billion results pop up on google. On PubMed, however, the exact same terms result in less than 18,000 articles. What this tells me is that, just as alternative medicine is not as popular in the allopathic world we live in, the effect of color on health is not sexy enough to be funded as a serious subject.
Anecdotal evidence claiming that colors cause positive/negative effects on people abounds. But in the advanced world we live in, where are the quantitative research studies demonstrating these relationships?
On a not so cold, dreary Saturday afternoon, a few brave souls ventured out in a small car caravan in appreciation of the health care workers in our neighborhood. It was a show of bipartisan support for the brave souls not just in Centerville, OH, but in hard hit cities around the world. The dedication of scientists, physicians, nurses, therapists, venepuncturists and every other essential healthcare worker need our salute.
We needed a little bit of Italy and New York in Dayton Ohio! So here’s our tribute.
Because I am a volunteer for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, I wanted to give a shout out to the leadership of Dr. Lois DeGennaro & Dr. Gwen Nichols of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS).
Special mention goes out to Cris Peterson for leading fundraising for LLS in Dayton through the pandemic. Cris and I are devising up unique ways to fund raise in light of current events. So, in honor of the scientists, doctors and cancer patients, 100% of the profits from the sale of any of our products are pledged to LLS.
You can buy original art here.
A variety of products are made using my art as a backdrop here. And yes, art also lives not only on walls, but also clothing and the latest addition – reusable face masks!
Again, 100% of the profits from any of the above products will go towards LLS.
As always, be curious and create!
Hyacinth
https://www.hyacinthpaulart.com/
4/23/2020 12:38:00 PM
Who is an artist?
1.66 billion results popped up when I typed the word “artist” on google. What is the definition of an artist? Simply put, an artist is a person engaged in an activity that is deemed as an art. So in that sense, any person in this world can be defined as an artist. You can be an artist because you are skilled at making a pot, a painting, or a culinary experience. You can be an artist if you are a photographer, musician, sculptor, surgeon, teacher, nurse, welder, skier or a swimmer. Isn’t that a liberating thought? I’d like to think I am an artist, and so should you and the other nearly 7.6 billion people in the world.
In this blog, I would like to focus on the older generation of visual artists. You see, I will be 60 this year, and most of my work was completed in the 59th year of my life. How can that be?
It’s called life.
Life happens, and many of us pursue our passions later on in life. I think this needs to be recognized and celebrated. Recently, I started applying for grants and residencies. I am happy to report that during the quarantine – in my quiet time sans volunteer meetings, grocery trips, parties and other social commitments – I found myself applying to as many grants as I could find. I was a bit annoyed that I did not qualify for a few because of my age (I’m above 50), but it was heartening to know that age was not a factor for most of them. Then there was another category: grants for art students. You see, I’m not enrolled as an art student in any university or college. However, I consider myself a student because I find myself in several workshops, taking private lessons and trying as hard as any student to learn the craft of "visual arts”.
This blog is to make a case for the older, non-student in the field of visual arts.
Did you know Monet, Cezanne, Van Gogh & Hopper were much older when they created their most renowned pieces of art? Grandma Moses started painting at the ripe young age of 78, and continued to paint until she was 101! Bill Traylor started at the age of 85. Alex Katz & Carmen Herrera got recognition for their artistic endeavors late in life. You can look up all these artists and be inspired. As for receiving a formal art education in a college or University, there have been exceptions to that rule as well. Frieda Kahlo, Basquiat and Yoko Ono are a few names that broke the mold.
So, as far as being a visual artist is concerned, it is my opinion that age is not a barrier, and neither is education. However, being an educator myself and an older artist, I’d like to let the younger generation know that they need to stay in school. While age may not be a barrier to accomplish anything your heart desires, it is best to accomplish mastery over time and with discipline. There really is no substitute for persistence, hard work and a great education. These are the cornerstones for an artist making a mark in this world. Yes, there are prodigies, but they comprise 1% of all artists. Artists with no formal training make up 10%, and older people... well, they are a lot more than 10%.
For the older visual artists, my advice would be to keep learning and don’t be too hard on yourself. It’s never too late to blossom into the next Monet or Moses. For the sake of the older artists, I would call for no restrictions on grants or residencies. For the young ones, my advice to them is to stay in school, get an education, and learn what to be and what not to be, as it is important to know the difference.
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Thank you!
As always, be curious and create!
Hyacinth
https://www.hyacinthpaulart.com/
