Artists Describing Their Art:
Anne Bradford - ARTIST STATEMENT 7121 My paintings tell a story in pictures with images that are realistic, abstract, or a combination of both. In many paintings, I have mixed different elements together, i.e. architectural details with still life, giant plants with graphics, landscapes that are abstracted or images borrowed from art history with fabric designs. Its like a collage of mix and match that somehow all work together. When realism is involved, I generally work from my own photos, either directly, or after they have been altered on the computer. The final version is then transferred onto canvas either by projection or drawn to scale, then painted in oils or water mixable oils. Abstract paintings might evolve spontaneously out of landscapes as I am painting them or from the very start with no preconceived notion, just an explosion of emotion in color. ...
John Roof - Artist Statement I graduated from Texas Tech in December, 1973, with a BFA in studio painting. I thought at that time the world was waiting for me. I never stopped painting, drawing, or growing after graduation, but when my wife, Betsy, and I moved to Staples, Texas and bought the General Store, things started to happen. Lamartine, Aries, was to Van Gogh what Staples is to me. Staples is a very small forgotten village on the San Marcos River. There are unspoiled fields where wheat, corn, and maize are grown, and live oaks and pecan trees have flourished since long before the arrival of the white man. In the spring the wild flowers have no end. The sky changes with every breath. The trees speak of color unknown to a painter's pallet, and when the wind touches them, magic. Nature is an organized confusion that comes together with color. To be able to walk alone in these fields, to watch the approaching storms, to hear the movement of the river, and to feel the wind is nothing less than perfection. I now paint everyday and take photographs by the hundreds. I have found my garden. John A. Roof ...
Jasmine Ronel - Woman, flower, abstraction Three pivotal images in my oeuvre entwined to form the statement I strive to put forth each time anew. I am a woman, I am a flower, I am an abstraction. These images constantly support and rely on one another. The abstract paintings are typified by a flower's architecture, the flower paintings are on the verge of abstraction, and the women's paintings sprout with stains. My mode of work includes the use of diverse and complex techniques, spanning a wide range of materials and media: photography, computer processing, printing spraying, high-gloss enamel paints, acrylics, glass paints, watercolors, oils, felt-tip pens and pencils. The canvas is processed in stages, via cumulated layers that maintain intricate interrelations of construction and destruction, mending and erasing. Whether the emerging image has ascribed value or not, the painting's true theme is in fact painting. The work transpires as a private outcome of the path towards that particular painting: the trail of its drippings, the mass of its strata and the depth of its insights....
Leon Aarts - What is Art? Art is the thrilling spark that beats death - thats all. Brett Whiteley Why does one paint? The most fundamental reason one paints is in order to see. Whiteley Who is an artist? I am an individual who is also an artist-look at what I am doing. Alan Pearson. What is the definition of Art? Discovery is the definition of Art. Pearson. What is'good' art? There are no rules about investment. Sharks can be good. Artist's dung can be good. Oil on canvas can be good. There's a squad of conservators out there to look after anything an artist decides is art. Charles Saatchi (Art Collector) Can one explain what one's art is about? Painting is a language which cannot be replaced by another language. I don't know what to say about what I paint, really. Balthus The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel. Mondrian It is particularly colouring of the soul which literary technicians have not so far found to be chemically analysable, and consequently,it has NO name.Expressionism is today in the AIR. I choose to be an artist. Leonardus Aarts...
Bé Van Der Heide - Artist Statement I do work mostly in series. The images shown in my portfolio are examples of different series all executed over the last ten years. Some of the latest series such as "Dance of the transient forms" and "Collapse" have recently been exhibited in the Mas Poch Gallery in Spain. The most extensive series is called the "ENFANT TERRIBLE" series. These are drawings and paintings, mostly of a little girl and her family and friends. The rather menacing images of a seemingly helpless frightened little girl, being held tight or prettied up with bows in her hair, are inspired by photographs in my family album. In these drawings I am not interested in a photographic likeness, but I try to express a feeling about these people in the pictures. Part of the series were shown in the LCP Gallery in London during summer 2002 and in the Mas Poch Gallery in Spain November 2003. The series before "Enfant Terrible" is called: "WEBS", inspired by the sight of insects, leaves, dried up larvae; all caught in a Spiders web underneath a box on top of one of my work tables in the studio. They have been considerably enlarged; some paintings...