Curator Portfolio Review Notes

One of the regional art museums here in the Bay Area has a Curator who regularly conducts portfolio reviews for artists seeking exhibtions. I was scheduled for the fall, but for various reasons had to reschedule to this month. I am not at my best in the winter, having not much recent plein air painting to show. I usually have much more energy and excitement for the new stuff.

It didn't matter that my presentation was not very articulate. My listening skills were working overtime. I was actually there to learn, it was like a very gentle 45 minute graduate school critique. Here are the main thoughts I came away mulling over.

The work is generally strong with good design. I need to think about freshness vs overworking it. The movement I feel looking at the hills comes across, as does the tactile quality of velvet. I do vertical landscapes well and the ornateness of my hills works well with the atmospheric perspective where my horizons receed and the skies are simple. I may be getting too much dark in my work and not enough luminosity.

I am thinking about what the curator said about my concepts having potential as being good for LARGE field paintings where the viewer can surround themselves in my world. (4 feet by 6 feet) There are lots of challenges in painting something at that scale, but it's something to keep in mind. I like working in half sheets outside, and can do full sheets when the weather is good. I think I would need to do them in the studio from smaller paintings. My current works remind me of looking through windows. I wonder about a vertical format that is large enough to evoke a doorway.

Finally, in our conversation we discussed my use of high horizons. I think it would make a good title for my next exhibit "The High Horizon, paintings of the California Hills" has a nice ring.

Update: George Rivera, the Senior Curator of the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara was kind enough to give me permission to identify him as the professional who reviewed my work. He had given one of my paintings an award at a CWA landscape exhibit, which is how I found out about the monthly reviews and the courage to go. I need to do more of this.

Pacific Wildlife Gallery

I've driven by this gallery in Lafayette dozens of times. I went to see the Robert Bateman exhibit at the Pacific Wild Life Gallery in Lafayette today. Realist art usually isn't my thing, but it was an interesting application of highly skilled photorealism. I was knocked out by one piece where Robert Bateman cropped the silhouette of a polar bear's head and neck. It worked as an abstract, but what knocked my socks off was the luminosity he got in the animal's fur...it glowed with life and the fact that it was also painted in a contemporary style where the brush strokes were simple direct and apparent yet also the exact shapes needed for the subject. I've got to get out and see more art, and this was worth stopping for...world class....who knew? here are the details on the gallery

Pacific Wildlife Galleries
3420 Mt. Diablo Blvd., Lafayette, CA 94549 • (925) 283-2977
Gallery Hours: Monday through Saturday, 10AM to 5PM and Sunday from Noon to 4PM

http://www.pacificwildlife.com

Robert Bateman's web site is http://www.robertbateman.ca/ and the painting of a polar bear I love is on his home page