Art, Nature & Soul #51

The idea comes first. Once the basic concept is in my I head though, I’m ready to paint. We painters have our favorites too. The creative process in these works, are a slow burn romance, assessing and re assessing as I add details, build & go on. Here's one of mine from last year, that was a couple months in the making of scribbles, marks & erasures. If you’re painting a person, place or thing, generally you know what they look like, so then you come up with a composition, then execute it to the best of your abilities. With my more abstract artworks, often times, at least with mine, you’re creating the image from scratch, from your imagination, a personified reality. For me, all the same design elements apply to abstract artwork as they do to representational. Most of you know I’ve been working toward merging both types into a singular expression of envisioned thought, Such is the case with “Love’s Lines, Circles, Angles & Rhymes” .

Here I took the idea from a photo of 2 people embracing in a space, created a composition and broke them down into their essential qualities, and elaborated on them. The Elements of Design are the things that as an artist I work with to create a design, or composition. The Elements are: line, shape, space, value, color and texture. The elements, or principles, of visual design include Contrast, Balance, Emphasis, Movement, White Space, Proportion, Hierarchy, Repetition, Rhythm, Pattern, Unity, and Variety. Again, with the information in front of you visually, representational work is potentially a much easier task. That said, in both disciplines, one of my concerns is that it not look static or contrived. I strive to create a seemingly spontaneous, instinctive, or intuitive yet intended , if you will, visual imagery. Intuitive painting is an opportunity to explore the inner self through the creative process in a safe, critic free environment. ... This approach to painting is focused on mindfulness, creative permission and the act of spontaneous expression., as in automatic.

In this case, after a 5 color splash painting in acrylic, including several interference colors, I sketched out the basic lines within the space & went to work with my oil paints. First blocking in various shapes in color. Once these features are in place the painting leads me as I analyze the various design elements as they begin to emerge. Each layer becomes a stream of conscious methodology of adding and subtracting from the whole and in part the mediums are the message. Adding oil paint to block in shapes, scratching through the layers and erasing as directed by the piece. After a second round with the oil paint, I begin adding line & scribbling with ebony, pencil, grease marker, & oil pastel…each giving their own aesthetic detail and sense of depth. Then enhancing the emerging mythology with 18k gold pen near completion as I add the 18k gold leaf, signing the completed piece.

These artworks evolve over time, with each medium and each layer, I leave and visit the painting, over and over again, evaluating the whole, over months until my vision is complete. I hope you’ve enjoy the journey, making part of it your own too. As always your comments & questions are most welcome.

~Richard

’Love's, Lines, Circles, Angles & Rhymes’ 40”x40” mixed media on canvas

’Love's, Lines, Circles, Angles & Rhymes 40”x40” mixed media on canvas.

Art, Nature & Soul #46

Earlier this year, summer 2020, I was able to attend the MONET Exhibit at the Art Institute Chicago. Having been creating art since I was a young child & having been in the art, design & custom framing business low these 35 years past, I’ve come to understand that art is a lifelong pursuit, passion & learning experience. Currently on my larger more detailed artworks I’ve been doing more layering of color, especially in my mixed media pieces. Having got up close & studying these master works of Monet’s, I observed, that from a distance, like in a photo our eyes averages the image to their beauty, but that viewing just inches from the surface and having done some reading on the subject, discovered they are but layered amounts of pattern and paint done not, for the most part, in one sitting(alla prima), but many outdoor sessions (en plein air)and finishing up in the studio. As with all things, I’ve taken a more unconventional way of achieving my own goals, in observation and in execution, and in this case a more abstract realistic approach in my artwork, thus ‘Stairway to Heaven’ lyric is constantly playing in my head. But alas, here we are .

“If there's a bustle in your hedgerow
Don't be alarmed now
It's just a spring clean for the May queen
Yes, there are two paths you can go by
But in the long run
There's still time to change the road you're on
And it makes me wonder”

Zeppelin (Songwriters: Jimmy Page / Robert Plant)

I work from life, photos & my imagination. In this case I took 5 different photos and created the desired composition and dynamic you see here. Each of the photos had different elements I wanted to show and express, from the varied flowers, color & shapes, to the grown over path that runs through the center of the piece. From creating the composition, until its completion took about 3 weeks. It’s all about the layered in mediums and the slow build, in these type works.

In this piece I wanted both the muted undertones, as well as the bright light high key ones. I began, as always with a drip and splatter underpainting, this one in an acrylic prism violet. Then, using a brush, laid in the colors intended, taking my palette knife and blending them together, to a muted coloration, while blocking in shapes, thus creating the preliminary composition to build off of. Once achieved, several palette knives, scratching tools, brushes and tissues were used to move the the paint around to create the image of a natural flower garden. Ebony pencil & 18k gold pen were used to enhance line and give depth. Oil pastel was then used to give more texture, color & pattern, enhancing the broken color and giving the more free design elements of scribble. My trademark of 18k gold leaf was laid in at the top, in the path as light hitting the edge. Taking my palette knife and pure color straight from the tube, I moved about the canvas dropping in bright happy color, thus scratching in my signature, it was complete & posted on social media.

*Me~ Woke up about 1:30am and couldn't get back to sleep, rolled out of bed about 2:30am...had some tea, read some Vonnegut and completed this 48"x24" mixed media piece, but it needs a title, any ideas???

One of the many, many responses was from a collector of my artwork. While I had been reading Vonnegut’s ‘Bluebeard’ ( a tongue in cheek romp through the abstract expressionist movement of the 50s) earlier that morning….Chris’s sentiments reminded of another of K.V.s novels.~

Chris G.

“Visions of Vonnegut. Very cool.”

In 79’-80’ish I read 'Slapstick' it was my first Kurt Vonnegut read. I was immediately hooked. If you haven't read it, it's a futuristic tale in which all the people of the world are assigned middle names, of flowers randomly. Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain, is the main character. Which ever flower you are, connects you to all the other like flowers, as family, so you are never alone. I'm partial to sunflowers, so that makes me Richard Sunflower-1 Sperry. What’s your flower? Are we family? Here’s where we all gather, mingle and dance, in the sun and a light breeze. After some thought a variation was settled on.

'Vonnegut's Garden' 48"x24" framed (a white traditional frame, as seen or a more contemporary clean line, black frame, its your choice) mixed media on canvas, $2400.oo. (plus a complimentary mini-me 12" square oil of your choice a $350.oo value). Message me with further questions on how this can be acquired. It can be shipped. (free mini-me of your choice with purchase of ‘Vonnegut’s Garden’ expires 12/31/2020)

preliminary underpainting, an abstract

Vonnegut’s Garden/completed

Center detail

framed in a traditional white, though a contemporary clean line black, works well too.

a more contemporary, clean line, black frame

Art, Nature & Soul #42

My Muse~Beginning about 10 years ago, my daily routine included a 5-10 minute, morning quick sketch. A doodle or drawing of a facebook friend, from some photo they’d posted. It was usually a person or animal, that would catch my attention. The idea was to force me to see, apply an automatic drawing sensibility, to how I saw and put it down on paper without over thinking it. It was great fun and the results were an enlightening excersize. Sometimes their natural state of beauty & vulnerablility, being of both a physical & emotional presence, captures my attention & imagination. Such is the case with Nathan, which began with a simple gesture, a line sketch of his face, that exudes an uncanny depth of character & soulfulness, you know “je ne sais quoi”.

After contacting Nathan and getting his permission to continue drawing him, I found a beautiful person & compelling subject in him, and so I began painting him as well. What intrigues us, compells us to create. Faces are always of great interest and intrigue to me. They have the possibility to speak volumes in a single look. The soulfull eyes of a free spirit penetrate all, in their gaze. A unique nose has always fascinated me, as well…Personality, with a fearless zest for life, he wears every piercing, gage, tattoo and line in his face as a triumphant and well earned, battle scare of sorts, in some unwritten tribal & communal right of passage. For all those who take the road less traveled, he seems to say, “this way, I’ll leave a trail.”

From simple line drawings in pencil and pen & ink to portrait studies in acrylic and oil, my muse captured my imagination. So, we’d work a pose as I began to paint full figures, as well, some in real space and others in imagined. At one point I painted him more realistic, but in an abstract space, in oil, then still another, and finally merging him in one more piece, more recently, a comtemporary abstract realist painting, a mixed media, all with my signature mark of 18k gold. Drawing and painting someone, over and over again, is really a quite intimate affair, whether admitted or not. It reveals as much about the artist as the subject, again reuntiting my inner rebel & my former youth. What I have realised most, is that I have a unique & ever distinct way of seeing, one that goes back to middle school, of my first recollection. It seems, more than a likeness, but a way of capturing the essence & energy, of the true spirit of that person of interest. It’s with much gratitude, to all those who serve as inspiration and models for my imagination that I say thank you, with special recognition & appreciation for having served for many, many years as my muse, Nathan…one of the beautiful people.

As always, feel free to comment & ask questions,

~Richard

Nathan

Art, Nature & Soul #39

In 2006 I began an 8 piece series of artworks under the theme ‘fragments’, on the nature of existence. They seem timely & perhaps, more relevant today. It took several years to complete them & in 2009, three were on exhibition entitled ‘Transformations’ at the Norris Cultural Center, here in Saint Charles, Illinois.

Not unlike Shakespeares poem ‘The Seven Stages of Man’, a favorite passage of mine.

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

I set out to explore my own themes in mixed media & incorporating found objects. In some cases some very personel objects from my own life history, as I believe all art created, is autobiographical in nature & regard.

A journey of a lifetime, entitled in a life progression, such is the paradox of being human as folllows~

Nothingness & Being, Cultivate & Incapacitate, Indifference & Impartiality, Sentiment & Pragmatism, Wisdom & Folly, Civilty & Madness, Regeneration & Frailty, Sleep & Dream

Within the chaos of our lives there are certain symbols and archetypes, that are simple & beautiful truths that connect us all together. The tree is an ancient and varied symbol throughout history and in most all cultures. While the olive tree is typically a symbol of peace, different trees have different meanings, throughout the world. I have chosen, in part, oak tree leaves as one of the most important symbols that are incorporated in all 8 pieces. As  It's a symbol of strength, morale, resistance and knowledge, my tree of life or figuratively speaking, a mobius strip connecting us throughout time & space forever. We’re all, just star stuff, to be sure.

If we take the time to find those things we have in common, rather than focusing on the differences, we can find a mutual understanding of each other. With respect & common decency…more then the pretty or the beautiful, we find that a sublime connection of oneness reveals itself, if we only look with eyes wide shut.

Partial list of mediums and objects include~oak substrate, leaves & bark, acrylic & oil paints, ebony pencil, paint marker, charcoal , oil pastel, india ink, photgraphy, coins & stamps, compass, copper wire & rods, mirror, granite, a variety of drawings and smaller paintings incorpoated, as well as many others.

(*interestingly, I took a single 12” square mirror and broke into 8 varied pieces, added 1 piece to each of the 8, so each individual person can see themselves and when the mirror is put together, see each other and ourselves when joined symbolicaly.)

Please enjoy, consider & contemplate, their meaning and see yourself, see me, see us. buried within the fractal patterns within the chaos.

The 1st image is a promotional card, created for the exhibit. The 2nd, a collage of all 8 works compiled into one. Please, feel free to comment and ask questions,

Richard Sperry

All 8, 48”x48” pieces in collage

Art, Nature & Soul #32

Abstract Realism

Abstract realism is difficult to explain because of the infusion of two distinct styles of art: abstract and realistic. Abstract Realism is the infusion of the elements of design with the depiction of real life in visual art. Realistic imagery is still there, it is sometimes distorted and given fantastically invented abstract forms. . Abstract art is art that doesn't have a definable focus. It is art that exists through patterns, colors, texture and line without the need for an external motivation. Realistic art consists of art that aims to replicate nature. When these two elements combine to create an abstract impression of real life, you get abstract realism.

Being more of expressionist inclined this battle of fusions and ideas, can be found in my lifetime of artwork. Initially seperate concepts for me, I’ve worked diligently to combine them. The concept can be combined in varying degrees of abstract and realism. Rembrandt, most may think of as realism except for, when you get up close to the work, rather than line, we see edges. Edges where blobs of paint create patterns & the design elements abstractly, to which the representational subjects mass is defined and conveyed more realistically.

For me it becomes a spiritual admission. Where as my thoughts on the vary essence of life & meaning is conceptualized in paint. All life is connected atoms, not lines that sepearate entities, but edges blurring one into the other, stardust energy, if you will. Fractals, Chaos & Universiality combining the physical and concious worlds. In my paintings, a more thoughful & emotional gesture is intended, using symbols and mythology.

His name is Gray~He was a hunter of sorts who loved everything beautiful. Narcissus was proud, in that he disdained those who loved him, wanting them to prove their devotion to his striking beauty. Narcissist is one who has a fixation with oneself and one's physical appearance or public perception. Once, during the summer, he was getting thirsty after hunting, and he was lured to a pool where he leaned upon the water and saw himself in the bloom of youth. Narcissus did not realize it was merely his own reflection and fell deeply in love with it, as if it were somebody else. Unable to leave the allure of his image, he eventually realized that his love could not be reciprocated and he melted away from the fire of passion burning inside him, eventually turning into a gold and white flower.

‘Gray, Shades of Narcissist, 30”x30” mixed media on canvas (acrylic & oil paint, 18k gold leaf and paint pen, & ebony pencil)

Your comments & questions are welcome

~Richard