The Amazing Ashley Bryan

"I grew up during the Great Depression years, but I was always drawing. Why? Because there was the free Works Progress Administration (WPA) founded during the Depression by the government to employ artists and musicians in communities throughout the country. And my parents sent their six children, and the three cousins my parents raised after my aunt died, to these free classes in music and art. We all learned to play instruments. We were all drawing and painting. These things had nothing to do with what we would become in life. It had everything to do with being human."

"When I was about 12 or 13 years old, the church leaders at St. John’s said to me, “Ashley you have a talent. You must therefore share it. We will give you the room and the materials and you will have classes in drawing and painting for the people of the community, the children and all.” And that is how my love for teaching started. I found right off that I loved sharing what I enjoyed doing in the arts with others, so I knew that teaching would be an area that I would always be involved in.

When I was to be employed later, it was in the teaching of art that was a natural fit to me because it was the area in which I had the most to give. And it was that training from the church—you have a gift, you must share it with others—that I learned you don’t hold onto what you have.

I believe the excitement that a teacher feels is what the student is tapping into. If the students feel the teacher is excited about what he or she is sharing, and is not just in it because he or she is being paid to teach the course, they often tap into it. They may not become sociologists or dancers or singers, but they will have felt inspired by the excitement of what the teacher is sharing."

"I don’t think artists know what retirement means, really. I always have a sketch book in hand. It doesn’t matter where I am or what it is, that sketch book will always be active whether I am on what you would call vacation or whatever. I don’t think of retirement. You must wake up as a child. You must wake up with the feeling of curiosity and adventure that [a] child faces when awaking."

 

For the full, inspiring interview and many more photos of Ashley and his work, click here.

Color Studies and Hack-schooling

I just finished up another great run of "Developing An Eye For Color" classes with 7th graders at the Camden Rockport Middle School. I had an awesome group of 11 students and wanted to share some of their work with you. 

• The first two photos show one student's illusion of "two become one," where differently colored foreground squares are strategically placed on backgrounds so they appear to be the same; when the flap is lifted and you see the foreground colors side-by-side their difference is revealed.

• Next, two examples of woven compositions that display the extremes of vibrating edges and vanishing edges between colors. Can you see all four colors in each design?

• Everyone in class learned how to create the illusion of color mixture. Opaque paper can be made to appear transparent when color strips are chosen carefully!

• To cap off our class students were challenged to use what they learned about optical mixture, color edges, and context by picking a favorite painting and reproducing it using color paper collage only -- a paint-with-paper challenge! Van Gogh was the most popular artist to study.

In my email to the class last week I shared some thoughts and links that I I want to post here as well. I'm very passionate about offering my workshop in the public school system when I can because it offers an opportunity for "hack-schooling," or learning that goes beyond rubrics, homework, and standardized testing. It is my great hope that "Developing An Eye For Color" exists to serve the creative health, happiness, and curiosity of these seventh graders -- indeed, of every participant in any class i lead, no matter their age. As an adult, I myself realize how much I need such creative service and and challenge.

The email to my students:

Hey crew,

First up, take a look at this awesome image emailed to me by our wonderful Robyn. Do you see what the color spots are made out of???! So cool.

Okay, next, take a look at how an artist combines his painting with his love of getting out on water via surf and paddle board. Guess what? He didn’t learn how to draw people until he was 21 — and now look at what he can do! Learning can happen fast if you’re psyched and interested:

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2015/05/seaside-murals-hula/

Speaking of learning, there are so many ways to do it; it doesn’t happen in the same way for all people. In this 10 minute talk a 13 year old shares his story of hack-schooling. Sure, you might not have the choice to be homeschooled and design your own ideal learning opportunities — I didn’t either and I turned out just fine, so that’s not the point. The point is that there are ways to hack the schooling that you are getting right now at the Camden Rockport Middle School in order to increase your enjoyment and enthusiasm. No really, I swear there are! Start imagining how you can stay happy and healthy as you go through school; brainstorm with your family or with your friends how to do things just a little differently. Ever think about getting an internship at a cutting edge ski factory like this kid did? What about setting up a mentorship with a local artist or musician so you can go to their studio and see how they work? (You can get credits for this in high school!) Or how about starting a Friday Fiesta night where you go to a friend’s house and cook a Mexican meal with their family, and for a whole hour you speak nothing but Spanish? I mean, who really thinks you’ll learn anything from your Spanish class if you don’t actually use what you learn outside class? Anyway, here’s the talk — it’s been viewed by over 8 million people:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h11u3vtcpaY

Ken Robinson is a pretty cool guy who’s said things like, “Creativity is as important as literacy,” and, "If you’re afraid to be wrong, you’ll never be creative.” He gave a TED talk like the kid in the link above. His talk has been viewed by 33 million people! Here’s a shorter version that’s illustrated in a really amazing way. Have you ever seen anything like it? Some people learn better when information is presented visually like this. Ken Robinson understands that not everyone learns the same. He says don’t forget that you’re not just a brain, but that you’re a body that learns through your ears and your eyes and your hands — and if you participate in a Friday Fiesta, your mouth and tastebuds! 

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms

School can be a real drag if you don’t shoulder some of the responsibility to figure out how to make it work for you. Yeah, I know you’re only in middle school…but you made the choice to take my class on your own, didn’t you? That’s taking responsibility. Do more of it! Whether you loved our class or not, just by taking it you had the opportunity to find out -- and you can use what you found out about how you learn or how you don't as tools for your future education hacking. 

— Did you like adding extra art to your schedule? 

— Did you enjoy learning through experiment, like the trial and error challenges we did? Or would you rather learn in a more technical way, like through step by step instructions on how to draw a face? 

— Did you like precision creativity with rulers and exacto knives or would you rather get totally messy with paint? Or both?! You can have both, you know. 

— Did you like studying a subject with infinite possibilities, or would you rather study a subject where you search for a single solution? 

— Did you like the times we talked about our color experiments as a group, or did you enjoy working on your own more? Everyone has a different group-time to individual-time balance. 

Start to figure out what you enjoy and how you like to learn. You won’t always be able to have it your way, but you will be able to keep yourself more happy, more healthy, and more creative if you know how you learn best. Remember when I told you in our last class that you were more genuinely creative than most adults I work with. It’s true! 

Finally, if you want to know what I think about you, what I hope for you, why I think it’s important that you learn to take responsibility for your own education, and what I think you really need to hear, read this. I bet most your teachers would agree they feel the same.

https://affectiveliving.wordpress.com/2014/03/08/what-students-really-need-to-hear/

I miss seeing you guys already,

Jessica

 

Tuesday 207: Pickup Line

Pickup Line / 4" x 4" / 2015
Sold
Pickup Line / 4" x 4" / 2015
$300.00

On Monhegan, overnight visitors to the island are greeted at the dock by a lineup of trucks, tailgates open and drivers waiting. The thing is, only luggage gets a ride up the hill.

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207 Paintings post everyish Tuesday around 5:30am EST on both The Maine  and jessicaleeives.com. Save thirty percent on any 4x4 inch oil on panel painting by making your purchase within the first week of its posting. Instead of $300 pay just $207, a number which just happens to be the Maine state area code.

Tuesday 207 Paintings are exclusive to The Maine. They depict the land, the light and the people that make this state a state of wonder. Jessica is editor of The Maine and writes occasionally as The Outsider.

Tuesday 207: Hardy & Harbor

Hardy & Harbor / 4"x 4" / 2015

Now available through Glesason Fine Art

This weekend the Hardy Boat will start running ferry service from New Harbor to Monhegan for the 2015 season. I'll be one of the first on board, making the trip to drop off paintings at the island's Lupine Gallery. My husband will be a captain on the boat again this summer. As a freshman in high school he began working for Al & Stacie as a deckhand. He worked summers through college, and again when he wasn't out to sea as a merchant marine. He's carried more luggage than you or I will ever know, and he seems to have binoculars for eyes when it comes to spotting puffins on evening tours to Eastern Egg Rock. Last year Jonathan earned his 100-ton license and Al and Stacie, some of the best folks you'll ever meet, gladly promoted him to captain. After 20 years he switched out his green polo work shirts for a set of nice white button downs with lapels.

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207 Paintings post everyish Tuesday around 5:30am EST on both The Maine  and jessicaleeives.com. Save thirty percent on any 4x4 inch oil on panel painting by making your purchase within the first week of its posting. Instead of $300 pay just $207, a number which just happens to be the Maine state area code.

Tuesday 207 Paintings are exclusive to The Maine. They depict the land, the light and the people that make this state a state of wonder. Jessica is editor of The Maine and writes occasionally as The Outsider.

Form built by and holding perfectly-pitched color

I'm currently looking at John Dubrow's paintings and, wow...I am both challenged and encouraged by the weight of the color in his work.

I'm also challenged by his most recent experience in the studio. Last year he had two dreams in which, "a specific old painting of mine hangs on a gallery wall, and I am instantly dissatisfied, both the me in the dream and the me as the dreamer. But as I keep looking, the painting transforms itself into an entirely different kind of image- almost as a digital pixilation- and becomes darker with more resonant color, a looser quality of drawing and a more activated movement.  I wake each time with such a clear image, what was that? After the second dream on awakening I decide to chase the images in the dreams." He reworked all his available older paintings and the exhibition Transformations in the result. I have some of the notes he made during his reworking time pinned to my studio wall right now:

Every day is an intense battle with my old impulses.

During my 10 hours with Giotto In the Scrovegni Chapel last year I glimpsed what I think of as Sacred Form. Form built by and holding perfectly-pitched color, based in devotion.  Maybe all of the greatest paintings have this.

A key is breaking down what one expects.

Subvert expectations. Allow paint to break off and exist as itself - as long as it holds on to light and color.

Trance state. My eyes have been half closing when I start painting. It feels like I’m simultaneously looking both inward and out.  My field of vision blurs, my eyes seem to be looking at the image of the painting that my brain is holding, not only what is in the studio in front of me.  An alternation of inward and outward  looking. Circular looking. After 35 years of work, this is new.

Reformulate constantly. Don't get stuck. Or DO get stuck and then get unstuck.

View From the Studio, Brooklyn, 2001—2006, oil on linen, 68 x 95 in

View From the Studio, Brooklyn, 2001—2006, oil on linen, 68 x 95 in

A painting left untitled on Dubrow's website

A painting left untitled on Dubrow's website

Card Selection & Giveaway

This year I will be printing three new cards. Which of these eight paintings would you send to a friend or keep at your desk as a reminder of fresh air, sparkling light, and a Maine moment?

Cast your vote by emailing me the titles of your three favorites from the selection below. When the cards are printed I'll send you a complimentary set of the winners as a thank you for making a tough decision easier!

 

Together, study

Backstage

Into The Light

Wading In

Easy Explanation

Fleet

Looker

Almost There

Tuesday 207: On Guard(rail)

(On)Guard Rail / 4"x 4" / 2015

Now available through Glesason Fine Art

A guardrail protects all the hard work of a boatbuilder. It is the last piece of wood to be fastened onto a Monhegan Skiff, but it will be the first piece to bump, rub, or scrape against a dock or another dinghy once it's launched. The guardrail here is the last and most satisfying task for this new apprentice to finish before the light fades at the end of a full day.

*10% of all 207 paintings inspired by work and life around The Carpenter's Boat Shop will be donated back to support this organization's students and facilities. Find out more here.

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207 Paintings post everyish Tuesday around 5:30am EST on both The Maine  and jessicaleeives.com. Save thirty percent on any 4x4 inch oil on panel painting by making your purchase within the first week of its posting. Instead of $300 pay just $207, a number which just happens to be the Maine state area code.

Tuesday 207 Paintings are exclusive to The Maine. They depict the land, the light and the people that make this state a state of wonder. Jessica is editor of The Maine and writes occasionally as The Outsider.

No Good Life Is Possible...

No good life is possible unless it is organized around a vocation. If you try to use your work to serve yourself, you’ll find your ambitions and expectations will forever run ahead and you’ll never be satisfied. If you try to serve the community, you’ll always wonder if people appreciate you enough. But if you serve work that is intrinsically compelling and focus just on being excellent at that, you will wind up serving yourself and the community obliquely. A vocation is not found by looking within and finding your passion. It is found by looking without and asking what life is asking of us. What problem is addressed by an activity you intrinsically enjoy?

The Road to Character

 
 

This is a 4" x 4" painting of my friend Margaret working in her studio; it was commissioned by her boyfriend as a gift to her. We both appreciate that she is an artist truly pursueing her vocation. She serves her work. As a result she gets to make a living as an artist and serve the world with surprise and beauty.

Tuesday 207: Brothers & Bass

Oh no! Today's 207 painting was reeled in by my brother Greg (foreground, above) before I could offer it here on the blog.

From the Orvis Guide to Family Friendly Fishing, by Tom Rosenbauer: "The first family fishing trip should be a short one. It should be timed carefully to coincide with the very best time of the year for panfish, small bass, or juvenile saltwater species because your goal is for every one to catch a fish. If possible, I'd advise you to take only one other person at a time on this first trip.... Too many bodies creates chaos, resulting in a disappointing experience for everyone."

We were not disappointed. Then again, we were not beginners. For the first time in our adult lives my brothers and I were all in a boat -- a small canoe -- together, fishing. And fish we did. The trip was not short. The day was beyond beautiful. We all caught bass, some of them not small.

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207 Paintings post everyish Tuesday around 5:30am EST on both The Maine  and jessicaleeives.com. Save thirty percent on any 4x4 inch oil on panel painting by making your purchase within the first week of its posting. Instead of $300 pay just $207, a number which just happens to be the Maine state area code.

Tuesday 207 Paintings are exclusive to The Maine. They depict the land, the light and the people that make this state a state of wonder. Jessica is editor of The Maine and writes occasionally as The Outsider.

Not All Apples & Nipples

The quotation of the week from Painting: The Power of Observation:

What does it mean, "abstract" ? Does it mean to abstract from something— to start with an image and transform it into essentials, like Mondrian’s tree series? Maybe it means some kind of freedom from the image so we can get directly to the serious part and not get lost in apples or nipples. Maybe it means the big idea itself— painting as physics or philosophy. Maybe it means to be purified or to be closer to concrete essences. Maybe it’s a formal design strategy with invented rules, a graphing or charting of information. There is no guarantee of freedom in abstraction ... The painter Max Gimblett says "The impulse moves between the instant and the gradual... In alertness and attention. In silence with the paint. Painting is inherently mysterious, it’s a state of being where there is no recognizable ‘Mind’..."

From Everything is Finished Nothing is Dead, an article on abstract painting by Chris Martin

Three paintings by Emil Robinson, whose work I've been looking at over the past few days:

Polar Bear Club, 2015, oil on linen, 72x96

Polar Bear Club, 2015, oil on linen, 72x96

Obannon, 2014, oil on panel, 36x48

Obannon, 2014, oil on panel, 36x48

Winter Morning 2, 2014, acrylic on paper, 16x14

Winter Morning 2, 2014, acrylic on paper, 16x14

Learning To See: Drawing Elipses & Moving

Browsing the website of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation I found this video, and after watching Albers move all around and make his students do laps, I thought, "This man is an athlete in the classroom!" I love how whole body movement is essential when teaching his students "how to see more acutely." 

"In this film—the only film of Albers teaching in the classroom—Albers is seen introducing students to the basics of drawing ellipses and foreshortened circles. His lively classroom manner is particularly evident as he gets the entire class on its feet and moving around to experience ellipses from all angles."

Tuesday 207: A Long Line

Motivation / 4" x 4" / 2015

Now available through Glesason Fine Art

I come from a long line of fishermen -- cast and drifted, looped and spun, rolled and set. 

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207 Paintings post everyish Tuesday around 5:30am EST on both The Maine  and jessicaleeives.com. Save thirty percent on any 4x4 inch oil on panel painting by making your purchase within the first week of its posting. Instead of $300 pay just $207, a number which just happens to be the Maine state area code.

Tuesday 207 Paintings are exclusive to The Maine. They depict the land, the light and the people that make this state a state of wonder. Jessica is editor of The Maine and writes occasionally as The Outsider.

As Monet Said, Famously...

"Try to forget what objects you have before you — a tree, a house, a field or whatever. Merely think, ‘here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow’, and paint it just as it appears, the exact color and shape."

Here are three paintings I've been looking at this week (clicking on an image will take you to the artist's website):

David Campbell, Touching My Wife's Hair While She Sleeps, 13 x 16, 2012

David Campbell, Touching My Wife's Hair While She Sleeps, 13 x 16, 2012

Erin Raedeke, Refuse 1, 12 x 16, oil on board, 2013

Erin Raedeke, Refuse 1, 12 x 16, oil on board, 2013

John Lee, Dead Hall, oil on linen, 2014

John Lee, Dead Hall, oil on linen, 2014

A Final Challenge At The Farnsworth

The color theory class I taught at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland wrapped up a couple weeks ago. As a final challenge participants had to select a painting and reproduce it in all its painterly-ness using only Color Aid paper. During our seven weeks together we accumulated experience observing and articulating the color effects of simultaneous contrast, quantity, vibration, and transparency -- and then this experience was put to the test. Reproducing paint with paper is a meticulous process and demands a discerning eye to precisely identify spots of color and their relationships. Here are some shots of the reproduction process:

Fifteen years ago I completed my first course in color theory with the same challenge. I chose David Park's Four Men and spent a good twelve hours on my final piece -- despite editing my composition down and only including three men. Holy carpel tunnel from cutting tiny pieces of paper with an Xacto knife!

Looking Forward To Monhegan

Last week I submitted my application for the 2015 Monhegan Artist's Residency. This past winter I've been busy painting from the experience and memory of last summer's island trips -- the ferry ride over, day trippers in awe at Whitehead, and the island's population of plein air painters in action. I'll continue to paint Monhegan this coming summer no matter what, but the residency would provide me with an opportunity to spend the night on the island for the first time and better capture the full spectrum of its light and life. Right now I'm limited to the Hardy Boat's 10:00am arrival and 3:15pm departure!

Pictured here are five paintings I submitted with my residency application. All are oil on panel and range from 6" x 6" (top) to 20" x 48" (second from bottom). All have been completed in the new year and are not yet on my website. Please email me with any inquiries.

I've also included my short application statement below. For those who are interested, I hope it provides context for the work that I do -- and will continue to do!

 

 

 

"Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder." 

E.B. White

 

During the past two years I have made paintings of Monhegan. In this application and on my website you will notice their glaring similarity: all depict the island drenched in mid-day light. Why? My visits to Monhegan have always been limited to the Hardy Boat’s 10am arrival and 3:15pm departure. My husband captains this ferry. We are always traveling to and from the island, never staying. But presence is what I desire.

Picture me, sprinting across the island the moment the Hardy Boat docks, huffing up the hill, covering the terrain of trail 7 as quickly as possible, and clambering just below the edge of Whitehead to hurriedly set up for my shot before any other day-trippers arrive. Admittedly, the adrenaline and adventure of the rushed visual experience is typical, even attractive in our ADD culture; but it is ultimately draining and incongruous to my own practice of painting and being. Instead of being in a rush I want to take time to wonder. I want to be in a place. I want to already be at Whitehead, present and waiting, watching as the first visitors appear over the edge, pointing and shading their eyes from the expansive Atlantic before them. I want to witness their wonder. I want to wonder at their wonder. And wonder is hard pressed to rush.

Wonder is important to me. I have an entire blog devoted to it. Like the content of themaineblog.com, my paintings are about being in a place of wonder. My recent “outsiders” depict figures hiking, swimming, climbing, and being in a place through sustained, physical exploration. Wonder drives me to action; what is it to know a place not only through the eye but through the body as well, and then to show this place by releasing it back through the body and into paint, for the full circle wonder of the eye? My earlier window paintings shattered into my recent outsiders when I finally acted on the desire to be out there, beyond the window panes. 

Likewise, my Monhegan paintings express a desire to be out there, there now meaning Monhegan. I desire a sustained and physical exploration of place. I no longer want to come and go in a five hour window when all the light is high and all the community is noisy and bright. I no longer want to be in my mainland studio contemplating the photos I’ve taken of other artists working and learning on the island. I want to be there, less noisy and bright myself, to wonder and to know what the light, the colors, and the people are like in the morning when I wake, in the evening before I sleep, and in the middle of the night while I’m dreaming. I want to be there and to follow E.B. White’s admonition — “always” — at least for a month.

 

Tuesday 207: Point

Point / 4" x 4" / 2015
Sold
Point / 4" x 4" / 2015
$300.00
Add To Cart

"Over there?" 
"Yes, there."
Overheard overhead.
Whitehead, Monhegan.

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Every Tuesday morning The Maine and jessicaleeives.com will post a new 207 Painting for sale. For a limited time these small works, each 4 x 4 inches on cradled birchwood panel, will be available for the special price of $207! Click on the image above to access the painting’s sale. New 207 Paintings will post each Tuesday around 5:30am EST and will be available on a first-come-first-serve basis directly through the artist’s website (no longer through a third-party auction platform — yeah for developments in soloprenuerism!). Should a painting not sell by midnight on the Saturday following its original posting, its price will increase to the standard $300 and be available through the store at jessicaleeives.com.

Tuesday 207 Paintings are exclusive to The Maine. They depict the land, the light and the people that make this state a state of wonder. Jessica is editor of The Maine and writes occasionally as The Outsider.

Color Spots In Right Relationship

“Anything under the sun is beautiful if you have the vision — it is the seeing of the thing that makes it so. The world is waiting for men with vision — it is not interested in mere pictures. What people subconsciously are interested in is the expression of beauty, something that helps them through the humdrum day, something that shocks them out of themselves and something that makes them believe in the beauty and the glory of human existence. The painter will never achieve this by merely painting pictures. He must show people more — more than they already see, and he must show them with so much human sympathy and understand that they will recognize it as if they themselves had seen the beauty and the glory….

We must teach ourselves to see the beauty of the ugly, to see the beauty of the commonplace. It is so much greater to make much out of little than to make little out of much — better to make a big thing out of a little subject than to make a little thing out of a big one. In every tow the one ugliest spot is the railroad station, and yet there is beauty there for anyone who can see it. Don’t strain for a grad subject — anything is painter’s fodder….

Beauty in art is the delicious notes of color one against the other. It is just as fine as music and it is just the same thing, one tone in relation to another tone. Real sentiment in art comes as it does in music from the way one tone comes against another independently of the literary quality of the subject — the way spots of color come together produces painting.

A great composer could find inspiration for a symphony in a subject as simple as the tinkle of water in a dish pan. So can we find beauty in ordinary places and subjects. The untrained eye does not see beauty in all things — it’s our profession to train ourselves to see it and transmit it…. The layman cares for incident in a picture but the artist cares rather for the beauty of one spot of color coming against another, not a literary beauty. There are just so many tones in music and just so many colors but it’s the beautiful combination that makes a masterpiece.

It is beautifully simple, painting — all we have to do is to get the color notes in their proper relation. The juxtaposition of spots of color is the only way and he who sees that the finest is the greatest man. I want you to learn to see more beautifully, just as if you were studying music and tried to get the finer harmony more and more truly all the time. ”

Quotation from this, a favorite book since art school. Susanna Coffey introduced it to me in her class.

The Illusion Of Transparency

I've been teaching a 7-week color theory class at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland. We recently experimented with creating the illusion of transparency (or optical mixture) by making studies of folding ribbons and overlapping shapes out of color aide paper. Have we successfully fooled you into thinking the opaque paper we work with is transparent?