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Interview with Artist Mark Lague

Learning from Others

This interview is part of the Creative Catalyst Artist Interview Series and was originally published in 2011. ArtistMarkLague-hotel-in-rome(web)Oil painter

Mark Lague started in a very different place than he end up. First painting with watercolors and working full time in the animation industry, Lague eventually made the leap to oils and full-time art.

1. You've made several large artistic leaps in your career. How and why did you decide to switch from watercolor to oil? Was there something you felt you could say better with oil?

The switch over to oil was actually quite gradual. As I got more serious about painting, and started working larger, I found that all the things that made watercolor exciting to me were becoming less relevant to what I was trying to do. As much as I loved (and still love) the immediacy of watercolor, I just felt at a point that it was more of drawing, rather than a painting medium.

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Digging to the Source of Frustration

Process

Mixed Media Dog portraits, Portland Oregon artist Kelly Anne Powers

I spent two weeks avoiding my studio. Every time I walked in I could feel frustration mount. Every time I thought about the fact that I wasn’t painting, I could feel that same frustration. The head is always ahead of the hand, but if you don’t want to just avoid both forever, you have to figure out what is the frustration source.

And for me, finding the source of this frustration was a two week process of starting to think about or do my art, and then note when I had the strongest negative reaction to it. I’d then stop and analyze what specifically triggered the fire. It felt like a slow mental prodding of, “Does this hurt? How about this?”

What Hurts:

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Interview with Artist Elizabeth Bauman

Learning from Others

This interview is part of the Creative Catalyst Artist Interview Series and was originally published in 2011. ArtistElizabethBauman-BettyMae(oil_acry)(web)

Oil and Acrylic artist Elizabeth Bauman's paintings evoke a mood.  It's not always a happy mood but the oil and acrylic painting techniques she uses draw you into the page and into these often solitary stories. Looking at these paintings makes us ask questions of ourselves, and maybe it's that wonderful self reflection that makes her paintings so personal.

1. How did you get into art? Did you go to art school?

I drew and painted quite a bit growing up but didn't really take what I did seriously until I was in college and decided to major in art studio.  After graduating, I did little more than paint here and there.  I did enough to keep it going but didn't trust I'd be able to do much more with it until about 5 years ago.  Then something clicked and I decided to dedicate much more time to my work and treat it finally as a profession.

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Value Study: Coffee Cup

One value study down. I will admit that there is something enjoyable about playing with so few elements.

mixed media artist Kelly Anne Powers Portland Oregon

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Of Light (And Dark)

Process

Portland Oregon Mixed media artist bouquets Kelly Anne Powers

One of the things that I think keeps people from becoming artists is that we let structure dictate what we learn first, second, and third as opposed to letting interest dictate what we learn first second and third.  And as a pretty structured person myself, I understand this approach. It makes sense to use this approach in classes and art school. But if I had tried to learn to draw in the strictest sense before I could move on, I would have never moved on because I would have quit. Drawing for the longest time, held no interest for me because while I understood theoretically why it was important, I didn’t understand it practically and emotionally for me and my art. It was the difference between knowing I should do something but wanting to do it exactly zero.

But now that has changed. I understand that my limits begin where that set of knowledge begins. And that makes it suddenly really exciting to work on drawing, value and color because I understand exactly how they will strengthen my work. And now I’m ready to approach them.

I’ve painted very little since March. I’ve been using my time to focus on a creative project that ends this Sunday, but I’ve realized that I really do need something like painting a day to keep me going back into my studio. I’ve also realized, in direct opposition to painting a day, that the painting a day doesn’t give me time to really think about the next steps to push my work or to focus on basic art skills, which I’m now realizing I really want to focus on. So for the rest of April and all of May, I am creating a new challenge for myself. I am challenging myself to paint a simple value study each and every day. I will use three or five values of marker and then three to five of pre-mixed paint. If I have time or interest, I will then collage and paint on top of those values, making sure that the paint I’m using keeps in line with those colors.

Rules (some similar to my first painting-a-day rules:

1. Paintings don’t have to be fantastic.

2. Has to be posted to the blog for it to count.

3. Take one painting a week and add color and collage over it making sure that stays with the same value families.

I will start all of this on Monday May 14th.

What are your daily-painting challenges? How have you approached studying value?

Mixed Media Portland Oregon artist Kelly Anne Powers, learning value Desaturated version. I've got very few 1s and very few 9s and a whole lot of 4-7s.[/caption]

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