Our gallery Skyuka Fine Art is open! 

We hope you see everyone at the Open House on New Year's Day from 1-5.

This has been a dream of ours for a long time. We want to have shows, workshops, lectures; anything to bring folks together to enjoy art and the rich heritage and potential here in Tryon and the region. We hope folks will sign up for the gallery's email newsletter at SkyukaFineArt.com, as we are really trying to avoid mailing postcards and many other wasteful practices. This will be a 'green' gallery as much as possible!

Skyuka Fine Art will specialize in traditional styles of landscape, still life and figurative painting. In addition to my work, the gallery features artists who have reached a high level of success in their careers such as Richard Oversmith, Linda Cheek, Kelly Welch, and Anne and William Jameson. 

Notable artists of the past from the collection of Tryon art dealer Nowell Guffey will also be on display. These include Lawrence Mazzanovich, John Sylvan Brown, Homer E. Ellertson, and Amelia M. Watson. Generally these artists have significant relationships with the locale. We also have some work by Michael McCarthy's grandfather Jefferson Stephen Ward, who was a fantastic California Plein Air painter in the early 20th Century. 

Kim and I have also gotten to know many nationally known artists through my career as a portrait and gallery artist, and we hope to bring many of these friends to Tryon for exhibitions and workshops. Eventually we would like to represent sculptors, fine art craftspeople, and all sorts of artists.

Along with original artwork, the gallery will have gift items such as greeting cards and books featuring some of the artists. In addition to traditional shows and openings, Skyuka Fine Art will host art-related events such as workshops, lectures, and performances. We intend to grow with the community of local galleries and businesses to make Tryon a destination for art lovers by co-hosting events such as gallery strolls and combined openings. Our ultimate goal will be for art lovers to find the gallery, its website, and the area to be a creative place where they can enjoy, discuss and purchase fantastic artwork.

 
The work is up and Kim is there! There will be an Open House to celebrate the new gallery on January 1st, 2011 from 1-5PM. That's 1-1-11 @ 1! It's free and all are invited. Skyuka Fine Art is located at 133 North Trade street in Tryon, North Carolina. 

As an artist it is important to develop a thick skin. It is impossible to create work that everyone is going to like. Those that are indifferent to our work, or actively dislike it, can cause us great pain and influence us more than perhaps they should. I had an experience recently that may help to parse out rejection.

Recently I was in Atlanta doing some adjustments to some recently delivered charcoal portraits, and everything was going great. Until my last appointment. The client brought out her daughter's drawing and said that it was unacceptable. She said it looked like the child had a hare lip, we need to start over, etc. I was completely unprepared for this, and it was a shock. 

Now, generally I am very happy to make adjustments if I can see that they will help. And I'm even happy to start over if the drawing has gotten too far off track. It was the client's attitude that really disarmed me. I took the drawing and said I'd get back to her. Since then I've have had some time to try to figure out how to handle this rejection.

Essentially the choice comes down to this in any rejection situation; is it worth the effort to try to salvage the situation, or is it best to accept the disappointment and move on? We cannot please everyone, and some will prove impossible to please no matter how hard we try. I think the key is to not internalize a lasting sense of failure. The great majority of my clients are very happy with my work. But we can have 99 successes and 1 failure, and somehow we can tend to internalize the bad experience.

This can be true of many aspects of being an artist; there is passive rejection in the form of poor sales, inability to get into a certain gallery, perceived lack of interest in our work (sometimes by galleries that do represent us!). And there is active rejection like paintings being returned, or hearing disparaging things said about our work, or what I experienced this weekend. These can drown out all the good things in our creative life if we're not careful!

Perhaps at these times it is good to consider the patron saint of rejection, Vincent Van Gogh. How ironic that this artist, who never had any success during his lifetime, is one of the most revered artists of all time! I also love the quote from Kipling's  'If';"...If you can meet with triumph and disaster And treat those two imposters just the same..."

It seems that it is a small percentage of people who are really going to love a particular artist's work. It is ultimately our mission to find those that love our work, but that is a different topic. I decided to do what I would normally do; offer to schedule another sitting and start over, hoping for better results. 

However what I am trying to do differently is to not dwell too long on the issue. Ultimately we are like waves pounding the beach. We just keep at it, knowing that we are doing what we were put on earth to do, and always trying to advance down the endless road of learning and becoming better artists, and people. 

Here is a Portrait Society newsletter from yesterday, featuring an article about artists trying different subjects. This article can also be found here.

Welcome to the 1st edition of the 2011 Conference Insider.  One benefit of early registration for the conference is receiving the Conference Insider.  This is a resource for helpful hints and in-depth discussion on technical approaches, aesthetics and artistic perspectives, as well as a preview of the amazing range of experienced artists joining our faculty in 2011.  The Conference Insider, published bi-monthly, is exclusively for pre-registered conference attendees and will feature faculty members, including Judith Carducci, Nancy Guzik, David Leffel, Bart Lindstrom, Sherrie McGraw, Thomas Nash, Anthony Ryder, Alexey Steele and Lea Wight. We look forward to seeing you April 28-May 1, 2011 in Atlanta, Georgia.

P.S.  An exciting new program has been added to the 2011 schedule – plein air painting on Sunday afternoon. Join Rich Nelson along with Mia Bergeron, Jason Bouldin, Judith Carducci, Bart Lindstrom, Michael Shane Neal, Rich Nelson, Tony Ryder, Alexey Steele, Gordon Wetmore and Dawn Whitelaw for an outdoor painting excursion to Piedmont Park.

Changing The Subject

When I began to study art, it was the figure that captivated me. Adoring the work of the Masters, studying anatomy, making strides in the figure drawing class, beginning to paint head and figure studies... it was all intoxicating. William Hosner, a great instructor at Detroit's College For Creative Studies, said "if you can paint the figure, you can paint anything, but you won't want to paint anything else". This became my credo as I learned, graduated and began working. Later, when teaching figure drawing and anatomy at my alma mater, I repeated Mr. Hosner's statement to classes. As I started to get portrait commissions and show figurative gallery painting, my world felt complete.

It was a student at CCS who really opened my eyes to the possibility of also painting still life and landscape. Richard Seaman was very persistent, and soon Wednesdays were reserved for still life or landscape. It took about one session of each to be hooked. In fact, after 19 years of painting, it felt like the inspiration of the early days of art school. Six years later I am truly grateful for his determination. Whole worlds have opened up which have helped me as an artist (and portrait artist) in so many ways.

Making a still life study from life is one of the best ways to learn about, and teach, painting. By setting up a simple arrangement and then capturing it you are addressing all the steps of painting over and over again; inspiration, composition, drawing, value, color, paint application and edges, and the big one; calling it 'finished' and starting a new one. Going through this process repeatedly, one cannot help but grow as an artist. I like to teach this way because the subject is not going to move or require payment or fail to show up or cloud over... with controlled lighting you can focus on the steps of picture making at your own pace. I often use a small box with a cool light above it to create a setup that can sit for days if necessary. There is no rush, just go through the process again and again. Heaven, with the occasional bit of hell thrown in for good measure.

Batchelder Jug with Tangerines- oil 11 x 14

Mackerel And Copper Bowl- oil 14 x 11

Hilton Vase with Apples- oil 11 x 14

 

Painting like this cannot fail to improve your portraits. I often say that the subject reveals itself to you as you paint. You may elect to focus on certain areas and sublimate others. Now you are 'conducting' the picture using principles of visual truth. I maintain that this is the enduring appeal of Sargent's genius; showing us the world as he saw it, not slavishly detailing every aspect of the picture. 

 

Another glorious way to paint is out in a field, or next to a stream, or nearly anywhere. With a paintbox, umbrella, and other small necessaries you are good to go. Of course storms will blow up, bugs will bite, you'll forget sunscreen and regret it, but this is all part of the deal. Once you get your equipment and such squared away, you are a warrior. Each day presents the opportunity to capture sun, earth, air, water, light, animals, structures, life. This can be a great way to spend time with other artists if you like. And inevitably you will meet all kinds of people, many of whom will tell you that they cannot draw a stick figure or straight line.

Beaufort Boats- oil 20 x 16

Hilton Head-Pinkney Island 3- oil 20 x 24

Pacolet River Rocks- oil 11x14

   

While I began landscape with daytime outdoor studies, soon ambitions for more 'transient' images beckoned. Your mind begins to see compositions everywhere; sunrises and sunsets, storms, night skies, waves, snowscapes, intensely backlit scenes, etc. 

 

Skyuka Road Pines- oil 20x16

Sunrise #6 - oil 14 x 11

All of this also surely informs your portrait painting. Especially if you are doing portraits from photos, this will teach so much about representing life. Your outdoor portraits will be done with so much more confidence and knowledge. From still life many elements of your indoor portraits such as fabric and furniture will be handled with more confidence. Soon you will find that you are 'orchestrating' the picture as opposed to copying each element. By delving into these different subjects, that pang of guilt that you're not a 'complete' artist can be greatly alleviated.

 

Dr. W.R. Chitwood- oil 42x30

There is a downside; you will likely never be able to take a 'normal' vacation again. Our kids groan when I load my paintbox and canvas into the van. But they will have braces! Because I show and sell these paintings, which really completes the circuit for an artist. Portrait clients have bought gallery paintings, and vice-versa. Perhaps there is a benefit from concentrating on one thing exclusively, but there is also a cumulative effect from doing many things. It may take longer to get good at them, but making the attempt fits my nature. Thank goodness for Mr. Seaman's persistence.

**For more information about Richard Christian Nelson, visit his website at RichardChristianNelson.com