KirkwoodWagnerGallery Blog

Update

I have just returned from my annual sojourn in San Miguel de Allende [Mexico].

It was a particularly rewarding experience because when my camera malfunctioned my developer printed everything that was on my memory card, and I, thus, stumbled on a technique of painting on exposed photography paper with acrylic and marker!

Also, I was elated that the Vincent Galería & Diseño on #18 Quebrada in San Miguel de Allenda has taken me on.  Beatriz Cota Armenta is a warm, talented and wonderfully astute gallery owner with whom I am now proud to be associated.

Mexico City also presented some profound drawing opportunities.

Attached are some of the 3 million sketches from my trip!

Mexico Collage

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It’s not what you know; it’s who you know!

Have you ever wondered why a few artists become crazy popular and most other equally qualified, not?
We just returned from a long weekend in London where Nancy and I saw at the National Gallery, ‘Inventing Impressionism’ Paul Durand-Ruel and the Modern Art Market.
Paul Durand-Ruel was a Parisian art dealer who, from the 1860’s to 1913, virtually made the Impressionists.  These painters, such as Claude Monet and Edgar Degas, were painting in a new style which people scorned and dismissed.  They broke with tradition, which is never popular.
Durand-Ruel saw something no one else did ….. so, very speculatively, he bought much of their work in bulk, paid them monthly to keep them going and cornered the market in these paintings the populous rejected.  Then, over decades, in a very disciplined and thoughtful manner, controlled pricing, gave them group and solo exhibitions, promotions, and other exposure.
That is how one man, almost single handedly, made the Impressionists what they are today, one hundred years later, so wildly popular.
See, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know!
Attached are a few of my AC 868 and AC 857 sketches.
London
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You’re Never Too Old to Learn!

My three week painting trip to San Miguel de Allende caused me to rejig an old painter’s formula which is, that a good picture must contain inspiration, interpretation and imagination.
This is how my trip rejigged this formula:
chart
What I confirmed is that my pleasure and satisfaction is derived from the creation of the picture, not the imitation of the subject matter.
I’ve taken the liberty of reproducing three samples of what I mean [a picture is worth a thousand words!]; first is a photograph of the subject matter that inspired me; second is how I interpreted this subject matter on site in my sketch book; and third is the 12″ x 16″ watercolour that resulted therefrom.
 2015-03-020
Now, in my studio I can further reinterpret this subject matter on larger canvasses in oil.
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