Sharing a Passion for Pastel Portraits & Landscapes
October 21 – November 30, 2011
Artist’s Reception-Friday, October 21, 6-9 pm

The Old Vic Art Gallery
131 South Main Street
Alburtis, PA 18011
Phone: 610.967.6618

The public is cordially invited to David Garrison’s Opening on December 2, 2011 from
5 – 11pm

www.academiedupastel.com

“Quite stunning landscapes, colour is something you know what to do with and the quality of the marks made with the pastel was an example to us all, cheers.”

~Ben Holgate

FRESH PAINT to be held Labor Day Weekend, September 2 – 4, 2011, combines the strengths of the talented artisans of the Midwest with Iowa’s incredible scenery to produce the most collaborative and comprehensive event in the region.

FRESH PAINT is in keeping with Iowa’s place in 20th century American art taking a cue from Grant Wood, an Iowa artist who created the “American Gothic”, the  second most recognizable piece of art in the world, second only to DiVinci’s, “Mona Lisa”.   He inspired a community of artists in the early 1900′s, establishing that period’s regionalism, and he came to Amana and painted plein air.  He often ate at the Amana communal kitchens and frequently set up his easel outside to paint quick, impressionistic, plein air oil sketches. In these, Wood celebrated the rich color of Amana sandstone and the lush foliage of Amana gardens.
  
Since then many artists have seen the Amana Colonies as a place to be inspired by the subtleties of  Midwestern landscape.  The Amana Colonies offer stunning vistas, open sky, rolling pastoral scenes, along with 150-year-old brick and sandstone homes.   Catiri’s Art Oasis has created FRESH PAINT to build upon the Amanas heritage and the traditions of Iowa and Midwestern regionalism.

A new and extremely exciting addition to this year’s competition is a “Purchase Award”  for the Ronneburg Castle in Germany! The Ronneburg castle near Frankfurt, Germany,  is at the heart of Amana’s history serving as a retreat and administrative center for the Inspirationist community from 1715-1832.   In celebration of the castle’s 775th anniversary one painting will be purchased for long term exhibition at the castle. “Imagine that on your resume!” exclaimed Catiri.  A painting that best exemplifies and renders the spirit of the Amana Colonies will be selected by a  patron’s committee for the award.

We had everything ready for this exhibit before we left for France. This really helped since we were dealing with the time zone change on our return. There were just a few small things that we had to do before loading the entire 53 pastel paintings into our favored 1981 station wagon. What an effort that was. We were glad we had done most of the preparations before we left, because the time zone (jet lag) was really difficult.

We have had many exhibits through the years, a good example is at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport Iowa last December. Well this is even a better place to exhibit because it shows a more consistent flow of our styles with a large body of work from each of us. Each of us; very different but yet our styles work well together.

I hope you are able to visit the exhibit. There is some road repair going on in the area, so I’ll include some directions that may help:

Take 380 North thru Ceder Rapid and travel about 9 miles past Cedar Rapids. Turn off at the Toddville exit (exit 28) Go east on County Home Road-you will go past Alburnett Road, then turn right on North 10^th St. Go South on 10^th St (about 5 miles)

The place is the Lowe Park building that is run by the city of Marion for public events and especially exhibits like ours. It will be on your right on 10^th St The building seems alone and by its self but there’s housing developments all around that will someday reach the center.

We truly hope to see you at our Grand Opening at the Lowe Park Arts and Environment Center.  More info below:

When Burlington artist David Garrison visited Great Falls National Park in Virginia two years ago, he captured the beauty of the flowing rapids through more than 60 photographs.

Next week, Garrison will be delivering a 5-foot-by-10-foot oil painting mural of the rapids to the Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood Suites in Rockwille, Mass., right outside Washington, D.C. He was more than a little surprised to land a commission painting a scene he had photographed two years earlier.

“It was a big coincidence,” he said.

The dual brand, two-tower hotel has been under construction for more than a year and will open its doors late next month.

“It’s a new concept they are developing, which I’m proud to be a part of,” Garrison said.

Garrison, who is a member of the Pastel Society of America, is one of the few people in America who can honestly claim to make a living from his art. He sells between 40 and 50 paintings a year, including large murals that mostly end up on the East Coast.

After professionally selling paintings for 20 years. Garrison has murals in hotels, museums and private homes around the U/S. and France. Some of his work also is visible around town including a mural at the Iowa Welcome Center in Burlington.

“I size and prime my own canvas, and this one happens to be on wood. Other times, I put it (the mural) on aluminum, he said.

A pastel artist at heart, Garrison spends the time he isn’t painting for work painting for fun. His studio is filled with impressionistic pieces he did just for himself, including a portrait of his wife and fellow artist, Cecile Houel. He met Houel while teaching in France, and the couple spend four months of the year there.

“I got to painting over there and discovered what (Claude) Monet loved about France. I’m impressionistic like he was, and that was fantastic living,” Garrison said.

As much as Garrison loves painting, he treats a commissioned mural like a full-time job—with overtime. Constructing and painting the mural took about four months, which included a drafting process where Garrison created 10 rough sketches to get the scene exactly right.

Once a rough draft was approved, Garrison worked 10-hour days, six or seven days a week, until the mural was completed about two months later.

“I usually do them (murals) larger.. The largest mural I’ve ever done is 28 feet by 28 feet. That one in Baltimore,” Garrison said.

The waterfall mural is only the first of two pieces the hotel commissioned from Garrison. He’s working on a smaller 4-foot by 7-foot acrylic mural of Washington, D.C. it stands proudly among stacks of his paintings next to his work table, which is covered in mounds of dry oil paint distinctly organized by color.

“This is a collection of paintings that will go in an exhibit in Normandy, France,” he said.

Garrison knew he wanted to be a painter since he was a small child, and likes to joke that he flunked first and second grade because he refused to concentrate on other subjects besides art.

“I just wanted to draw all the time,” he said with a laugh.

Garrison is a graduate of Iowa Wesleyan College and the American Academy of Art in Chicago. He also is a member of the National Society of Mural Painters and has been listed in the Who’s Who in American Art since 1986.

Those who want to see the mural con do so at an open house viewing from 4 to 7 p.m. Sunday at Garrison’s studio at 831 S. Garfield Street.

Pastelagram. Pastel Society of America.
Summer 2002

I was asked two and a half years ago to plan for a one-person exhibit in the David Strawn Art Gallery by the Art Association of Jacksonville. This is a museum quality mansion donated many years ago by a strong supporter of the arts, David Strawn. The museum/gallery is located in a beautiful section of the busy little town of Jacksonville, Illinois, which is very near the state capital, Springfield. It is known mainly for producing Abraham Lincoln, our 16th president.

Since I had previous exhibits through the years, I thought little of the discipline I was facing to put together a large exhibit of 50 high quality paintings for a one-month show. The discipline needed became crystal clear when I realized that my artwork had advanced in quality and when I began to understand how much I expected of myself. Slowly, without being conscious of it, I had become my own severest critic in producing a fine pastel. My throwaway pile far exceeded my small “keepers,” and I was becoming a bear to be around because of it. To keep the creative mood intact I moved into my attic studio of the apartment house I own. The 1894 Victorian house is located three miles from the Mississippi River, in Burlington, Iowa. Besides the apartment for rent, I have a fully equipped studio in the attic with living quarters. The main studio room is 35’ by 40’ with lots of atmosphere for inspiration.

Endless hours were spent at the easel. The hours turned into days and then months of creating everything from portrait studies and the nude figure to landscapes with moods of the weather for impact. My painting trips were intense including painting on location in all kinds of weather and migraine headaches I’ve suffered from childhood. Past friends would meet me on the street and not recognize me from my strained look. Seldom was I found without my drawing pad. But I was making headway in my effort to have a beautiful collection of pastels for the show. Total relief and ecstasy would flood my soul when I captured the feeling and beauty of what I was painting. I seldom left the studio except to paint on location and to buy food. I was totally captured in my efforts at painting.

I found I could not sleep when I was satisfied with a painting because of the high it gave me, and I could not sleep when I had a painting go sour because of the depression it caused me. My mood swings were from high to low with very little in between.

My first year came to a close with only 15 works that I was satisfied with. I had destroyed 70% of my year’s work. At this rate I would not be ready for the opening. My efforts doubled! I lost 5 pounds the next six months, and since I have a small-frame body, that was scary. That second winter my mother decided to stop eating. She had been in a care home for several years and so the aides and I worked together to feed her by hand. During the Christmas holidays, she wasted awat in spite of our efforts to give her a reason to live. This took its toll on my ability to create with any strength. But I found my art was healing my pain and I recovered faster than I ever dreamed I could. The discipline I had learned in the past year and a hald was my support and my teacher.

I was producing artwork that gave me peace of mind and had a power that I did not know I could create. My work and sleep habits leveled off, my creative energy increased, with more distinction of style and impact of color harmony than I had ever known. The feeling of being an “artist” had never been stronger, with a collection of work I was looking forward to showing.

At the same time, I was able to send my works to national shows in Texas, New Mexico, California, and on the east coast with the American Artist Professional League, Hudson Valley Art Association and the Pastel Society of America annual.

I was asked to lead pastel workshops, including a series of portrait/figure studies with the Pastel Society of America. I was floating on a high that I never thought possible. But it took going through agony and suffering to reach that hight. I had always heard artists must suffer, must be tested to prove their worth but never understood the “why;” now I understand!

The exhibit was an outstanding success! The opening was well attended—in fact, it had one of the largest gatherings on record. The only flaw was a freak snowstorm predicted for the day I was to deliver the paintings to the gallery 200 miles away. So I called Kelly Gross, the gallery director, about delivery a day early, which was no problem.

Very close friends and collectors of my work attended the grand opening. Friends from another town could see how nervous I was and drove me to the opening and told me to just relax and enjoy the glow of all my hard work. One of my faithful collectors, Dale and Vivian Weber, bought yet another painting, their 34th. Since the exhibit closed, I have been asked by the Prairie Art Alliance of Springfield, Illinois to lead a workshop on portrait/figure study this year. I received several commissions because of the quality of work I had on display. And the best news, the sales were good.

The agony and ecstasy of a one-person show can cause you to think about your life and how you are handling all the trauma and bliss, but then you realize it is worth it.

By David Garrison
March 1998

Create pastels that resonate with natural light by using a variety of contrasts

Natural light makes every subject vibrate with energy. From the warm sunlight silhouetting a stand of trees to the dusky twilight settling across a winter field, something in the way light falls over a natural setting makes the scene come alive. Whenever I see a landscape like this, I feel as if there’s a story being told—a story I want to share with others. That’s when I want to stop and replicate these lighting effects.

Over the years, I’ve learned to capture the glow of light by focusing on the contrast in both values and colors. In general, contrast—an obvious difference between two extremes—tends to create a subtle, visual energy or vibration. Used in specific ways, various types of contrast appear to glow, mimicking the warmth and vitality in any natural setting.

Taking Advantage of Contrast

Like most artists, I begin each painting by establishing the values in my scene. I give the greatest definition to my main subject bu using contrasting strokes of extreme lights and darks on it. In Country Shadow, for example, I wanted the central tree and shed to be the stars, so I used my darkest darks on these elements and my lightest lights in the sky behind them. Concentrating these vibrating values in one area creates a center of interest and ensures that my viewers’ eyes will be repeatedly drawn back to it. This initial step also lays the foundation for the glowing light to come.

When most of the colors are in place, I start looking for ways to emphasize the light. At this point, I bring several different color-contrast techniques into play. For example, if I’ve painted a rainy day scene in primarily cool temperatures, I’ll add on an opposing warm streak to “disrupt” the somber sky and make the clouds glow. Another favorite technique os to break up the light and dark forms by layering strokes and dots of varying colors in the same value family, such as mint green, pale pink and pale yellow. The “cluster” technique is especially visible in the closer cornstalks in Harvest, where I clustered light colors in the cornstalk tops and warm and cool colors in the shadows. I like to use clusters to bring shimmering color to any area but I have to do it sparingly since this effect can be overdone and needs to be subdued.

Typically the last method I use to bring out the glow is applying pure color, which is best seen in unblended strokes of pastel pigment. It is a technique that takes advantage between light and bright. For example, notice how the pure strokes of light blue and dusky orange in Winter Fields make the bright winter snow stand out.

Giving My Surface Some Tooth

I work on either a 200+lb pH neutral board stock or an 80-lb Bainbridge board because I prefer a sturdy surface. In fact, if my pastel painting surface is bigger than 18×24 , I’ll mount it on a lightweight wood panel, for added strength.

To texturize a board so its tooth is suitable for holding pastel dust, I mix up a gritty primer made from two parts heated hide glue (also known as rabbit skin glue), two parts gesso and one part finely ground pumice. I apply two coats of this texturing medium to the front of the board and one to the back to prevent warping. To create a neutral-toned ground for my work, I’ll either add a little watered-down gray acrylic paint to the medium before applying it to my board, or paint a separate layer of gray on the board after I apply the medium.

Capturing Values on Location

With my prepared boards and other materials in tow, I start scouting for a pleasing landscape. Most important in my mind is an unusual interplay of light and objects and a harmonious combination of shapes and planes. If I find something with a strong center of interest that meets these requirements, I’ll start sketching in the basic shapes in black and white, moving things around until I find the best composition. I may notice a fallen tree that I find captivating, for example, so I’ll create and “entrance” to that center of interest by altering the contour of the ground, or adding criss-crossing grasses to draw my eye up to the tree.

To bring more attention to my center of interest, I place the highest value contrasts in the area of my underpainting. Then I start building up many of the other intermediary values in the scene, using lower contrasts and like values to support the main subject. At this stage in the painting, I don’t worry much about which color I’m looking at or using. Instead, I stick to a limited palette of basic colors to map out my value scheme.

I limit my on-site sessions to about an hour and a half. But before returning to the studio, I make sure the proper values have been established—enough to suggest a mood, and then quickly rough in the local and reflected colors. My goal is to re-create the lighting that first attracted me to the setting.

Developing Glowing Color

Back in my studio, I expand the full range of light and color. Guided by my value underpainting and local colors done on location, I develop the colors that will contribute to the feeling of light, time of day and atmospheric conditions. I find muted tones work best for early morning or evening, brighter colors for midday and, of course, cool tones for rainy scenes. Even as more and more layers are built up over the underpainting, I take care to keep the colors consistent with the original value plan.

While adding color, I use my fingers or a swatch of very soft fabric to soften and blend the edges and intermix the colors. Working over the entire surface, I build my scene slowly, incorporating a variety of color and value contrasts as I go. Finally I add a few final strokes of pure color to make my painting sparkle.

Adding the Finishing Touches

When I think I’ve finished a piece, I set it aside, then come back to it with an open mind. If necessary, I make the most obvious corrections first, then the second and so on until all of the problems are eliminated. When I was finishing Evening Bliss, for example, I noticed that the foreground was weak because it was filled with a vague green mist. To make the area stronger, I wiped out the green with a soft cloth and invented that raw hillside. I applied bold stokes of pure soft blues, crimson, violets and warm burnt sienna—all in the same value range—to break up the greens and bring the rocks and hillside to life.

With each final glance, I consider my outcome. Have I told the story I intended to share with my viewers? Does my composition reflect what first attracted me to the scene? Do the colors harmonize and make the viewer want to be in that place? And most importantly, have I used enough contrasts to make the painting resonate with natural light? Only about a third of my pastels meet these standards, but I persevere, motivated by desire to combine accurate observation with careful artistic enhancement into fresh, lively results.

There is a very special breed of people who create works of art under all conditions. No matter how difficult it might be, they still must create. If you feel inspired to paint for countless hours at a time, if your painting makes chill run down your spine, and if you feel so intense and can only focus on the painting before you, then you are among this special breed of people that observes life and its beauty like no other.

To bring this magic called art to life, it sometimes requires an extreme degree of sacrifice. Under more relaxed conditions, one might just nod off at the easel. Personally, I have found that a small amount of hunger has a helpful angle to it. I have found I am more alert and my senses to the values and accuracy for color are keener, and my handling of edges are more spontaneous looking and are much more accurate. My paintings have a poetic beauty to them when I am less concerned about my physical needs. When on a painting trip, I have made it a rule to eat only two light meals a day. I have found my body adapts better to a leaner diet and I am able to concentrate my energy on the important task at hand, painting! And when the painting binge is over, I can really put the food away! And it really makes my wife mad because I have only gained five pounds in the thirty-four years we have been married.

On one occasion, I was painting in the beautiful hills of the Flint Hills in eastern Kansas and decided to stay overnight in my car instead of returning to my motel. I could then catch the first rays of sun very early the next morning. I found that time, and the need for food never entered my mind as I painted through most of the day in several locations. In following trips to that area, I located a cattle pen where I could park my car and get a little sleep. I fondly called it the Cattle Pen Inn.

While on these painting trips to many areas of the country, I have found that by eating less and painting more I could bring order to the traffic jam of color, lines, and busy spaces all demanding attention. By concentration with discipline, I discovered what artists mean by the term, “less is more”. Knowing what to paint and what to leave out is an art in and of itself. By keeping the colors and compositions simple, a fresh spontaneous look is developed. When faced with time restraints because of the sun, working on a small canvas or paper is best. With no more than 50 or 60 square inches, you quickly realize you ust keep it simple and ot the point. Incidentally, I have used the same French style easel for the past 35 years n every painting trip, covering many parts of the country and Mexico. We have truly become best friends!

The past masters had a style and look to their work that made it look effortless. But what was really required at every brush stroke was skill from constant practice and a discipline to organize a painting. The masters were able to spot their trouble areas quickly and correct them. They were their own most severe critics. As Michelangelo said when he was in his eighties, “I’m still learning.”

The masters knew how to simplify. They knew the value of a strong foundation of drawing. When painting the model, they used quick lines to capture the feel of posture of a glance of an eye. Often, this can make or break a painting. Keeping it simple but accurate in anatomy as well as values is a concept often overlooked. As you paint, do not think of painting the eye or arm or the background as “background” but with simple directness. Paint the shapes that are in that area as if you were fitting a puzzle together.

I use a variety of surfaces to paint on. For the quick and easy and when you have an idea that just can’t wait, Wallis paper is durable and good. Sennelier offers a fine paper but you cannot scrub it as you can the Wallis.

When I have time and can plan ahead, I create my own surface by texturing either a 200 lb.pH neutral board stock or 80 lb. Brainbraidge board. If the overall size is large, I mount it on a lightweight wood panel for added strength.

The texture process I use is to mix a gritty primer made from two parts heated hide glue, two parts gesso and one part fine pumice stone. Often I will add the dust my easel has collected from previous pastel paintings (my mother taught me to never waste anything!). Most often it will turn the mixture into light gray so if I prefer a different color I add pure powdered pigment of whichever color I am after.

At times, I have found the best surface is not the created textured surface or the pastel papers that everyone uses. For example, “Sir James” was painted on untreated Fabriano Uno watercolor paper that is 100% cotton rag, mould-made acid free with four deckle edges. The possibilities are endless!

There are so many ways to paint in pastel in this day and age that it is truly exciting to be an artist!