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Art Group meeting at Fred Yost’s studio @ Harwood Art Center

4-28-07 (notes by Jeff Potter); those present:  Fred Yost, Jaci Fisher, Jeanine Allen, Betsy Greenlee and Jeff Potter.  Fred Yost started with a brief review of the "project" and then explained his ideas how he approached it.  The project: -  transform from a representational, realistic work into an abstract work using only a guideline of 4 – 6 stages. He elected to work with pastel on rough pumice surface and in most cases a black background tint. His initial realistic composition was of an adobe two story building with vigas and a wooden ladder done with a warm adobe wall and typical NM blue sky. The next stage he kept values similar but inverted the color whereby the adobe became blue and the sky yellow. Stage 3 saw removal of non-critical architectural features and lines becoming more horizontal / vertical and the transformation of the ladder into a semi-abstract lattice. Stage 4 introduced red horizontal lines and further simplification of shapes and the further abstraction of the ladder to lattice by random coloring of the individual frames. Stage five pushed the coloring of the lattice, while the final sixth work stretched the lattice across the fields and lost all connection with a landscape, instead becoming a strong color pattern with strong black lines. We suggested there were numerous color possibilities from stages 5 and 6 he could explore.  The composite below shows Fred's works proceeding left to right through the two rows.

Fred Yost project 4-28-07

3. Jeff discussed briefly his recent participation in a three day oil / still life workshop with Laura Robb (see http://www.laurarobb.com) and how her almost abstract backgrounds showed him how space could be tamed with lively brush strokes and directional energetic colors. He also said that the break from his dominance with landscapes was very timely and worked well with the project. He first showed a black and white ink pen sketch  which was a mental study of stages needed so he could get used to the concept ( see below left).

He then decided to undertake the transformation project in four stages, each using one-fourth of a 12” x 16” canvas panel which he divided with a black line. The medium was oil paint thinned with Turpenoid. The realistic 1st stage was of a landscape scene of Mt. Taylor near Grants. The dominant peak with it’s snow filled slopes contrasted with deep blue forests and those represented the most dominant shapes and colors; he then began to simplify in stages two and three into fewer color ranges; meanwhile, the foreground sandstone cliffs were simplified down to two or three colors and became represented finally by simple vertical and diagonal lines within the basal sandstone hue. In the fourth stage the suggestive eye movements from the mountain slopes and the original clouds were exaggerated into crossed lines and shapes.  The progression moves clockwise from stage #1  in the upper left in the Image below right.

       
Jeff Potter project 4-28-07
 

4. Betsy used water-soluble graphite pencils and a water-filled brush in her stream rock studies trying to push herself from representational to increasingly loose interpretation.

Betsy Greenlee project 4-28-07

She also showed us a two stage study of a second boulder composition where she simplified detail.

  Betsy Greenlee project 4-28-07
She also did a very dynamic and intertwined pastel with turpenoid washes.

  Betsy Greenlee project 4-28-07

Finally, she showed us one stage from a composition employing three bird eggs in a nest. Using a copper-tint background she was applying pastel and ink but found the ink was absorbing into the copper background. Fred and Jeanine discussed encaustic gold media possibilities. They also added that Betsy might try a black background and use removal of pastel to see the black background.

  Betsy Greenlee project 4-28-07

5. Jeanine first discussed her prior pastel painting of a Canada Goose and how she wanted to proceed further by pushing the abstraction. The work was done on salmon-tinted Sennelier paper in which she applied an encaustic Rub N Buff gold tint, and then she used Terry Ludwig pastels on that surface. She strived for non-objective view of a goose and the meeting of color values more than the shape of the goose.

Jeanine Allen project 4-28-07

6. Jaci amazingly did her Gala Apples series earlier that day. She worked on vellum Bristol Board 300 weight in which she masked in the identical work area using painters tape to achieve a clean edge when she was finished. Using six pieces, she started with a representational oil pastel of two adjacent apples with rich color and texture. As she progressed through stages 2 and 3, the apples value ranges remained similar but details were simplified and colors pushed. Stage four had striking blue apples in the same value and use of graphite pencil to expose white background in areas where details had become gestured lines such as apple stems. The fifth stage utilized a predominant sepia tone to further simplify the apples into value-changed surfaces. The final stage jumped into a strong graphite pencil rendering of the shapes by repeated lines and an almost halo-like appearance.

Jaci Fisher project 4-28-07
7. Next meeting Saturday June 9th at 3 PM. Meeting location TBA. project – another abstract transformation.