Lennart Anderson, Edwin Dickinson, Charles Hawthorne, William Merritt Chase

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Painting: Powers of Observation


Lennart speaks about striving to paint the "quality of the place" within the subject, and avoiding being locked into one definitive drawing. He states that it's different than what they teach you in art school. As one observes and learns more about the subject, the contour and placement of the form will shift. One is always studying the internal relationships of the forms within space. This observational process is quite evident in his work through the abstracted, unselfconscious nature of his paint surface. He defines "quality" as both the value and ineffable color.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Corn 9"x12" (approx.) Oil on Canvas by Lennart Anderson and Compilation of Still lifes by Hall Groat II

Corn by Lennart Anderson Oil on canvas

This particular painting of corn is a quintessential example of Lennart Anderson's work. The abstracted quality of the layered paint marks, scumbles and scrapes within the negative space, communicate both "timelessness and agelessness". The evidence of the painterly process, coupled with lost and found edges, and warm against cool atmospheric tonal passages, evoke a sensation of transition, mirroring the profound nature of "mother nature". As I explain to my own students, it is impossible for humans to completely focus their attention equally on the edges that enclose forms, and make time stand still like a camera is able to do. The space that surrounds us is in constant flux. One can only focus on the specifics of a part of a form, while their peripheral vision perceives the rest as a blur. Try this and you will see for the first time.



Starbucks 10"x8" Oil on canvas By Hall Groat II

Tomatoes, Water, Shell, Coins and Kiss 11x14" Oil on canvas By Hall Groat II


Three Tomatoes with Coins 11x14" Oil on panel

Alarm Clock 14"x11" Oil on canvas By Hall Groat II


Persimmon 8"x8" Oil on panel By Hall Groat II

PBJ 8"x10" Oil on canvas By Hall Groat II

Doorknob 8x8" Oil on panel by Hall Groat II


Deadbolt 6"x6" Oil on panel

Pennies 6x6" Oil on panel


Fig 6"x6" Oil on panel by Hall Groat II

Sliced Lemon 8"x10" Oil on panel by Hall Groat II

Bristle Brush 7"x5" Oil on panel by Hall Groat II



Football 20"x16" Oil on canvas by Hall Groat II


Baseball with Mitt 8"x10" Oil on panel by Hall Groat II






Nude with Boulder by Lennart Anderson Oil on canvas

Lennart Anderson's most recent work contains formal and aesthetic elements that are akin to the work of Edwin Dickinson and Diego Velázquez. Color contains less chroma, and the abstracted nature of the layered paint marks, scumbles and scrapes within the negative space communicate both "timelessness and agelessness".


Several critics and historians have expressed to me that this quality has been emerging in several of my own paintings, including "Bumblebee with Melting Ice".



Bumblebee With Melting Ice 14"x11" Oil on canvas by Hall Groat II

Portrait by Lennart Anderson Oil

“Everybody is self-acquired. Everyone who is any good acquires it for themselves, everyone… This is one of the problems of being a teacher because you know if you give somebody something they’re going to have to throw it away, and maybe one day they will pick it up for themselves, but you have to acquire on your own.”

Lennart Anderson*

Lake and Trees by Lennart Anderson Oil on canvas

Lennart Anderson expressed during his graduate painting class at Brooklyn College this ideal:
"Painting landscapes is like painting a box of air, you carry the viewer back into space through making little atmospheric marks with paint."