My first group art show was at the Kline Academy of Fine Art in Los Angeles on June 25th and 26th...walking into the gallery and seeing one of my paintings framed and on the wall of a gallery for the first time was a rather strange naked feeling...and I almost wanted to cover up my painting rather than allow it to be so nakedly visible to all who stopped to look at it.I also had a strong urge to stand back and listen in on what those who were viewing my painting,Primal Leaf,were thinking and possibly saying to a companion about it...Mostly people just looked for a short time...and moved on without realizing it's your soul and your heart hanging up there on the wall. As Vincent Van Gogh said: "Paintings have a life of their own that derives from the painter's soul".
And a really good painting seems to just paint itself, and has its own life force, and a painter does well to give this "elan vital" its expressive free rein...and so you may begin a painting with a specific idea in mind,as I did with my painting,Primal Leaf,...but the painting has a mind of its own...and takes over the brush and the colors and the shapes, and invariably seems to become something else altogether...all on its own. Edgar Degas said:"Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things". I hope I did a "good thing"...but everyone becomes an "art critic" when they walk into an art gallery.
So perhaps the best approach for any painter is to just be true, and authentic, and listen to your own inner voice and vision of what feels right for you to express on the canvas...because, ultimately, it is the truest expression of who you really are...your one "true thing"...as my artist friend Andy Berg says, "It's you"!
Primal Leaf,oil on canvas,16x20,Kathleen Fennessy
My friend, abstract expressionist artist,Davyd Whaley,viewing Primal Leaf...Davyd asked me what gave me the idea for the painting...I told him it came from the Terrence Malick film The Tree of Life,...but,really...it just dropped out of my subconscious and floated onto the canvas...
My dear friends,Norman Buckley,a superb television Director(Pretty Little Liars,Gossip Girl,many others) and Davyd Whaley(fabulous abstract artist whose art is gaining widespread recognition and praise)...I think I told them to say "fromage"....
Scott Yeskel,well-known California abstract artist who was recently featured in American Artist Magazine for July/August, teaches my Abstract painting class at Kline Academy,and has a major solo show,Mapping California, at the Jack Fischer Gallery,49 Geary,
Suite 418,in San Francisco,July 7,2011 - August 20,2011...if you're in the Bay Area,be sure and see his marvelous show!
Kline Academy of Fine Art in Los Angeles is a "different" place to learn to paint abstracts....you receive a solid grounding in classical painting techniques,while,at the same time, exploring contemporary abstraction.
One of the other student's abstracts in the show,and in my class...it's great to have such a creative "synergy" available to an artist at any stage of one's development....
Student Painting in the show based on a Velasquez painting....beautiful,even if it's not abstract!
Traditional representational realist figurative painting classes are also taught at the Kline Academy...founder,Cheryl Kline, is a "Master" representational realist painter who studied this approach to figurative art in Florence...everyone who attended the show this weekend was given a wonderful opportunity to see inside Cheryl's own studio at the Kline Academy and to view her fabulous paintings,both realist and abstract!
Beautiful figurative portrait,very large,displayed in the patio behind the refreshment table....
Davyd Whaley and Norman Buckley...relaxing,and "connecting" in the patio...
A very large Buddha painting at the entrance to Cheryl Kline's studio...really great huge painting done by another student at Kline in one of the realist classes....
This was a fantastic idea of founder,teacher,and artist Cheryl Kline for the Silent Auction at the show...she asked various students in the classes to each paint a very small canvas...she showed me what looked like an old "polaroid" photo and said,"Paint what you see"...it's on the top,second from the left...she put all of the various little canvases together to form this "canvas collage"...clever and remarkable!
For the show this weekend,Cheryl Kline turned her own studio into an extended "gallery"...these are some of the paintings displayed in her studio by other student/faculty artists.....
Marvelous realist painting,Buddies,by Dina Dalby,who teaches the mandala class at Kline...portrait of her dog and her boyfiend...
After the group show at Kline Academy in Los Angeles...my lovely friends,Davyd Whaley and Norman Buckley and I spent a very pleasant afternoon in downtown Culver City...
Davyd,Norman and I had lunch in downtown Culver City at Fords's Filling Station...we discovred why they call it an "American Gastropub"... emphasis on the Gas!
Norman Buckley...at lunch...staying connected!
Davyd...looking towards the light!
Love this Dancing Lion sculpture in the fountain at the downtown Culver City plaza
My friends and I stopped in the historical Culver City Hotel built in the 1920's...and got a wonderful histoy lesson about the hotel from one of friendly staff there....
Norman Buckley at the Culver City Hotel....he's also known as Mr. Twitter to aficionados...
Davyd eating his yummy blue ice cream inside the Culver City Hotel....
It was a totally fun and pleasant art-filled day with Davyd and Norman...they are such enjoyable friends to be with...and they both always have an eye for a great scene...Norman,of course,does the directing!
Davyd always makes me laugh!...it's almost like being with Charlie Chaplin....
Norman Buckley...a very serious man,indeed...reading over some sculpture guy's shoulder...also very funny!
it's always so much fun hanging out with you Kathleen.
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