Well, it's been a wild ride! :: What's to come for Trio Fine Art

Dear Trio Fine Art Friends & Family, Well, it’s been one heck of a ride!  2017 marks thirteen summers together as Trio Fine Art. What started as three artists joining forces has morphed into a gallery experience we could have never predicted. Over the years, the Trio has included six artists who hosted over fifty exhibitions. In our simple space, thousands of paintings and drawings were shared with Jackson Hole and her visitors. We hosted the work of one of our heroes, Russell Chatham, and many of our other talented friends: Molly Hirschfield, September Vhay, Lee Riddell, Greg McHuron, Kay Stratman, Shannon Troxler Thal, Matt Montagne, Eliot Goss, and others. A fun community has grown up around this space that has been used for receptions, parties, dancing-with-the-stars practice, raptor bird demonstrations, filming, lectures, art lessons, cups of tea, and lots of smiles. For us, Trio Fine Art has been much more than a business. It had become a closely-knitted partnership where we celebrated and supported each other's creativity. It has been a place to express our shared love for beauty, art, and a deep connection with the landscape.  As everything changes over time, things at Trio Fine Art are too. Instead of remaining as a trio, we are all excited to be taking this opportunity to each explore new creative pursuits. Rest assured, there's no drama to report - We are still dear friends and we are all still painting. You will continue to see much of all of us and our imagery.  Under the new brand of Turner Fine Art, the gallery will continue Trio's commitment to excellence and the reputation that has made our gallery one of the friendliest in Jackson Hole.  To all of you: THANK YOU - For supporting us, coming out to shows, sharing a glass of wine, buying paintings, reading our blog, and most of all, for being a part of our gallery community. The best part about making art is sharing art, and it has been an absolute honor to share it with you all. It’s hard to express how much each and every one of you has meant to us, and we never could have made it this far without your energy, friendship and love. What's next ? Jennifer Hoffman After so many years enjoying the wonderful collectors and supporters of Trio, Jennifer is delighted that she will continue to have her work represented at Turner Fine Art and plans to have an exhibition at the gallery in 2018. She is working to expand her representation around the country, with some new locations in the works. Her artwork will also be included in an upcoming book from North Light Books titled Pure Color 2: the Best of Pastel.  Publication is scheduled for early 2019. You can keep up to date with Jennifer on social media (Facebook: JLHoffmanFineArt; Instagram: @JHoffmanWY) and at her website JLHoffmanFineArt.com. Bill Sawczuk Bill will remain a presence in the Jackson art community, although his work can now be found at Trailside Galleries. We hope to continue to see his warm and knowing smile as he logs the miles on his walk, as we work with him and Jen to continue the blog Behind the Brushes, and during the wonderful art events around town. Kathryn Turner has been asked to be the featured artist at the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition and is focused on building a body of work to present. She will continue to share her work, with the help of Barbara Strehler, in the same gallery space but with a new shingle, Turner Fine Art. Keep up to date with Kathryn via her social media as we go through the re-branding process! Facebook @KathrynMapesTurner; Instagram @KathrynMapesTurner. We hope you will continue to come visit the gallery and stay in touch with each of us. We love seeing you and hearing from you! At the gallery, we have an exciting line up of exhibitions and events for 2018, with guest artists from around the world.

Michelle Decker - Guest Artist

We had an absolute blast working with the talented and fabulous Michelle Decker, our first guest artist at the gallery! Not only is her work inspirational, intimate, and uplifting, but she is a special person to be around. We loved having her around the gallery, and celebrating & sharing her work with the Jackson community.

Her exhibition has concluded, but we were lucky enough to hold onto a few of her paintings for the month of November. Don't miss out on this opportunity to see Michelle's work in person, on the wall in Jackson!

"Browsing Bull" 51 x 25.5 acrylic on canvas

"Still Waters" 59 x 19.5 acrylic on canvas

"Wondering Spirit" 39.5 x 27.5 acrylic on canvas

MichelleDeckerArt.com :: Facebook Page @loveforthewild :: Instagram @wildbrush

A Tribute to Tonalism

On the Occasion of George Inness' 192nd Birthday
(or, I Bet You Will Not Be Surprised I Love the Tonalists...)

by Jennifer L. Hoffman

Note: This post is going up a bit late for April due to a series of technological issues, but the delay makes this post even more timely;  George Inness was born May 1, 1825.  If you aren't familiar with Inness' work, he was one of the primary influences on the Tonalists, one of my favorite movements in art history. (You can see another of my favorite Inness paintings here; I recently got to see this painting in person at the Art Institute of Chicago!  Unfortunately I am not able to reproduce it on the blog due to usage restrictions, but it is worth a click.)

George Inness, Spring Blossoms, Montclair, New Jersey, c. 1891, oil and crayon or charcoal on canvas, 29 x 45 1/4 in.  Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of George A. Hearn, in memory of Arthur Hoppack Hearn, 1911.

What is Tonalism?

Tonalism was an American art style that emerged in the 1880s, a movement of poetic, mystical, spiritual paintings - mostly landscapes - of a subtle, ethereal quality.  The palette of most works was harmonious yet reserved in color.  Shapes were often soft-edged; scenes appeared as if viewed through a veil of atmosphere.  Value shifts tended to be very gentle - big contrasts or bright light were avoided. Dawn, dusk, and night scenes of marsh, ocean, and meadow were favored motifs in Tonalist works.

Influences

The approach was an outgrowth from and a reaction to the Barbizon School, a French movement that rejected classical idealism in favor of depicting reality (see Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Jean-François Millet) and Impressionism, which was focused primarily on depicting color and light over form (see Claude Monet, Willard Metcalf).  

Many of the adopters of the Tonalist style were heavily influenced by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, the American expatriate whose work favored composition, abstraction, and tone over literal interpretation, much like a piece of music.  His artwork titles often referenced music, choosing words like arrangement, nocturne, symphony, variations, and harmony.  Whistler’s work broke significantly from the Impressionists of the day and caught the attention of young American painters. His nocturnes cross into otherworldy impressions; form and atmosphere are fused in a deceptively simple way that appears transient. In the introduction to his magnificent book, Like Breath on Glass: Whistler, Inness, and the Art of Painting Softly, Marc Simpson explains, "Softly painted art allows the observer to revel in the world's ambiguous edges, to feel the manifold potential of a perception...."1

James Abbott MacNeill Whistler, Nocturne, c. 1875-1880, oil on canvas, 12 1/4 x 20 3/8 in.  Philadelphia Museum of Art, John G. Johnson Collection ,1917.

Often called the “Father of American Landscape Painting,” George Inness (1825-1894) was an intellectual and philosophical force in the art world and arguably the first to work in the Tonalist style. Born in New York, during his early career he created paintings documenting the expansion of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad, depicting the landscape alongside industrial development.  As his style matured, he eschewed the industrial for more natural scenes of wilderness and farmland around the northeast.  He felt a strong spiritual connection to the landscape through his work.  In an interview with Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Inness stated, "The true use of art is, first, to cultivate the artist's own spiritual nature, and secondly, to enter as a factor in general civilization."2

Tonalists in Their Own Words and Images

Lowell Birge Harrison
In 1909, Birge Harrison published a book titled simply Landscape Painting which detailed his thought process and approach to creating a painting.  He coined the term refraction to describe how the edges of forms interact and, through the lens of the human eye, become vague and indistinct.  He recounted this story in the book:

A gentleman of marked intelligence and culture once berated me for what he termed the artist's impudence in giving to the public a smudge of greenish-brown or of gray up against the sky and asking them to accept it as a tree. "Why," he said, "I can see every leaf on that oak tree in the meadow yonder. And so can anyone whose eyesight is normal."

My reply to this was to pin a card to one of the oak's lower branches and ask my friend, standing at ten paces, to tell me how many leaves he could count without shifting his gaze from the white card.
"Well, by Jove!" he presently exclaimed, "I can't count up to fifty!"
"What do the rest of the leaves look like," I asked, "a more or less indefinite blur?"
"Yes! Just a blur." "Well," I said, " now you understand just a little of the meaning of the word refraction."3

Lowell Birge Harrison, Sunburst at Sea, c. 1913-14, pastel and graphite on paper, 27 3/8 x 30 in.  The Johnson Collection.

Dwight William Tryon

Dwight Tryon had a love affair with the landscape of South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, which he painted repeatedly throughout his career.  Revisiting an intimately observed and experienced subject is one of my fondest inspirations, and so I feel a kinship with Tryon's work (he also worked frequently in pastel).  Linda Merrill explains this tendency in An Ideal Country:

Certainly the object of his affection (a "dreary waste of upland or meadow," as one critic described the landscape) would not appear to inspire devotion, but "entire familiarity with all the physical facts must precede an understanding of the higher truths," Tryon maintained.  Art he defined as "love and sympathy with some near and homely thing."4

Dwight Tryon, Sunrise: April, c. 1897-1899, oil on canvas, 20 1/6 x 30 1/6 in.  Freer Gallery of Art, Gift of Charles Langdon Freer.

Did you know?
Charles Lang Freer, the American industrialist, was an avid collector of Asian art and was a patron of many of the Tonalists. His extensive collections formed the heart of the Freer Gallery in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Click here for a slideshow of Dwight Tryon's works in the Freer collection

.

Charles Warren Eaton

Charles Warren Eaton remains an enigmatic member of the Tonalists.  Unlike many of his contemporaries, there are few interviews and personal letters, and no journals or writings to illuminate his inner thoughts.  But Eaton's distinctive, poetic compositions and sensitive light need little explanation.  In the book Charles Warren Eaton: Intimate Landscapes and the Tonalist Movement in American Art 1880-1920, David A. Cleveland asserts that Eaton was an avid poetry reader, "especially William Shakespeare, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who was known as the 'night' and 'twightlight' poet."5  I think that influence translates in his work.  Eaton worked in a variety of media, including oil, pastel, and printmaking.  I have included one of his wonderful monotypes below!

Charles Warren Eaton, Afterglow, n. d., oil on panel, 10 x 8 in.  Private collection.

Charles Warren Eaton, Landscape, c. 1910, monotype on wove paper, 7-13/16 x 6-9/16 in.  National Gallery of Art, gift of Jacob Kainen.

Gertrude Käsebier
There were several Tonalist photographers in the movement including Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, and Gertrude Käsebier. Käsebier was one of the few artists who was not from the northeast US. Born in Fort Des Moines, she moved with her family to Golden in the Colorado Territory at the age of 8, though she later moved to Pennsylvania. Her foray into art began in midlife; she attended Pratt Institute at the age of 37. One of the few Tonalist artists focused on portraiture, she also actively promoted photography as a career path for women, establishing the Women's Professional Photographers' Association of America in 1910. I am intrigued both by her imagery and her independent spirit!

Gertrude Kasebier, The Sketch, c. 1903, platinum print, 6 x 8-1/8 in.  Metropolitan Museum of Art, Alfred Stieglitz collection, 1933.

If you've seen my artwork before, you are probably not at all surprised that tonalist art has been influential on my approach to painting.  If you haven't, feel free to click over to my page at www.triofineart.com and see if you can recognize their influence on my work.  

Do you have a favorite period in art history?  Is there an artist that appeals to you more than others?  Please share with us in the comments!

This is only the briefest introduction to the Tonalist movement.  There are many more artists to explore.  I have included a bibliography and other suggested reading if you want to delve further into this inspiring and poetic period of art history.

___________________________
Footnotes:

1. Marc Simpson, Like Breath on Glass: Whistler, Inness, and the Art of Painting Softly (Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2008), 6.
2. Adrienne Baxter Bell, Ed., George Inness: Writings and Reflections on Art and Philosophy (New York: George Braziller, Inc., 2006), 67.
3. Asher B. Durand & Birge Harrison, Landscape Painting combined reprint of Durand Letters on Landscape Painting & Harrison Landscape Painting (Minneapolis: Velatura Press, LLC, 2013), 76.
4. Linda Merrill, An Ideal Country: Paintings by Dwight William Tryon in the Freer Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1990), 65-66.
5. David A. Cleveland, Intimate Landscapes: Charles Warren Eaton and the Tonalist Movement in American Art 1880-1920 (deMenil Gallery at Groton School, 2004), 33.

Other Suggested Reading:

• Ralph Sessions, The Poetic Vision: American Tonalism (New York: Spanierman Gallery, LLC, 2005).
• Joel Smith, Edward Steichen: the Early Years (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press in association with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999).
• Robert H. Getscher, James Abbott McNeill Whistler: Pastels (New York: George Braziller, 1991)
• J. F. Heijbroek and Margaret F. MacDonald, Whistler and Holland (Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, 1998).
• Arthur Wesley Dow, Composition (Berkely and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1997).

Does size really matter?

Recently, I have a bigger range of sizes to my work than ever before. Currently in the gallery, I have one of my smallest paintings displayed at 5 x 7 inches, and one of the largest at nearly 5 feet by 5 feet. What is the difference between painting large and small? Is there really a difference… other than, well, size?

When it comes to size, I feel that there is a difference in the both the creation of the painting and the experience of it.

Creating.

There is practicality to consider in creating paintings - smaller paintings are simply easier to manage. When I am working en plein air, small and mid-size paintings are easier to transport in my pack. With less surface area, they are also less susceptible to catching the wind like a sail and then taking off with my easel with it! Certainly, large paintings are possible on location, but to prepare for gusts, a series of stakes and ropes are usually employed to keep them tied down. Then, there is the issue of transport. When I was creating large paintings on location in Italy, I worked on stretched canvases that could be removed from its stretcher frame, then rolled to bring home to the States.  
  
Time is also a factor when working on location. Smaller pieces can be completed during the limits of a short painting session, perhaps two or three hours. Larger work will likely require a number of sessions, returning repeatedly to the same location at the same time of day.  


Working smaller means the composition is organized and the concept distilled. A mentor of mine, Jeremy Morgan, compares these studies to the constricted part of an hourglass, where all of the information of the subject passes through this space of understanding, then flows out as expression.  
Often, a number of smaller field studies are used to then later create larger pieces in the studio where issues of size are more easily managed.  For example, my studio easel is specifically engineered for large scale paintings, and I absolutely love it!

Most recently, I have experienced that the four walls and the ceiling height of my studio have not quite been big enough for some of my creative explorations. This is when I move to working in the garage!  My friend, September Vhay  is known for her magnificent large scale drawings, but the staircase down from her studio is a limiting factor for how large she can go! Jennifer Hoffman’s studio size lends itself to her sensitive, intimate pieces.

Is bigger better? - Experiencing the size of the artwork.

This fall, when we were at the Louvre in Paris, my God-daughter was surprised that the Mona Lisa, at 2′ 6″ x 1′ 9″ was smaller than she expected. This Da Vinci masterpiece hangs alone on its own wall and opposite one of the largest works in the museum, The Wedding at Cana at an exceptional size of 22′ 3″ x 32′ 0″.  The dimensions of these paintings are widely different, but certainly not their impact. Small paintings can be little jewels that draw us in, while large paintings can cast a bold impression throughout their entire space. In my opinion, it is not the size that matters, but rather the quality of the work.  For a small painting to hold its own, it needs to be beautifully crafted. In a large painting, if there are weaknesses or errors, they are proportionately more evident!

Why paint large? Why paint small?

There is the reality of having artwork the appropriate size to fill the space above the fireplace, but it seems that some images are meant to be depicted small while others just need to be done large in order to communicate their message.  

Recently, I created six paintings of the Western skies. I wanted to make them large scale because of the scale of the subject matter. The skies in the West dominate my experience of the landscape, and I wanted to explore that idea in these pieces.
 

Similarly, Bill Sawczuk hopes to draw appreciation for the little things by painting them large scale for a bigger impact in his 36 x 48 image, Cottontail.

Currently, my oil painting Forest Depth this is the smallest painting in the gallery.  It is a quiet and intimate piece, its diminutive size of 5” x 7” is part of this experience.

We invite you to come visit the gallery and share your own experiences with the various sizes of the work we have up. We would love to hear your thoughts!



 

***

Kathryn Mapes Turner

Trio Fine Art

 

The Sketch

Fellow art lovers,
 

Bill Sawczuk here. I want to talk to you about a subject that is not as dear to many artist's hearts as it should be... sketching. Sketching is one of the most important tools that an artist has in the pursuit of good work, and yet it seems to be the most under appreciated and unused skill that any artist should have. Why? Speaking with artists tells me that there are, of course, reasons for this.
 

"I don't need a sketch to paint." 

"Sketching is too time consuming."

"I don't like pencil work."

And the real reason,

"I don't wish to spend the time practicing to sketch." 

I'd like to try and answer some of these concerns about sketching. I think that the definition of sketching is unclear to many.

The dictionary describes sketching as a "hasty or un-detailed drawing or painting made as a preliminary study." This is true, but a sketch can be much more than that definition. A sketch can be a stand alone piece of work that will illustrate the artist's feelings about what he is trying to say. A sketch may be so descriptive that nothing more need be done. A sketch can also be a beautiful piece of art that often takes many hours to complete. A sketch may be done in any artistic medium: pencil, charcoal, crayon, pen and ink, ink wash, watercolor, oil, clay, etc. If an artist is comfortable in any or all of these mediums, they can be used for sketching. 

I have included here some very quick sketches in pencil, Conte crayon, and ink wash of an old, falling down log building here in Jackson, Wyoming. I have also included a finished oil painting of that same building. All of these renderings of the subject tell the same story.

I think that the resistance to pencil work stems from the fact that many artists tend to take a pencil sketch too far. They labor at technique and finish. The feeling of spontaneity and freshness is gone, and an overworked sketch is the result. Look at the sketches that Sorolla did of people sitting in restaurants in New York and Chicago. These were very quickly done, but capture the attitude and character of the people. Many artists that you are familiar with did very descriptive yet simple renderings of buildings world wide in pencil. A pencil is a handy tool, easily obtained, easily carried, and quick to use (if you practice!). Carry a nice soft pencil and sketch pad with you... no eraser! Using an eraser might cause you to correct too much, thus negating the time saving benefits of the quick sketch. Your subject can be anything, but the purpose should be learning. If you are fortunate to have the opportunity to draw from a model, take advantage of your chance to quick sketch. You will be surprised at how quickly your sketching will improve.  

  

I enjoy using soft vine charcoal and Conte crayon for sketching because I can use the side of either of these to get broad value strokes. Conte and charcoal also lend themselves to very nice finished sketches that stand alone in their artistic quality. Since I am predominantly a pleine air oil painter, I often use oil as my sketching medium to do a quick study on 8-weight museum quality paper board. The major pleine air advantage of this material is its ability to soak in the oil paint which allows you to keep painting on a relatively dry surface. This oil sketch was completed in one hour and it could have been quicker if I hadn't dipped my brush in my coffee. (I like to keep a cup of coffee around me when I'm working but I have been cured of keeping it on the palette!).   

There is very much more to be said about sketching, and all of you will have something to add to this discussion. I have given you some of my thoughts based on my experiences in the field and in the studio.  We should all agree on the idea that sketching WILL make a better artist of you, and it will enable you to better express the joy you feel in representing in your work our beautiful, blessed world.

Thanks for listening,

Bill

Bill Sawczuk

"The Sketch"

Behind the Brushes