My Art

June 23, 2010

My Art

My paintings are intuitive. They are about color, texture, and light and dark.
One day after finishing one of my abstracts,

I took my camera and moved it around the painting; stopping only when I saw something so beautiful or so arresting that I had to have a record of it.
I couldn’t wait to see what the pictures looked like on my computer’s screen.
Some were disappointing,
While others were so perfectly imperfectly perfect, that they would take my breath away.
Those were the ones I decided to enlarge.
First on canvas mounted the same as the painting from which it came.
Then with a macro Lens and a tripod. I reexamined the same painting, though now altered by having applied red washes to its surface.
Working with natural light, I looked through the lens again.

I saw everything so clearly, in the smallest amount of space.

Again I couldn’t wait to see them enlarged and like the first time some were not what I thought they would be, while others, were for me amazingly beautiful.

Again I enlarged the photographs, only this time to enhance the clearest possible details I chose light boxes to show these details; which for me are what is beautiful.

I ask myself
What was the moment the art was made?
Was it as a painting?
or was it as detail recorded as a photograph

I have always been an artist. In my songs and in my performance of them I shared my work. Now I am an artist working differently.
I paint!
I had been painting lifelike portraits of my friends, Yet the pull that keeps getting stronger is to deepen in to my abstract paintings. and

It feels like the whole thing turned upside down on its head.
I love that it is the details of my paintings that matter.
They are the record of my painting.
in the end they are all that exists of the painting; the
Incarnations my details took.
Because the original painting has been altered beyond recognition having been painted on over and over again.

But I have always believed that whatever it was I thought was great,
Was found in the details.

Currently at the LA Art House!

I’m so excited for Margie Perenchio’s art exhibit, Timeless Realism,  going on through July 24th, at the LA Art House. It’s an added plus that the exhibit benefits the Women’s Endowment, which funds the research of molecular solutions to early detection and treatment of women’s cancers.

Conversations at L.A. Art House

June 2, 2010

Currently at the LA Art House there’s an exhibition curated by world, famous artist, Ross Bleckner . The exhibit features six of Ross’ paintings, along with paintings from four emerging artists that Ross personally selected.

The exhibit continues until June 14th.

Following Mr. Bleckners’ show, two other emerging artists, Margie Perenchio and Laurent Dareau will be exhibiting their work the next month, with the proceeds going to a charity that does fine research for women’s cancer, The Women’s Endowment

Salon Conversations

We’ve had a fantastic response to an exciting Salon Conversations series, started recently at the L.A. Art House.

Our first conversation was with Actor, Comedian, Writer, Musician… Steve Martin with Eric
Fischl (March 11, 2010)

http://www.laarthouse.net/events.asp?event=10

The second was Movie and TV Producer, Brian Grazer with Jeff Koons

http://www.laarthouse.net/events.asp?event=13

Due to popular demand, the series will resume again in the fall.

June News

June 2, 2010

My News

Most recently, I collaborated on two of my abstract paintings with Ross Bleckner, and have been spending a great deal of time extracting details from the abstract paintings to make new ones.

While continuing to paint on the abstracts, I’m re-photographing details of them, until all that is left, (after the original paintings is destroyed) is a history of the details that emerged along the way.

I continue to study with Frank Ryan, a graduate of UCLA’s graduate art program, and an artist in his own right.

I seem to exist between two worlds somewhere i can’t quite give up portrait painting, although I am moving more and more into a freer form of abstraction.

I’m starting to experiment with larger canvases, and the results remain to be seen.

I have found great sources of encouragement from Eric Fischl, Ross Bleckner and David Salle, maybe their common bond is that they all went to school in Southern California.
Coll

Nicole, Keith and Sunday Rose

February 14, 2010

Nicole, Keith and Sunday Rose

Nicole, Keith and Sunday Rose, 30 x 40, Oil on Canvas

I’m very excited about all the new artwork I’m doing. For the first time, I’ve tried a narrative painting: it’s a work in progress, called “The Thanksgiving Bear.” If you notice, both Nicole and her beautiful Sunday Rose are both staring at the talking bear, and Keith’s looking with love at his daughter.

I love the top of the painting, as it brings up abstraction, and figurative painting together, which to me, is exciting.

I’m also experimenting with digital images, then repainted, not always duplicating the digital image underneath the oil paint. The first one of this series is now a finished work called “Water.”

Another new work is “India,” which is oil paint, marker, and encaustic wax. The abstract feels, so to me, like being in India, that I named in kind.

Another portrait was done of me by my current teacher, Frank Ryan, a fine artist in his own right. I worked with Frank on getting my face to look more like I think I look. So, I would say the hair and eyes, and shape of the face, have been altered more by me, the rest of the painting is all Frank’s.

Currently, I continue to work on more portraits and more abstracts. I cannot give up either world, because I feel equally impassioned by both.

Recently, I joined the board of LACMA, as well as contributing at the L.A. Arthouse to the Hammer’s projects for emerging artists. I’m currently helping LACMA brand themselves in a way that will make them more of a destination, and so more people will know what LACMA stands for, and what they’ll find at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. My feeling was to feature Chris Burden’s “Urban Lights,” now installed in front of the LACMA entrance, in a 30 second video that will let people know that LACMA is becoming a destination, and people from all over the country are photographing The Lights, putting their photographs on Flickr, Facebook, and various photographic websites.

I’m now taking this project to the next level, by discussing it with David La Chapelle, a very famous pop contemporary photographer. My hope is to make this demo even more dynamic.

Carole Bayer Sager: Late Blooming (dog) Artist

September 11, 2009

artdog_0
Singer and songwriter Carole Bayer Sager has a fascinating article in the Huffington Post about how she became a late blooming artist.   My sister Sheila Cameron forwarded me the piece and then we had a conversation that went something like this:

Read More »

Art As a Second Career

September 3, 2009

huff
By Carole Bayer Sager

It’s difficult for me to explain how I, a songwriter for 40 years of my life, am now equally, if not more excited to write today about my painting.

It’s odd. I had no idea that I had any real talent for painting. Honestly. I had tried it five years ago and after a few months of lessons and a few unexciting paintings I gladly returned to my music room.

It was now, well over a year ago when my close friends, Margie Perenchio and Ani Moss asked: if they built and opened a studio/gallery, would I support the gallery by painting there? It was so far in the future it was easy to say yes. You know that kind of ‘yes!’
Read More »

Upcoming: Damian Elwes

July 21, 2009

daimanelwesLA Art House is pleased to present the work of Damian Elwes, opening October 8.  Elwes exhibits his brilliantly unique paintings of artist’s studios which reveal in accurate historical detail, the surroundings of some of the luminaries of the 20th century including Picasso, Gaugin, Matisse and Magritte. Based on meticulous historical research, including adventurous travels to long forgotten locations, Elwes evokes the essence of each artist at particular times in their lives.
www.laarthouse.net

Carole Bayer Sager’s passion for music…

May 29, 2009

times
By Mark Sachs

Carole Bayer Sager’s passion for music has given the world scores of memorable songs, including her collaborations on “Nobody Does It Better,” “Don’t Cry Out Loud,” “That’s What Friends Are For” and the Oscar-winning “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do).” And to think it all started back in the ’60s when, as a high-schooler, she wrote “A Groovy Kind of Love.”

But now it’s a love of art that has captured her imagination, and she’s channeling that passion into L.A. Art House on Beverly, where she’s curating an exhibit running into July called “Wounded,” featuring works by new Chinese artists. Read More »

Outside the Lines:
Songwriter Carole Bayer Sager finds a new voice in painting.

May 1, 2009

conf
By Carole Bayer Sager
download pdf >

If somebody had told me a year ago I would be painting as often as possible, with the same passion I once reserved only for my songwriting (creatively speaking), I would not have believed them.

But that was before my close friends Margie Perenchio and Ann Moss urged me to join them in painting on a regular basis at their atelier, LA Art House, which opened last September in Beverly Hills. Read More »

  • Sign Up for Carole's Newsletter
    Receive announcements about upcoming shows and links to recent writings.

  • Get the Flash Player to see the slideshow.

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives