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Welcome to the Art
Guild's
Archives!
February 3 - Jason Sorley - Large,
Religious-Themed Oils
Jason
Sorely, an artist with a seminary background, will show how he paints
large oils with biblical themes. It was fascinating to see him in
action at the Art Fest Waco last fall. As he altered colors and
values and increased detail, it was much like watching a sculptor
removing everything that didn't look like what he had in mind. In fact,
he works from mental pictures, not photographs. That's fortunate, since
many of his works include multiple figures, for which it would be difficult
and expensive to arrange models.
His art, some of which is shown here, was used for the lobby display
during the Waco
Civic Theater's production of Amadeus. If
you know anyone who might want to present art to their religious
institutions, tell them about this one. We will meet at our usual time and place, the Waco
Charter School, 615 N 25th Street, 1:30 for refreshments and
conversation, with the meeting beginning at 2, and the demo soon
thereafter. The demonstration will end prior to the beginning of
the Superbowl. First time visitors are free, so bring friends along. And please bring some of your recent work to share at Show and Tell,
which beginning with this meeting, is becoming an Art Work of the Month
contest. Those present will vote for their favorite piece, and the
one with the most votes will be recognized after the demo when the
artists share their work. Additional recognition will be given at
the end of the year.
February 3 - Jason Sorley - Large Religious Oil Paintings -
Using Classical Methods
Jason Sorley grew
up in Clifton. Art was
always his dominant interest, and he majored in it at the University of
Dallas. He also took theology courses there, because the art that
spoke to him most was the religious art of the Renaissance and
pre-Renaissance eras. He feels his calling is to produce grand
paintings of that sort, but without the stiff formality that
characterize most of them. Instead, he strives for figures who are
real humans, extraordinary in character, devotion and circumstance, but
with emotions and thoughts that we can immediately identify with.
At age 23, he is well along the path to accomplishing that.
Happily for Waco, he is doing it here, in a Victorian home on 4th
street, across the street from the police station and next door to St.
Frances Catholic Church. He commented wryly that he feels safe
there, where body and soul are protected. He works simultaneously
on many canvases. One current one is 9 ft by 12 ft!
He begins by researching and by making a series of
sketches, perhaps sixty or seventy, but it could be hundreds for a very
large painting. At this stage he becomes very familiar with his
subjects and develops his composition until he has it well formed in his
mind. Although he uses the religious subjects of earlier periods, he
departs from the idealized and romanticized versions by giving his
subjects earthy robust forms, realistic postures, and faces which show
emotions. He does not use models, but uses his imagination and his
historical research to create his images. He works with both types of
grisaille painting - open, which is luminous and transparent, with the
light shining through the glazes, and closed, which has a rich body of
opaque paint under the glazes, starting with a neutral gray-brown
canvas.
He began the demo with a partially completed painting of the Holy
Family, in which Joseph is gazing lovingly at Mary, who has her
attention on Jesus. Because Joseph is tallest and takes
a large
part of the canvas, the viewer's eye tends to go there first, but it
follows the eyes in a spiral to Mary and on to Jesus. These
paintings take many sessions over periods of months, at least. For
us, he only worked on a small part of the scene, Mary's left sleeve.
He used cold press linseed oil and turpentine as a wash
to cover the already painted surface, wiped off the excess with a towel,
and added a smoky glaze called "sfumato" which toned down the bright
colors. He made a buttery "oleopasta" by mixing black oil medium with
beeswax and turpentine and adding pigment as needed. He gets his paint
from Norma Schmincke of Germany and uses Venice turpentine from
Similier. He recommended Maimeri as a good European paint company. His
pigments were permanent red + lead white for rose color; vermillion
light + white; and alizarin crimson. He removed the sfumato from
highlights, scumbled these areas with light gold, darkened shadows, and
blended it all to model the shapes almost as if he were molding clay.
Setting that aside, he brought out a second painting, a
portrayal of Abraham preparing to sacrifice Isaac. He had already done
an acrylic underpainting the day before. He used an open grisaille
technique with lead white + burnt umber with oleopasta and a little
varnish to increase viscosity. He brushed this over the entire area of
Abraham's face, wiped off the excess with a towel for highlights, and
used a eraser- like polyurethane wedge for removing the glaze from
smaller areas. He added vermillion + white for reflected light. For the
beard he laid on ivory black + white with a palette knife. He muted the
color with yellow ochre + white + vermillion, then glazed over with
transparent paint (vermillion + white).
Because it was Superbowl Sunday, we had
much less time
than we would have liked to see Jason in action. There was
discussion of having him back later or perhaps having him conduct a
workshop for us. We were impressed by this young man's talent,
craftsmanship, and scholarship. We are thankful that he shared his
work with us.
We also thank Linda Green, Saundra and John Vasek, Eileen
Lyster, Charlene Isbell, Bobbee Watts, and Judy Franklin for bring
refreshments and all who brought art for our first monthly contest,
conducted by Bobbee Watts. The entries are shown below.
After the votes were counted, those who received Painting of the Month
ribbons were Linda Green, Bobbee Watts, Hilda Giles, and Larry Garza,
seen at the right. Works are shown below.

Pat Blackwell Nancy Cagle Bill
Franklin Judy Franklin Larry Garza

Hilda Giles Linda Green
Pete Moffat Violet Piper
Bobbee Watts
(Rose Jacobson
intended to bring a painting, but she sold it on the way to the
meeting!)
February 25 - Arboretum Exhibit Setup
Please bring up to 3 art works (hangable or with a
display case) to the Carleen Bright Arboretum in Woodway on February 25
between 9 and 10 a.m. You will need to sign a waiver of liability
and provide information for the booklet describing the exhibit. If
you cannot bring them yourself, please get someone to bring them for
you. There are no limits on subject matter, size or medium, except
that they may not have been displayed at the Arboretum before.
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