Tag: abstract

High Contrast

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Nancy Hillis gives an excellent talk on contrast this week in the program “Studio Journey.” She speaks of the visual excitement generated by contrast of color: light and dark, warm and cool, and the play of complementary colors, colors that exist on opposite sides of the color wheel. She demonstrates these contrasts within her own paintings. She also examines contrast of smooth and rough texture of paint application, opaque and transparent paint applications and soft washes vs. bold brush work.

I love the teaching bundles in her program “Studio Journey.” She brings knowledge of science, art, mythology, psychology and physics together into easily understood food for though and exploration. A truly enlightening journey.

Nancy Hillis is an abstract painter, currently working in her art studio on medium to large abstract paintings. At the beginning of her program “Studio Journey” she says:

“Welcome to Studio Journey. I’m delighted that you’re here! As a fellow Journeyer, I want to guide and inspire on your journey. My mission is to encourage you to cultivate a robust studio practice, explore and experiment in your art and ultimately create your deepest, most authentic and personal work.

I see our work as artists as being a never ending journey of listening to and answering the call within ourselves to step into the wonder and the mystery of our art and our life. Just as in life, we’re continually coming back full circle to the foundations, the beginning of our journey. We do this over and over again and each time, we see the beginning with new eyes informed by our experiences.”

The Studio Journey has inspired many painters from all over the world who find her teachings enlivening and fulfilling. The challenges are exhilarating and a personal learning experience for all in this on line painting extravaganza.

Creations I have made on this Studio Journey, by Janis Kirstein:

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The Painting Journey Continues

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Our painting Journey Continues with Nancy Hillis’ Studio Journey online abstract painting workshop. Her assignments help free up your expressive inspirations through exploration and self confidence. Growth emerges through experimentation. My own personal journey has opened up possibilities far beyond what I faced even weeks ago. Thanks Nancy!

Painting in a Series

Paintings in Memory of the Homeless

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I share a studio with two other artists in Louisville Kentucky. We just recently had a very sad encounter with reality in the form of a homeless man who lingered constantly around our studio door. The story around this man unfolded in a series of tragic vinyetts leaving us all with a renewed awareness of the fact that the problems facing the homeless are, in fact, everyone’s problem.




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Just posted! Latest Paintings by Janis Kirstein






These paintings and more can be purchased at https://kirsteinfineart.myshopify.com




Nancy Hillis: Unleashing Your Creativity

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Beneath the surface of these paintings by Nancy Hillis, there lies a secret key to unlocking the viewer’s subconscious mind. Just try gazing at these works and see what happens. For me, these images  ignited the emergence of a new rush of positive dreams, I realized when I woke up the following morning.  I hadn’t dreamed like that for many years. In fact, I had become virtually unable to remember my dreams upon waking.  For me, it would seem that these paintings acted upon my mind as a catalyst for igniting the subconscious mind.

Janis Kirstein

 

 

Invitation to The Artist’s Journey

“I have been an existential psychiatrist and artist for over 20 years and through this work I have learned that the secret to creating expressively alive paintings is by trusting yourself. My vision and the work of my life in art and psychiatry is helping others to trust themselves and to create meaningful lives through their work. Take the plunge and start on your own path towards making the work of your life. Show us what you love!”

Nancy Hillis

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“The art of activating the canvas and bringing your painting to life with your own personal lexicon of mark making, expressive gestures and brushwork is nothing short of miraculous.

To create authentic and alive abstract paintings that are unique to you and your own vision is the ultimate attainment for an artist and yet the most elusive.

One issue is that you can get stuck repeating what’s worked before in your work. Another issue is trying to recreate what you love about other artists’ work.

I’ve found myself in both situations. When I finished my residency in psychiatry at Stanford I became fascinated with abstract painting. I felt that it was a mirror into the artist’s inner world, a potent and unique personal expression of the artist.”

 

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“I loved attending museums and galleries that featured abstract artists, in particular abstract expressionist work. I admired the museum exhibitions with works of Cy Twombley, Joan Mitchell and Helen Frankenthaler. I’d feel excited to go home and try to create paintings as raw, immediate and expressive as theirs! I wanted to paint works that astonished me. I wanted my art to mean something.”

I wanted to breathe life into my paintings

“The day I finished my residency in psychiatry I started creating abstract paintings. I didn’t know what I was doing but I’ve come to learn that this is a good thing. Saying this brings to mind the book Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind where Shunryu Suzuki said “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.” Cultivating an open mind and maintaining the teachable spirit of a beginner is a potent practice for artists at every stage of development.”

Being An Artist Is About ‘Not Knowing’

“One of the things I’ve learned on this journey is that being an artist is about continually evolving. It’s about searching and finding your way as you create. It’s about experimentation.”

 

In this video, Nancy explains the benefits of specific steps in painting for allowing  the development of an open mind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Collector’s Choice: Hyunmee Lee

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Hyunmee Lee’s paintings deliver a punch and a whisper, all within a complete sentence of harmony and stabilization.  Space and form balance in a delicate dialogue of opposites, yet the connections feel completely inevitable and preordained, as though this image is, will be, and has always been just so as you see it, indelibly existing forever and now, simultaneously.

Jan Kirstein

 

 

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ARTIST STATEMENT
My art practice crosses three continents over two decades. The works consider the images and ideas that mark my journey into the spiritual and cultural dimensions of painting as a creative activity. During a period when I have carried adventurous journeys across several different social and geographic divides, I began to search deeper for an understanding of who I am, and where I am. My paintings started to explore the idea of self as the most fundamental element of human nature; I tried to seek my identity as I examined human nature.

 

 

 

 

 

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In 1961 Hyunmee Lee was born in Seoul Korea, where she grew up practicing Western Modern art with experience in Eastern painting and calligraphy. Her art practice crosses three continents over two decades.

1985 Lee graduated Hong-Ik University majoring in painting. At the end of that year, she moved to Australia. She stayed there for six years and achieved two post graduate degrees. 1989 she exhibited in her first commercial gallery, Bonython-Meodemore Gallery, Sydney. At the same time, her work was exposed through a contemporary art book (Art Four).

1991 Hyunmee Lee earned a Master of Arts in Visual Arts (MFA) at the Sydney College of Arts, University of Sydney and returned to Korea. She lived in Korea for seven years. There she taught in Hong-Ik University as a lecturer and exhibited in solo shows in major art galleries and art fairs in Seoul.

1997 Lee came to Utah, U.S.A. where she continuously taught in universities and built up her art career. 2001 She became a faculty member of Utah Valley University. 2002 Lee had her first solo show in America, called Mountain Armatures, at the Woodbury Art Museum in Orem, Utah. 2006 She showed her large scale work in the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Intimacy Without Restraint. 2008 After achieving tenure, she retired from teaching and more fully concentrated on her art. She is currently working with U.S.A galleries.