INTERIOR EXTERIOR LIGHT

Exhibition of New Work
by Newberry

Saturday Evening, May 7th, 2005

Akhriev Hefferlin Fine Art
1405 Williams Street
Chattanooga, Tennessee 37408

To see the images in the exhibition go to www.RomanticRealism.net. Prices will be uploaded shortly.

For information:
www.melissahefferlin.com
www.daudakhriev.com

 

Studio Update:

 

Pencil Study for Kimberly, 2005, Rives BFK, 19 x 26

Between painting all the landscapes and interiors I am moving forward on two new works: Kimberly above and Lovers below. A great friend and collector recently visited me and mentioned that I rarely spoke of the content of my work; how the subject came about or how I feel about it. I thought I would write a little about that now.

Kimberly is a lovely woman who has very graciously stepped in to pose for two other paintings that didn’t originate with her, Venus and Little Goddess. I had wanted to paint something of her that would be all hers.

I have always loved the style of the Renaissance artists: da Vinci and Botticelli. They have a tremendous amount of grace and beauty in how they convey the human form…and a very special way with forming hands…and a wonderful innocence in bringing out the sensuality of the form and features of the face. So with my love for their style and with full conscious intent I wanted to emulate the spirit of them.

That is one aspect of the piece. Another is her earring. No, it is not a tribute to Vermeer…but to my favorite painter Rembrandt. With all his women he will have some feminine ornament, a ribbon, a necklace…so Kimberly and I hit on the long hanging earring.

There is a provocative painting, I don’t remember the artist or the exact date…16^th Century I think…of two women naked from the waist up. They both have the posture of formality except that one is pinching the nipple of the other…I always found that piece shocking in a similar way that I feel that Bosch is shocking in his triptych of Heaven, Hell, and Paradise…hmmm…not shocking in any horrible way more in the sense like how whimsical and irreverent some ancient artist could jump out at me through time. With Kimberly I wanted to convey her passionate connection to Earth by her cradling her breast in the “V” of her inner elbow.

Her hands are delicately crossed over her other breast/heart…that gesture for me conveys that her heart is important…and this might sound intellectual but it shows me that her self esteem is something that all comers must deal with…in a manner that says: “I am being kind to you now showing you that you have to deal with my esteem as well.”

As you might see, I could go on at length about issues I think and feel about in the painting but I would just like to add two more things. One is that I wanted her face to be good-naturedly shrewd and warmly open at the same time.

And…a huge influence of Picasso is at play in the work…(!) One of the most rewarding devices I picked up from Picasso is a technical aspect of creating an airy but powerful atmosphere by making the subject transparent. With Picasso it is quite obvious as he will literally chop his people and subjects into sections by bring the backgrounds through them. I am doing this in a subtle way but it is deliberate and pretty much everywhere in the drawing…you might have fun looking for that.

 

 

Half of this pencil study for Lovers is done. It will be a life sized painting of man and woman jumping into the water off a deck. I want them jumping as if they have the spirit of happy eight-year olds. She will have about the exact pose as him.

Some of you know that I have a serious philosophical bent. I have an in-depth knowledge about heavy stuff like Kant’s aesthetics and artists with intellectual monolithic themes. And to many of you it might seem that the idea for Lovers is a good natured work, which it is, but I think it is also as monolithic or conceptually monumental as any Christo or Malevich could hope to be. This painting is my answer to the question: What is the prerequisite for humanity’s future?

Many people think that reason is the answer, others think that productivity is, and, still, others think that God or community is crucial…but all of those aspects can lead to bad things as well as good.

So far in my life, I cannot see how fully experienced joy shared with like-minded souls, on Earth, leads to anything other than substantial real value. In other words, like Beethoven, I think that an Ode to Joy is where it is at.

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Wish me luck for a wonderful opening night.

Cheers.