More quotes extracted from the darkest corners of the blog core.

Tonights post is decorated with the work of George Inness all images on this page from artrenewal.org.

Here are more of the historic quotes excavated from beneath the surface of the Stapleton Kearns blog . Unlike the previous posts, some of these run a paragraph or so, but as I was hunting through the old posts they jumped out at me as being either informative, amusing or just over the top. That was enough to get them lodged here. This is the last of them, tomorrow I will be onto a different subject.

about dealers;
OK, first, here's how I look at the relationship, it is a symbiotic partnership, I DON'T WORK FOR THEM! In fact if anybody works for anybody, THEY WORK FOR ME! They are a salesman, I am a manufacturer, I fill their pushcart or sample case for them and then turn them loose. They don't own the wares, I do. If they don't sell, I can fire them. Or they can quit. If they don't sell, I don't pay them, its a straight commission job. They are a manufacturers rep, they may represent a number of other manufacturers besides me, so they are employed by those guys also. An independent contractor, like a retail department store owns their merchandise, they are not a rep for the company that makes the merchandise. If I come into a gallery and reclaim the merchandise I own, I have fired them. They may continue to work for other artists but they no longer work for me. Now that puts a different spin on things doesn't it?

Showing in galleries is a process. Plan on being in a bunch of them. Hopefully, in escalating quality. The first one is a big deal and you will be nervous and fumble.
I think I will compare it to meeting girls when I was young. ( girls LOVED me when I was young, they imagined I was sensitive) That was before my hair got sick.

SIR, IF I COULD GET THE ART TO YOU CHEAPLY ENOUGH, WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO DISREGARD QUALITY ALTOGETHER?

If you only paint the day, all you will get is meteorology.


IT IS HOW IT IS A PICTURE OF, AND NOT WHAT IT IS A PICTURE OF, THAT IS IMPORTANT!

PAINTING SHOULD GET HARDER FOR YOU RATHER THAN EASIER. THE BETTER YOU GET AT IT, THE HARDER IT WILL BE.


LEARNING TO PAINT LANDSCAPES IN THE STUDIO,
IS LIKE LEARNING TO SWIM AT HOME ON THE SOFA!

Have you ever heard a six year old play an electric guitar? An electric guitar wants to shriek like the damned, and can easily be made to rattle the neighbor ladies dentures right there in the little glass by her bed. Hell, just turn up the amp and drop the thing. ( yes I know about Lennon and the first note of " I feel fine", do you?)
A fine musician can make the guitar whisper, sing lyrically, softly weep, or snarl like hellhounds on my trail. They have control of their instrument. Its nature is to shriek, skill makes it obey the artist who plays it.
Paint wants to shriek too, that is its' nature. If you walk through the studios of an art school, the paintings are all thrashing, seizing , and howling gibberish like flaming demons on bathtub amphetamines.
Much of contemporary painting is over colored and has a cheapshot kind of carnival tawdriness, a loudness and insistent grinding hype and clamor, like flyspecked yellow light bulbs flashing on and off on the dirty white plywood signs for a girlie show.

Look at me! Hey buddy, over here! Step right up, Git yer fine art! Got art here!

We're flowers the color of lifesavers and gumdrops, and we're the size of ottomans. We're hard candies the colors of radium and transmission fluid. We're 1940's tinplate toys airbrushed with candyflake enamel, as big as jetskis and we're covered with water droplets and highlights, backlit and outlined in black. You bet your ass we're going to get noticed above your sofa.

On light and shadow;
Those contrasts are of value, color, saturation, pigment, temperature, and sometimes opacity.

EVERYTHING IS EITHER IN THE LIGHT OR IN THE SHADOW! THERE IS NO OTHER PLACE.

UNITY OF EFFECT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT QUALITY A PICTURE CAN HAVE.


My daughter came home from school one day and told me this question had come up in class and she found herself the only one in her class defending the idea of quality in art.
I suggested she tell them she played guitar as well as Hendrix. No kid in her class is going to buy that for an instant. No way! Jimi was a better guitarist they all will insist. . ..Hendrix was the better guitarist, he just was! they exclaim in frustration at such an absurd claim. They have no problem with the idea of quality in music.

PUT BUTTER IN YOUR SHOES

Gee, I was going to be nice today, Tomorrow, I'll put in another picture of a baby animal maybe. Or a happy little clown or something. Maybe some wax fruit.