![[Valid RSS]](valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed")
« Spraygraphic Interview with Chris Oatey | Main | Bringing Mardi Gras to the O.C.! »
Spraygraphic Interview with Gage Opdenbrouw
By Spraygraphic | December 26, 2007
Spraygraphic Interview with Gage Opdenbrouw
SG: Please tell us about yourself?
GO: I was born and raised in San Jose, though all my family is on the East Coast now. I’ve always drawn, and started really trying to paint as a teenager. Once i hurt myself enough skateboarding that I couldn’t do that anymore, things became serious. I play bass, too, acoustic and electric, though since i am self taught, I’m not too comfortable calling myself a musician.
SG: Where do you currently live and work?
GO: San Francisco. I’ve been here 11 years now, I live near Golden Gate Park, and my studio is in the Mission, I’m part of a collective called Compound 21.
SG: What mediums do you work with?
GO: I really prefer oil painting to just about any other medium. I do smaller works on paper in gouache, and watercolor pretty often, though, too. I’ve really enjoyed printmaking in the past, etching and monotypes in particular, but haven’t worked with that lately. I’ve even made some sculpture in the past, and wouldn’t rule it out for the future. I feel pretty focused on being a painter, though, and an oil painter specifically. It’s just the best…for me.
SG: Describe your working process when creating a new work.
GO: I would say that I prefer to paint from life, but rarely do, at least from start to finish, because of the complexity of the subjects I’ve been painting. So, if there’s a chance to do any sketches from life, I’ll do that first, and take some photos as a reference and an aid to memory. The information in photos is so limited, that really they are more an aid to drawing, and help to prod my memory for color. So then I either stretch a canvas or build a panel, and just start painting, or sometimes, if there are questions in my mind or my vision isn’t so clear, I’ll do a little gouache or watercolor painting to try to sort out the basics. I keep these really small (less than 6″ across), so that they don’t compete with the final painting. Using a really different medium for the study is good in a lot of ways, too. Rembrandt did painted studies for his etchings.
SG: What kind of things do you do when you get blocked or find it hard to create something?
GO: Well, if it’s real bad, I’ll stop working. Sometimes I’ll just go back to sketching or painting from life, a still life, an interior, a self-portrait…just go back to observation, rather than inventing things. Read. Go for a long bike ride. I often find myself at the beach if I am really blocked. There’s always a real backlog of office work I should be doing, too, so I can always tend to that…
SG: Where are you currently finding your inspiration?
GO: Around me in my daily life, if possible, that’s ideal. I really like the idea that if one is truly attentive, nothing is the same twice: the view out your window, the light in the sky, the way that light fills the room, a view on your daily commute and its constant changes, and so on. For some people I think familiarity breeds boredom, for me, it often breeds richness, if i can be quiet-minded enough to notice. So my most recent show, “Silence and Distance”, at the Charles Campbell Gallery here in San Francisco, was a selection of paintings of the city, one painting of Prague, a number of paintings of the ocean, and some paintings of my kitchen window at different times, in different kinds of light. I’ve also been finding inspiration in the imagery of Dia de los Muertos, (see below), and in some of my family’s old photographs, especially from when my parents were small.
SG: Can you tell us a little about how you began to paint skeleton like faces for some of your figurative paintings?
GO: Those paintings began with some photos I took on Dia de los Muertos in 2005. My studio is in the Mission, and I grew up in California, and I have always enjoyed the holiday, and its attitude toward death, the reverence and public remembrance of your loved ones that have passed along. My grandfather had just died, and we were very close, he was my biggest role model in life. So here I was on the street, with my friends and I all painted up with these skull-faces, and there was something very moving about seeing people i loved who are still here, with the outward appearance of the dead…there’s a lot of layers of meaning there, and I thought they would make good paintings. We had a very well received show of the first fifteen paintings or so in that series at the Campbell Gallery last September, and I am actually working now on new works in that vein, hopefully to be shown somewhere outside the Bay Area. There was an article about the tradition and it’s influences on contemporary artists in Lifescapes Magazine, now Art Ltd, that featured my work prominently.
SG: How have you seen your work change over the years? Do find yourself drawn to a particular subject or style?
GO: Yes, it has changed a lot, it’s certainly become quieter and more contemplative. At one point i thought that i would end up doing completely abstract paintings, but I am pretty attached to images. All the same, i do have a real love for great abstract painting, which for me is artists like Rothko, Barnett Newman, Diebenkorn, Ad Reinhardt, Philip Guston’s abstract work, some Brice Marden and so on. But i also really love traditional western painting, like Vermeer and Tiepolo, Goya, are a few favorites. But what really interests me is work that really combines abstraction and representation in a compelling way. I suppose some people look at my work and say, oh, it’s “smudgy”, or “blurry” or “soft-edged”. What I am really hoping to do is get away from that simply physical idea of representation that people get…that “wow! that looks real!”, and paint in a way that seems unsettled, that leads you away from the surface, to try to see something deeper than just how things LOOK. So I could say I am trying to paint the inner feeling of things, which is what any good artist does, in my opinion.
SG: Can you tell us a little about your private instruction program you offer. Do you have many students?
GO: My private instruction is really tailored toward the individual student, and I’ve taught people at all sorts of different experience levels, some who’ve never painted before, and others who have had a number of successful shows. I really try to be responsive to where each student wants to go and work with them on achieving that. I do find, however, that what most people need is refinement on the basics: drawing fundamentals, value, design, observation, sensitivity. So drawing and painting from life as a foundation to build your chops is something I am a big advocate of. It’s how I learned, and it’s a constant challenge. Of course there are things specific to particular media, and i also try to offer a sound foundation with respect to technical issues, and can teach students in any painting or drawing media that they are interested in, I’ve done it all, except airbrush and spray paint. I typically have only a few students at any given time, since my schedule is pretty full, but I am flexible about scheduling. Also, I’m going to be offering some classes for small groups (probably no more than 10 students) at the A. Muse Gallery, a great space near my studio. We’re still working on the program, but there will be several offerings, both classes and weekend intensive workshops. There should be a couple classes probably starting with Painting Fundamentals, and a Figure Drawing Class.
SG: Can you tell us about your soon to be released blog. What kind of content are you going to put out there?
GO: Well, I’ve been lagging on releasing it, trying to see just what else is out there, what other artists are doing with their blogs. For me, I just want it to be a place where i can post some of my thoughts about art in general, and have a conversation with people: the internet has great potential for that. I’d like to write a bit more and this is a way to do it. Certainly I have opinions, but i don’t think i am smarter than anybody else, so It’s not to expose my amazing intellect to the light of day or anything. I intend to interview artists I admire, whose work people may not have seen. I often find myself showing other artists lots of sites, all excited “have you seen this??”, so that seems like a natural fit. There are SOOO many amazing artists out there, no matter what your taste. If you’re interested in my work, chances are we have similar taste, so use the blog as a forum to spread the word about all YOUR faves! I’m going to start off on a good foot, I’ll be posting an interview with Nicolas Uribe, an unbelievably talented painter who lives in Bogota, Colombia, whose work i really admire. Of course, I might talk about my work too (later), exhibitions that are up…why limit it?
SG: Where has your work been seen?
GO: In San Fransisco, I’m represented by the Charles Campbell Gallery, where my solo show “Silence and Distance” just came down. I also show at Swarm Gallery in Oakland, which is a great new space. There’s a show of small works (under 8″x8″x8″) by local artists up there currently, I have a few paintings in that. My work is also represented by the SFMOMA Artist’s Gallery at Fort Mason, and by the Bryant StreetGallery in Palo Alto. I’ve been in juried shows in galleries and museums nationally. I’ve also had a number of solo shows at MPG Contemporary in Boston.
SG: Where will it be seen next?
GO: I’ll be showing some larger landscape and cityscape paintings in the lobby of 50 Fremont, a big office building downtown, in January of 2008. My work will also be featured in the first issue of Studio Visit Magazine, a new project of the Open Studios Press in Boston, the same folks that do “New American Paintings”, that should come out in February 2008. I’ll be scheduling some new shows soon, no doubt, so check my website periodically for news, or get on my mailing list if you are interested.
SG: What is your dream art assignment?
GO: Basically all these paintings I’ve been doing. Creativity under someone else’s direction is whole different ball of wax.
SG: What is your favorite color?
GO: That’s like asking a poet what his favorite word is. Can’t answer that one. One of my favorite words lately is “ramshackle.” I hope that doesn’t describe my painting, though.
SG: Who is your favorite artist? And Why?
GO: That’s tough, i can only do a list…and there will be so many neglected. Ann Gale, Stuart Shils, Eric Aho, Raimonds Staprans, Alex Kanevsky, James Lavadour, Enrique Martinez Celaya, Andrew Wyeth, Sophie Jodoin, Ben Aronson, William Kentridge, Antony Gormley…to name some that are working today… Those are alot of different artists, doing different sorts of work, but the reason i would say i like them all, is that they have interesting approaches to the dialog between material and representation, and none of them are overly ironic, or intellectual, or making art about the art world, which is generally something i can’t stand. I like art that makes you feel awe, of one kind or another, so that’s pretty broad. I still care about beauty, however old-fashioned that might be.
SG: What book/magazine are you reading this week?
GO: The Enormous Room, by E.E. Cummings. All Over Coffee, by Paul Madonna, is something i am constantly looking at. I’m also trying to read “The Artist’s Reality”, Rothko’s unpublished musings on art, but that’s a little tougher to get through.
SG: Ever do a self portrait? Where is it now?
GO: I usually hold onto them, but Steve Lopez, director of the Campbell Gallery, has one, he wants to try to get one from every artist he represents. It’s a sad painting, though, that one, so it’s best for me not to have it around.
SG: Where is your favorite place to hang out?
GO: Big Sur, the High Sierra, there are so many amazing places in Northern California.
SG: Any final words of advice?
GO: These are as good as any, especially for ‘creative’ endeavors:
Ever tried.
Ever failed.
No matter.
Try again.
Fail again.
Fail better.
ART:
1) Dia de los Muertos #1: oil on linen, 2006, 18″x24″
2) Andy??, oil on canavs, 2006, 18″x24″
3) Vanitas, oil on linen, 2006, 24″x18″
4) “Portrait of the Artist as an Angry Young Man”, 18″x24″, oil on linen, 2007
5) M, Halflight, oil/wax on canvas, 2006-2007, 38″x58″
6) Kitchen
7) White Light # 1, oil on panel, 36″x35″, 2007
“Waller St, Afternoon Light”, oil on canvas, 18″x24″, 2007
9) Longest Day of the Year, Twilight
Topics: Art Collectives, Artist Interviews, Paintings, San Francisco Art Scene |
January 27th, 2008 at 5:00 am
[...] Gage Opdenbrouw is teaching a ten week painting class, beginning February 6th, at A.Muse Gallery. [...]