SALON 28: Painting From the Inside Out

Painting From the Inside Out


Featuring Guest Artist:
D. Lee

Greetings, salon guests! We have had a long break and are back to finish out the year with an interview with American artist D. Lee from Lexington, Kentucky.

This will be your last chance to take part in an interesting discussion at the Salon, until Summer 2009. As of 15th January 2009, the Salon will close its doors for renovations and return in a new format in Summer. As always, if any hosts are interested in taking part in 2009, please contact me and we can schedule you in.

Thank you all for your support and participation in our discussions the last couple of years. I feel good that we have added to the growing body of blog-as-group-dynamic, taking it into a different arena than blog-promoting-one-person. Both are totally valid (I have personally used and will probably use both again), it's just good to see the form has multiple uses and is evolving.

Have a contemplative Winter, thriving Spring and see you again in the good old Summertime.

Now, onto our discussion with D. Lee. Although this is an interview format, please feel free to ask questions. Both D. Lee and I will be checking in to respond over the next few weeks.



Do What You Love and Love What You Do!


Michelle Miller Allen
Green Phoenix Productions



THE INTERVIEW:

M: Greetings, D. Lee! Thank you for agreeing to join us at the salon and share some of your beautiful work with us. Was animal portraiture always an area you intended to get into as an artist? How did that come about? Also, to clarify, would you say that is your main area of professional art work? Wildlife and animal portraiture?

D: I don't feel I am a portrait artist, even though I have done, and occasionally still do, portraits. Animals were a natural choice, because I love them and that is where my interest and knowledge lie. But I also really want to do more figure (human) work. But skin frightens me. :) I haven't gotten the knack of skin. Even though I know I should look at it no differently than grass or fur or anything else. Portraits are my least favorite thing to do, as it feels restricting and the pressure can be huge. I'd rather just paint something and hang it, if someone likes it, they buy it, end of story. I have dealt with some real pita's doing portraits. But they are good bread and butter.

M: Have you had mentors? If so, we'd love to hear about that process and how it has impacted your career.

D: Yes! The most influential has absolutely been Morgan Weistling. (www.morganweistling.com) . I got lucky enough to take one of his (two) workshops, about five years ago I guess. He influenced me so much. It was actually a very intense frustrating workshop (we were painting from live models, something I had barely done), and my drawing skills are sorely lacking. And Morgan is big on drawing accuracy, as one should be. I truly wanted to just throw my palette across the room more than once during that workshop. I could SEE what I wanted to do, and could not even come close to doing it. More than that though, he taught me about painting 'from the inside out'. That is, where you really don't sketch out the whole painting beforehand, you just start at a certain place and complete as you go. I really related to that kind of painting, even though it was (and still can be) frustrating to learn at the time. But in a way, I get much less panicky about painting when I paint like that. If I have a big piece, or a subject I am not very sure of, that is how I paint it best. If I paint all over the canvas at once I tend to get distracted, uneasy and a lot of times never finish the painting. There are many, many paintings of mine with another painting underneath.


M: Do you find that there are areas of your life that "being an artist" feeds and vice versa, that is, are there areas of your life that feed "being an artist"...I guess I mean, how integrated into the whole of who you are is your artist career?

D: Well, if I want to wear bizarre-ish clothes, people will just say 'Oh, she's an artist.' :) It probably only really affects how I see things. I see a thousand things I wish I could paint, literally and figuratively. Literally, in that I wish I had a camera to capture it, or could actually paint plein aire and do a good job, figuratively because I know I am not good enough to really pull it off. Great light gets to me all the time. And sometimes even if I had a camera with me, the moment or view is too quickly gone, and it's over. That always makes me sad.


M: Do you have rituals before you begin your work? What kind of space do you work in, do you require solitude, etc. We love to hear the details!

D: My rituals before I work involve doing almost anything to not work! It takes me FOREVER to get in there, and then I am easily distracted. I wish I was an artist that painted a certain number of hours a day. I have friends like that. They make me feel guilty! And honestly, I suppose if I REALLY wanted to paint eight hours a day, I would just get my butt in there and do it. I'm not sure if it's just my nature, or if it goes back my earliest days of trying to paint, and having two young daughters and a demanding husband, and earning money by teaching lessons, training horses, cleaning stalls, etc. Art was something I got to do after 10 pm in the corner of the kitchen after everything else was done. Needless to say, not alot got done.

I actually had a workshop instructor (Tom Browning) say to me "It takes you forever to get ready, but once you're there, you can really paint!" Haha. I guess maybe that's why I like Quick Draws (completing a painting in an hour)... it's right up my alley. Of course some of them also turn out like crap. :)

M: When you are on the road, like going to art shows or things involved in your own horses and other travel, do you do much on-the-road art?

D: I haven't done a show for more than a year now. And I don't miss it either! I am in two (almost three, if I get off my butt and get something done) galleries now, and even though they take a substantial cut, that is what I prefer to do. When I am traveling, art is usually photographing. I am not much of a plein aire painter, although I KNOW I should be.

M: Do you feel like you are "a real artist"?

D: Haha, good question! The answer now is 'yes'. It took a long time. People would say "Oh you are an artist?" and I would answer "No, I just paint." I'm not sure when the shift took place. Funny, the people who can make me feel like maybe I am NOT an artist, are other artists. Usually ones who do abstract or very contemporary work. I think artists can be their own worst enemy, which is kind of sad. I paint realistically, but in an impressionist (loose) kind of way. I am not a photorealistic painter. I'm not an abstract artist, my mind doesn't even work that way, I don't think I could do it if I really tried. In fact I know I couldn't. And sometimes I really wish I could. One of the most irritating comments I hear is "just let it flow". Argh. That is usually said by a non-artist if I speak of a struggle I am having. "Letting it flow" has no bearing on my type of art. It really is amazing how technical it truly is. Which is also why I question the "right brain' thing. But anyway, painting is definitely NOT relaxing for me. One of Morgan's sayings which made me laugh out loud when I heard it, and is one of my favorites to this day, is "We all know painting is nothing but a series of disappointments." I still smile when I type that. Kind of makes you wonder why we do it!

M: There is a cultural mixed message...one, that to be a true artist you must starve in a garrett and have fame after your death...the other is that if you don't earn a living by your art you are not a true artist. Any comment on how these mixed messages have impacted you or impact you?

D: I don't think I'd ever heard the one about 'if you don't earn a living you are not a true artist'. I've definitely felt a somewhat of an Art Whore because I DO sell. Obviously I'm painting for money, right? It's an interesting discussion. I do look at art as a source of income, as well as (occasional) pleasure. I truly love when someone loves their painting. That makes me happy. I hate having to make up Artist Statements and such, WHY am I painting, WHAT was I trying to convey (umm... a cow?? Buy me?? ), blah blah blah. Tim tells me that is the marketing aspect, maybe it is the 'true' art aspect, I don't know. I've had to do that a lot lately, and it makes me think too much!

I do know that since the beginning (about 17 years ago now), when I first picked up a brush, I knew I would hang in galleries. Good ones. I got offers to hang in restaurants and such, but never took anyone up on them (not that there is anything wrong with that!). My goal was Jackson Hole and Scottsdale. When I first got in a gallery in Jackson, it was HUGE! Now I have been there five years. I love my gallery peeps, we are a family. I definitely won't be in a gallery that isn't fun. I know of too many who are pressure cookers, no thanks. I don't have so much of a desire for Scottsdale anymore, as I don't do that much western art. But you never know. :)

M: What is the best work you feel you have ever done?

D: Eek. Tough question. The best answer is probably there are some good 'licks' on some paintings. There are pieces of a lot of paintings I really like, seldom do I like the whole thing. Some of my favorites are probably the swan (which is still in my living room), "In the Meadow", which is my biggest and looks pretty good from far away, "Waiting on the Dudes" which is disappointing in some ways, but the most complicated piece I've done, it's credible, umm.... "Reynard" (fox), that's all I can think of at the moment. There aren't many paintings of mine I can hang and look at every day, that's for sure.

M: If you had unlimited resources, funding, support, etc. do you have a dream project you would do?

D: Wow, never considered such a thing. It would probably be sculpting something large. The one sculpture I have done I really enjoyed, and I have another one in progress (aka gathering dust). I need to get back to it. Casting is so horrifically expensive.

M: As a woman, have you "set up your life" to make being an artist your priority? How have you done so, if you have, and does your family (husband, bio family, etc.) play a part in that?

D: In my life, it has never been easier to paint than right now. Which is why I get angry with myself when I'm not. Of course I only have experiences of being a woman trying to paint, but I do believe we have it tougher. Tim is hugely supportive, and that is why I feel I have really grown as an artist since meeting him in 2000. In '01 I started getting more serious. I have to say I wholeheartedly believe there is still a gender bias in art, especially perhaps in western type art. Case in point (I know you know there is a reason I sign 'D.Lee'!), I won a pretty big award a few years ago. Got a small writeup in Art News ( I think it was), that said "D.Lee won the Southwest Art Award for Best Body of Work for his oils." And in that SAME issue was a huge article on how gender bias does not exist anymore in the art world. Haha. And the editor was a woman. Boy did I have fun correcting them! And that is just one example. I really feel that male artists are taken more seriously in my world, especially if the subject matter runs to cowboys (hey, I was a rodeo queen!), cattle, wildlife etc. Horses maybe are a little easier to accept from a woman artist. If you run down the list of artist in the Prix de West show, the amount of men is amazing. And we won't even get into the CowBOY Artist of America organization, of which no woman has ever been invited and probably never will. And that is one of the most prestigious art organizations around, commanding big prices if you can sign 'CA' after your name. Oh well. I just keep doing what I'm doing and trying to get better. You need a thick skin, to be sure.



For more about D. Lee's work and to see her stunning on-line gallery, her website address is:

http://www.dianasart.com/

Paintings shown on this blog (and all copyrighted by the artist and may only be used with her specific permission) are, in order of appearance - for details on them, see her website:

In the Meadow

Room With a View

Reynard

Sarah

Steaming

Waiting on the Dudes