I recently spent a morning writing about my influence to someone in a gallery in New York, whom I thought was interested in representing me. Sadly, after sending some images and putting these words together he asked for 150 dollars to feature in some catalogue of theirs. So that was that. I am used to being sent scammy messages, like this one I got this morning from so-called “Mr Beast” which read ‘Hi, You have some pretty amazing works, all I can say is Awesome! It must have taken a lot of time to put these magnificent pieces together..they are so unique..I’m so in love with then. I’d love to purchase some of them if i can be informed about them. Looking forward to hearing from you. Best Regards Mr Beast’. I just ignore those sorts of messages.
I suppose I was annoyed that I spent sometime answering this one. Why did I bother, well despite some misgivings, the Instagram account associate with ethe gallery had some really good artists on it. Anyway, I thought I’d publish the summary here in case people would appreciate an overview of my work as a whole.
My work is influenced primarily by US artists especially post-Edward Hopper American realists who revere light shadow and the sense of stillness and quiet. One of my favourite contemporary America Artists is Jessica Brilli who I traded paintings with a couple of years ago.
The only British artist I am influenced by is the late David Hockney, who obviousy was greatly inspired by American art. I include a few paintings to illustrate how I attempted to bring an American sensibility to the Irish landscape and more recently to the Welsh landscape in the UK. Here some examples
This composition was inspired by Fairfield Porter
In this series I attempted to pare all detail down – I called this style rural minimal.
A number of these paintigns have become book covers.
Recent innovations to this style have involved a more obvious use of texture inspired by the Bay Area artists, among others like Mitchell Johnson.
A recent development in my work has concentrated on another US inspiration, Richard Diebenkorn particularly his Ocean Park series of paintings. Using my husband’s drone photography I have been interested in exploring texture and composition primarily. These recent paintings show this style and they are still available to buy.
Finally I have occasional detours into acrylic gouche which seems to allow me to paint in a slightly different way to oil and acrylic – normally on hard board but I have really liked the results. I have tried to bring an American sensibililty to Irish and British landscapes.
Hopper! Of course.
I’ve been getting that sort of email too. For writers, they consist of a lot of (usually) well-done flattery, some improbable way of finding a book that didn’t make a splash but that they swear they could resurrect, and if you write back, eventually, a request for money. I’ve decided that the best way to know you’re dealing with AI is that they have endless patience and always understand why you’re hesitant to jump in.
Ah yes. Another group of filthy rich creatives – writers! They dont even bother to pretend to have looked at more than one painting. Thank goodness they haven’t set AI on me – yet!
Very interesting journey, well done! . It’s so hard to make an impact both for artists and writers. So many people just want your money. So many people who ghost you and so many scams. It is what it is I suppose.
Too true – the scams go in cycles. There used to be a lot of emails in slightly odd-English about buying a birthday present for a wife. Then it was NFTs. Did any body ever make ANY money from NFTs? No. Dont answer that. Then you ghet messages inviting you to talk at length about your inspration. I have a website and a blog for that. I am just a bit annoyed that I wasted time on them.
It is a crazy world out there I also have been approached I just tell them I am not ready for PRIME TIME 🙂
Ha! Ha!
Revere light shadow: an excellent way of putting it! I think you have mastered that reverence.
That is so kind of you, Hein
Your art is lovely.
Why thank you, Cindy
How annoying for you, and you seemed to have done some research into the gallery.
I enjoyed understanding more about your influences. I didn’t know Johnson, but as seen as I looked him up I could see the similarity in your works. I really like the ones you have painted with the stone fences….but I am going through a ‘rock phase’ at the moment!