Asher Mains Art

This article will not be interesting to everyone. I had a hard time convincing my wife that it was interesting. The traditional method for stretching canvases over a stretcher or strainer is to stretch from the center out to the corners. It’s logical, it’s traditional, it’s the way things are done.

James Bernstein is an art conservator and otherwise spends an inordinate amount of time thinking about how paint behaves on canvas and how canvas behaves on a strainer/stretcher.

This article he wrote is pretty revolutionary to me and I may start stretching my canvases this way. You can find his article here: http://www.goldenpaints.com/justpaint/jp17article1.php

Here are some of the paintings I did over the winter break. I’m loving this dripping technique I’m doing and I’m excited about the potential for experimentation.

My theme with these paintings is the idea of impermanence that I talked about in the Painting Paradoxes post. I love the tension between then beautiful, physical, presence of the figure, the assertion that the figure is a product of history and yet the impermanence and fleeting nature of flesh. This painting I’m calling Impermanence and is 40″x30″. I feel it is especially successful because of the strategic deconstruction of the body allowing the background to show through. Also the ‘frame’ that makes up the breasts and face by using lighter colors allows the rest of the body to recede a bit.

I look forward to doing more paintings in this style.

The following painting is the same model, same pose, just a portrait format instead. It is also 40″x30″

This painting developed into an Adam and Eve narrative. I’m calling it “Fruit Stained” This piece is 48″x60″

This is the final painting – The model did two poses, one from which I took the reference for the feet and then the other I took the reference for the hand. I particularly like the use of color and just the fine tuning of some of my dripping technique. Compositionally, I love the repetition of the fingers and then toes as they form an arc. To me the visual “chord” of the fingers and toes needed resolution and so I added in the physical balance of the blue orb along with the color balance of a cooler tone.

Some of these paintings will appear in the Barbados and Washington exhibitions.

The purpose of this post is to start an initial inquiry into what the demand would be for a non-instructed figure drawing/painting session in Dallas. I am anticipating the canvas stretching business to slow down a bit over the summer and so starting in the spring I may open my studio a couple days a week for people to come in and work.

Here are a couple advantages to working in an environment like this:
- Flexibility. You don’t have to commit to a semester of classes and you can come and go when you need to.
- Creativity. You have the opportunity to experiment without the academic pressures
- Convenience. We would most likely set up in the evenings so you could swing by after work.
- Cost effectiveness. It can get expensive hiring a model, so we would all share the cost of the model. Sessions may start at $15 for a 3 hour session.
- Camaraderie. You have the opportunity to engage with other artists in the original context of a non academic creative community.
- Improvement. While you don’t have to take constructive criticism, you will be among a group of people who are interested in portraying the figure and have struggled with some of the same things you are. You will undoubtedly be able to integrate some of their ideas into your work and improve.

So, if you are in the Dallas area and would be interested in coming to my studio for figure painting/drawing sessions, contact me or leave a comment. I’d love your input on how to better tailor the time to your needs. Also, if you have never taken a figure drawing or painting class, this may be a great opportunity to get your feet wet before committing to a great time commitment like a class.

I get the question every so often about why I paint people. I feel that the figure is such an important element of our reality that it has to be approached with a certain theological and philosophical seriousness. The question is, what does it mean to portray the figure? Different traditions portray the body for different reasons and to different ends. Some traditions depict the body as a way of mastering the body. To portray the body with technical excellence is to dominate the body. Others intend to portray the unseen or spiritual aspects of the body. This is an assertion that the body is more than what we see. Here is my approach.

The body, along with several other topics is one of the paradoxes of Christianity. These paradoxes are not contradictory, but rich, deep, and available to probe. The body represents, on the one hand, a designed physical presence that is fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God. To portray the body is a physical statement and a historical assertion that this body is *here*, and subsequently *you* are here to view it. Therefore, the statement of the physical is an empowering and beautiful reaction to the figure’s presence.
On the other hand, the body was created to die. We know that our physical bodies are impermanent and that when we look in a mirror we see ourselves dimly. Our soul is contained by the body to be revealed only after the body has expired.
To portray the figure then is to portray the tension between the physical presence and the cosmological impermanence of the body. This tension is beautiful to me and it’s something that I hope you’ll note as I show my new work!

With the Christmas holidays behind me and two exhibitions in front of me, January is crunch time. I will be spending a lot of time in the studio and I am taking on a studio assistant to help with the canvas stretching and other projects around the studio so I can more time to paint.

I will try to update with pictures as I finish them – expect a deluge of work! I am shooting for about 15 paintings to finish in January.

If you have not yet visited Hung Liu’s link I have posted www.hungliu.com, take a moment to see some of her work in YouTube format.

Some of the images seem to be faded with the quality of image but I think her work is absolutely beautiful. It hits all my points – figurative and political with undertones of impermanence.

Hung Liu is a Chinese American artist currently teaching at Mills College in Oakland California. She was initial trained as a Chinese Socialist Realist and her current work represents some balking against those traditional methods.

Identity Study 18x24 Oil on Canvas

I saw that I hadn’t posted this one yet from the Summer.

Here is the technical information: I painted this one in a classical style of setting down a ground, grisaille and then two layers of color. I find that this method allows for a lot of dimension in the form. The first layer of color was in my regular red, yellow and purple palette and then I put a cooler palette on top to finish.

Conceptual information: The photo reference I used was from West Africa in the 1940’s. I was intrigued by her scarification which is an identifying feature in some West African cultures. I met people when I was studying in Ghana that had identifying scars. The people I talked to had scars that indicated what profession their family did. It’s interesting to me that it is an artificial indicator on top of natural features. One idea to take this a step further would be to create my own system of scarification that I would put on figures in paintings to indicate my own agenda.

The second thing about this painting is that even though the photo was taken in the 1940’s it looks like a modern day digital ’self-portrait’. As if this woman was posting her facebook photo. The concept of the self portrait speaks to cultures of narcissism  and statements of, “I am here, and you are here to see me.”

I thought it was about time to post some more of my work. I’m currently working on some figure study paintings I will post shortly!

Ex Nihilo 48"x60"

This is one of my latest paintings. This was last seen at the Brookhaven College student art show.

Ex Nihilo in Latin means “out of nothing”. I am intrigued with creation narrative of different cultures. Creation narratives are one of the ways people define their role in the cosmos. They are important and defining parts of culture. This painting is not as much a creation narrative as a snapshot of the creative process.

The brushwork throughout the painting is linear; strokes going up and down in a ‘constructed’ way. I want to make it feel like the figure is being ‘put together’. Like the brushwork throughout the piece comes to fruition in the form of the figure.

Antithetical to the notion of linear construction is the circle in the background. This represents the creative force acting externally on the creative process. The figure is propelled from the circle in an almost violent creative moment. The midground drips from ‘excess’ creative product.

The creative process is not placid and calm. The creative process can be turbulent and reverberating causing repercussions as a result of the creative moment.