An Interview with Doug Bloodworth

Doug Bloodworth is a well-respected and highly renowned photorealist Artist. He delights in depicting such beloved and familiar touchstones of Americana as Keebler fudge stripe cookies, M&Ms candies, Coke bottles, Monopoly games, Batman comics, and The New York Times crossword—in mid-attempt—all blown up to large 4-foot-by-5-foot canvases.

The hyper-real depictions of the pop culture flotsam and jetsam of our lives is a major part of the artist’s appeal, according to David Miller, who is the president and curator of Photorealism, a Boca Raton–based dealer that work solely with photorealistic art. On the success and quality of Bloodworth’s work, Miller States that:

‘It’s a combination of two things. Number one, the actual technical skill involved in the works. I’ve been in his studio and sat there for three hours watching him complete three square inches of a candy wrapper. Watching it appear from a white canvas is totally amazing. Then you have the addition of nostalgia. When one sees the actual works, it takes you back to another time.’

Internationally exhibited and acclaimed, we talked to the Artist himself to gain more insight into remarkable artworks, and how it feels to sell an artwork to Lil Wayne.

Why do you paint and why do you work in a photorealistic style?

For me, it is a challenge.  Can I do this?  Can I paint in oil paint to look like a Crayola mark on a coloring book?  Can I paint a newspaper to look like a newspaper?  Or plastic to look like plastic?

One question I hear from people that see a photorealism painting is ‘what is the point, why not just blow up a photo’ and I think to myself, if I could just explain my process then they would clearly understand the difference. I want each painting to play with the idea that it can be confused with a photograph, but to me it is so much more than simply trying to replicate a photographic image in oil paint.

Which Artists have influenced you?

I draw inspiration from a great deal of artists but here is a short list of some of my favourites. These are people that have helped to shape my work, and I enjoy making references to them in my own work.

Harold Zabady: Harold is a master of streetscapes.  Every time I see one of Harold’s paintings, I feel like I am right back in New York City.

Jim Jackson: Jim’s matchbook series is a masterpiece of photorealism.  But just as importantly, it brings the viewer back to their honeymoon, to a special anniversary or graduation meal or to a family vacation.

Johannes Wessmark: I love the relationship Johannes has with wine and all things wine.  His Corkhenge series, in which he blends the wonder of Stonehenge with wine corks, is truly his piece de resistance.

Mark Schiff: Mark is the mentor we photorealists all look up to.  He has been the guide for all of us who are trying to portray flotsam and jetsam in oil paint.  Mark’s most famous works include the theater candy counters and the series of scenes from the Brooklyn-based seltzer man.

Ralph Stearns: The word I use to describe Ralph is exactitude.  Ralph does not go for the soft edges; he brings hard lines into his work in an exact way.  I am most impressed with his Las Vegas series of paintings of blackjack.  I especially love the casino chips.

Rich Conley: Many curators ask me why I am obsessed with caricature.  I love caricature because I believe that it is the polar opposite of photorealism, and yet the talents required are so similar.  Rich Conley, I believe, is one of the great caricaturists in the USA today.

Is there a single Artwork that stands out as having a profound effect on your personal and artistic life?

My idol was Duane Hanson. He was a Florida sculptor who produced sculptures of people so life-like that they fooled the eye.  When his security guard sculpture was on display at Van de Weghe Gallery in New York, thousands, myself included, went up to him and asked him where the rest rooms were. It was truly uncanny. I will never forget that experience.

How did you become an Artist?

My main objective in life was always to be a fine artist.  I approach my work very seriously.  Even though the ideas are whimsical, when it comes down to the technical part of producing these things, I am very serious and I take my art extremely seriously.

I graduated with a degree in Commercial Art, and then apprenticed with Marv Gunderson, the renowned billboard painter. I worked under Marv for several years, painting outdoor billboards half the size of an Olympic pool. Most of the billboards were for Marlboro brand of cigarettes.  Each billboard took a whole team of us about two weeks to complete. However, after three months or so of being in view, the billboards were whitewashed to make space for a new ad for a new client.

After this time I moved on to painting murals, before developing the style that I am known for today. These experiences were tremendously useful and formative for me. I think that in a way, all artists are influenced by all the small details of their lives and that these kinds of jobs will always have some kind of impact.

Why and how do you choose the subjects in your paintings?

Television influenced me so much, especially early on.  The very first sketch that I did was Popeye and Olive Oil that my mother found under the sofa.  I still paint cartoons and comics that I remember from back then.  Once those things are ingrained into you, I don’t think that you ever forget them.  The Monopoly car came out at that time.  I also did Wonder Woman and some chocolates.  And the Spidey and the Oreos: I intentionally put it where the web is shooting out and he is trying to grab the Oreo cookie.

I love what I paint, and in fact, I have to have a personal attachment to whatever it is I am painting, or I don’t feel like I could do it. I think that is true of any artist.  I think you have to understand whatever it is you’re painting, and have a personal attachment to it.  You can’t just paint something because you think it might sell. Integrity is a vital aspect of painting, you have to be driven by passion, or else the work will lack a certain unexplainable quality.

Can you go into more depth about the technical side of your paintings?

I add linseed oil to my paint and apply it in thin and smooth layers at first. I use a blender to remove all brushstrokes, as this really helps give the colour great depth. As the painting progresses, the paint becomes thicker. The final stage is to apply the white highlights and sometimes I leave them very thick…like icing on the cake.

Glazes are important as well, especially in the shadows. Each painting is different in the way that I use the glazes, some require more layer than others, but I enjoy adding this extra dimension.

How do you organize your compositions and develop your paintings?

My wife Karen and I have fun setting up the still life compositions and lighting them as dramatically as possible. We usually take 50 to 100 photos, moving things around, adjusting, readjusting and tinkering with the lighting. It seems like in every case one particular photo stands out from all the rest and says ‘hey! It’s me…paint me!’

Using that photo to make my initial drawing, the painting process begins. At this point I look back at some of the other photos and use parts and pieces from them in areas where the lighting might enhance a particular object.

The main point that I would try to make without rambling too much would be this:

I take all the information that I get from the photograph and process it through my brain. I enhance things that I believe improve the composition, or completely leave out things that I feel take something away from the final painting.

I want my painting to be a representation of, and not an exact duplicate, of the photo. Even though I realize that the final painting looks to most viewers exactly like a photo, I like this alteration in understanding. I am totally fine with that, and when it comes down to it, I really LOVE the whole process from beginning to end.

Can you tell us more about your exhibitions?

I feel really lucky to have had the opportunities to exhibit in some great galleries. I was shown by Ron Hoy in his Hoypoloi Gallery (and its sister, Pop Gallery), which is located smack in the middle of Downtown Disney in Orlando, Florida, over half a million people walk by the door every week. They are introducing my artwork to a myriad of collectors, and I am so grateful for it. Over Labor Day weekend, I painted live at the Pop Gallery and there was a line up around the corner to get postcards signed. What a great scene it was.

It was also an incredible and humbling experience to be on the walls of the Russeck Gallery on Palm Beach’s Worth Avenue and in Soho, New York City—where the other works hanging there are by Picasso, Miro, Calder, Kandinsky, and the like.

My first five fine-art paintings were shown at Art Basel in Miami in 2011 and I was lucky enough to sell them all. I also exhibit at Effusion Gallery, next door to the Versace Mansion. Recently, Lil Wayne came in and bought my New York Times painting. I was so honored, and it is always such a special feeling when anyone connects with my artworks and chooses to buy a painting, it is always humbling.

How do people react to your paintings? 

I always enjoy overhearing what visitors to my shows have to say. Whether it’s in galleries in Zurich, Key West, South Beach or even Disney World, it is always amazing to hear people saying that they ‘love the photos’. When corrected, and told that they are looking at oil paintings, their look of incredulity is such a pleasure to watch. Many people stare at the paintings for a very long time. I always wonder what they are thinking about.

I also enjoy evoking feelings of nostalgia amongst the viewers. At Zimmermann + Heitmann Gallery in Dusseldorf, I overheard a family looking at my Monopoly painting.  One said, ‘I was always the dog’; another said, ‘I was the iron’.  At Atlas Galleries in Chicago, I heard a patron exclaim, ‘Wow!  Look at the Kid Cowboy.  I had exactly that book when I was a little boy.  And the edges of the book were frayed just like it is in the painting’.

I’m so happy because I’m doing what I love, and people also love it, so I mean, how can life get any better than that?

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Important Ideas that Changed Art Forever – Minimalism

Key Artists: Donald Judd, Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Richard Serra, Frank Stella, Robert Morris, Sol LeWitt

What is Minimalism?

In New York City in the Mid 1960’s, artists such as Donald Judd and Dan Flavin were beginning to become disillusioned with the principles of abstract expressionism. Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, artists at the forefront of this movement, had relied on singular subjective expression as the main impetus for creating artworks. They created (often) huge canvases covered with wild gestural brushwork and huge painterly areas of form and color.

‘I am not interested in the kind of expression that you have when you paint a painting with brush strokes. It’s all right, but it’s already done and I want to do something new.’ Donald Judd

Minimalism emerged partly in rejection of these ideas, and in favor of creating a democratic, stripped down approach to art making that also reflected the giant leaps that had been made in the industrial industries. Minimalist artists avoided emotional content and symbolism, instead creating paintings and sculptures that concentrated on the real, physical properties of the materials they used, rather than trying to create illusion or use metaphor and allegory.

Take Richard Serra for example. At college, he had worked at a ship building steelworks, and this material became a signature for his work. He bent and manipulated gigantic single sheets of steel into new shapes and forms that were free standing, and carved the spaces of the galleries and public areas in which they were placed in new and exciting ways. They interacted with their environments, and the audience had to walk around and through these works in order for them to be experienced. Serra stated that ‘the subject of the work is your experience, your walking…I consider space to be a material’

Minimalist sculptors concentrated on the intrinsic qualities of materials, and these were in turn used to concentrate attention on the spaces on the world around us, and how we interact with them. Donald Judd fabricated a series of ‘Stack’ sculptures that were rectangular slabs of steel and light attached to the walls of galleries like rungs on a ladder. Each gap between the slabs was exactly the same dimensions as one of the slabs itself. These negative spaces became important parts of each sculpture. Judd was shaping not only the physical properties of the artwork, but also the space around it.

Minimalism was less about the expressive mind or action of the artist, and more about a collective experience, and a show of possibility for the potential of materials. This mirrored industrial principles and simplicity was favored in the name of stripping away any sense of personal biography, or unnecessary and superfluous influences. Milled steel, fabricated copper, brass, aluminium, wood and bricks were all used, and industrial fabrication was preferred because it removed any traces of the individual human hand.

Minimalism also sought to destroy a great deal of the distinctions between painting and sculpture. Clemens Greenberg, a renowned art critic, had many formalist concepts, especially regarding painting, that the minimalists rejected. This in turn helped to forge the identity of their principles and aesthetic choices. Donald Judd was also a great writer, and many of the ideas behind the movement were well articulated in his texts. These became reference points for many critics and collectors, and also helped to solidify the intentions and direction of Minimalism within the context of art history.

History

By the late 1970’s, Minimalism was a worldwide phenomenon.

With Minimalism, painting had changed from being a window to another world. Works in the minimalist style instead emphasized the flatness of the canvas and the literal qualities of the paint, how it could be used as a material in it’s own right, rather than concentrating on its ability to create an illusion of space, light and emotional expression. Piet Mondrian, The Bauhaus, Russian Constructivism and the work of Constantin Branscusi, with his simple yet elegant sculptural forms, were all inspirations on the aesthetics and concepts that helped to form Minimalism.

Cultural Influence

Minimalism, its style and principles have had a huge impact on the worlds of design, architecture and fashion. You can walk into high end flagship fashion stores today, and the way that many of them have been decorated in a simplistic, ascetic fashion steals a great deal from the advances that minimalism made.

The Bauhaus movement was built around utility and the employment of simplistic color palettes and geometric forms, and with artists such as Judd and Stella adding their own take through their own artworks, these influences can be felt in almost all contemporary design in some form or another.

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Why is Art such a Valuable Investment?

According to the 2015 TEFAF art market report, the international art market is now worth more than 51 Billion Euros.

In 2015, Pablo Picasso’s ‘Women of Algiers’ (Version O) was sold for $179,365,000 at Christie’s auction house. The painting had been expected to exceed $140 million, but the final price was far higher than anticipated due to fierce and competitive bidding between competitors.

Previously, the most that any painting had been sold for at Christie’s had been $142.4m in 2013 for a triptych by Francis Bacon of the painter Lucian Freud (and in case you were wondering, yes, he is a relative of Sigmund).

In the same auction, Alberto Giacometti’s life-size sculpture ‘Pointing Man’ sold for $141.3m, earning it the title of the world’s most expensive sculpture ever sold at an auction.

Most of us don’t have a spare $180 million lying around to invest in a single painting, but these incredible figures do show us just how valuable an investment in art can be. These numbers are from one of the most prestigious auction houses in the world, and the collectors are themselves, incredibly wealthy individuals who understand both the financial worth, and the intrinsic value of great art.

But you don’t have to buy at this level in order to make an intelligent and rewarding investment. Art is valuable at every one of its different tiers, throughout its varied and distinctive genres. It is a unique market because value is subjective in a way that is almost impossible with any other type of artifact, service or commodity. The objective value placed on a work of art by the Market can rapidly escalate according to the individual tastes and sensibilities of collectors and dealers. We all see, feel and think about different things when we experience a work of art, and this subjective angle is an important part of ascribing value to each artwork.

The exact purpose of art within society is ambiguous. It can be used as a record and reflection of a time, a culture or an event in history. Art can be created to display wealth and prestige, act as an acerbic form of cultural and institutional critique, or exist as a means for pure and free emotional expression. Art is many things to many different people. Because its function within society is not dictated and fixed (as is the role of education, infrastructure, the welfare system etc), it is free to occupy these weird and wonderful realms. This is part of the reason that it maintains such a subjective and special quality, and also this is an aspect of why it can become so valuable.

Investing in the Art that is valuable to you

Sounds obvious, but when choosing an artwork, pick something that speaks to you personally. Living with a work of art, you will find new layers, meanings and elements to each work all the time. Experiencing an artwork for 20 minutes in a gallery is very different to living with a painting for 20 years, and seeing it every day on your wall. Over time, you will go deeper into the brushstrokes, marks and pencil lines. You will both consciously and unconsciously learn more about its color palette, composition, technical touches and subtleties in meaning and style.

If you are a huge fan of photorealism, geometric abstraction or photography, then invest in artworks from these genres. Choose a piece that you can hang on your wall and enjoy for its aesthetic, technical, though provoking, and unique intrinsic qualities. There is no right or wrong reason for you to choose the artworks that you wish to invest in. But you can be sure that you are making a sound financial investment that you can take pleasure in for many ways for years to come.

Intrinsic Value

Another reason why art is so valuable is because it can be totally unique. Picasso’s ‘Women of Algiers’ (Version O) is taken from a series of 15 paintings on the subject, lettered from A – O. It is a totally original work of art, created at a time in history that can never be repeated, by a man who can never paint another canvas again, because he is no longer alive. Timing and context are exceptionally important in works of art, and all great artists are aware of this fact. An artwork is tied to the point in history in which it was created, whether it acts as a commentary on the events and circumstances, is ahead of it’s time, or is making its best efforts to appear ahistorical.

If you also add the artistic achievements and cultural prestige of Picasso, one of the worlds most respected, favored and influential artists, then you can begin to grasp how the bidders arrived at this astronomical price. Art is, and will continue to be, a highly valuable and rewarding investment.

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