Grounded in the world
Some history for your consideration...
Some bits of the past are good to keep around
I keep an album on my iPhoto app called “History”, containing a variety of images of much older work from my formative years. I have sketchbooks and work dating back to high school that I’ve kept mainly for legacy reasons. I want my art story to be as fleshed out as possible.
The other reason I have that album is to see the reactions of people who only know my abstract work from the past thirty-plus years. There’s usually a bit of shock because I think a lot of people forget that many artists who work abstractly started off learning traditional methods of drawing and painting from life. All of the abstract work that I’ve been making for the majority of my life as an artist has sprung directly from the world around me. Not specific places or things, but my work is the result of direct engagement and observations of my environment, natural and man-made.
Back in high school, I learned about composition and color from being taught about some of the Old Masters and Impressionist paintings. I was particularly enamored with plein-air painting, as well as drawing and painting still life compositions. I was big on taking sketchbooks with graphite and colored pencils out with me around my West Oak Lane neighborhood in the northwest section of Philly in attempts to draw trees and other scenes, like the ones seen above.
Whenever I went out, I was determined to capture everything I could and make the best drawing during that one sitting and not going back to change or add things later.
My proudest achievement in my high school art class was this painting. It’s the first oil painting I ever made and I still have it. This was one of my major in-class projects as a senior. The fruit and flowers were all plastic and I think I worked on it for four (?) weeks, one or two class periods each week. I remember being determined to capture a fair representation of light and color and how stressful it felt sometimes, haha! This painting is on masonite and is approximately 13 x 8 inches.
After high school, I went to college for a couple of years, but had to drop out due to lack of funds and direction, honestly. The only guidance I had was from my high school art teacher who told me to study something “practical” and make art on the side. I went with that, changing majors three times before having to drop out. I got a job to support myself and continued making art. For the five years between ‘86 and ‘91, when I returned to school, I worked and made art as much as I could, which is to say, all of the time. By this time, art was just running through my veins.
I was still steeped in a realist approach where I continued to make still-life and plein-air paintings and drawings. I looked to the Impressionists and how they would carry their paints, easels and other needs out to work with in the landscape. I had a light-weight aluminum easel, a large clip board that held my paper for pastels and a backpack with my other materials. Sometimes, I felt a tiny bit self-conscious walking through my South Philly neighborhood with my pack to get to the subway, on my way out to Kelly Drive behind the Philadelphia Museum of Art. That feeling dissipated as no one really seemed to notice the odd young Black guy with his painting materials. Part of me did want the younger kids living around me to see me making art and getting a glimpse of what was possible for them, too.
This drawing in pastel dates to a little earlier than the works directly above, but I wanted to include it here because I think it’s kind of funny and only because it’s an inside thing. I would often use fresh fruit as part of my still life work as much as possible. Of course there was some waste at times and mold experiments happening over the course of a few days, but…ART! When my non-art friends were around, there would be a teasing indignation at how I would sometimes let lemons, oranges, apples and whatever else I used to sit and basically rot away while I drew and painted. To my credit, I would change out the items before decaying, if I remembered.
The fruit in this piece were all plastic. I tried to convey some aspect of that by adding those hokey white highlights to the fake grapes and banana. I managed to let go of the dark outlines after this or maybe one more piece like it.
And so on…
Bringing it back to present times, this is a new work on paper that I’m excited about. That soft background contrasted with the hard-edged shapes on top feels good. Same goes for how the shapes resolved themselves and the overall sense of this feeling really new and alien to me. There’s another painting of mine from last year that also centers a portal-like form just about in the middle of the piece (see below):
The results are really different, considering the flatness of the forms in the newer work on paper, but the overall feeling is the same. I may have to attempt this on a larger canvas to see how things change with different materials and scale.
End notes
Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” video was released over the July 4th holiday and the dressing down that Drake gets is, well, watch for yourself. There’s more than just a rap beef happening here, though, with layers of meanings in the visuals and lyrics. This is on repeat in my head.
Here’s a great interview with Oakland-based painter, David Huffman on the Cerebral Women Art Talks Podcast
Did you know that there is such a thing as an “Intimacy Coordinator” for movies and shows? Well, because I do now, so will you. Give a listen to the story of Elle McAlpine on the Death, Sex & Money podcast:
To see more of my work, visit TimMcFarlane.com
For artwork inquiries and purchases, contact the Bridgette Mayer Gallery
Curators, collectors, and others who are in the Philadelphia area this summer and would like schedule a studio visit, get in touch: tim@timmcfarlane.com.
I loved hearing about the early years and how your work has developed over the past 30 years. Even though the style and subjects have changed your color and line choices have a consistency over the time span. Thanks for sharing.
I think you know that I'm also an art school drop out? I love seeing the evolution to abstract. It's what I see in my future, but haven't had the time/chance/inspiration to do so yet...30 years later still !!