A stroll down Barnett Newman way...

Through a Facebook friend today. I was able to find this little nugget of interest. A piece written by Barnett Newman for Studio International Magazine from 1970.

http://www.studio-international.co.uk/archive/newman_1970_179_919.asp

I can only wish that I had a copy of this particular magazine, as it seems like it was probably a really good one for that year.

Enjoy, and Thanks to Steve Metzger for sharing it on Facebook.

Salon Show

I wanted to share a few pics of a salon show I am in right now in Columbus Ohio at the Marcia Evans Gallery. I'm very thankful to Marcia for giving me this opportunity. The show will be up through the holiday season. So if you are in town you still have plenty of time to head down there and buy a painting.

Marcia at work making all the nameplates for the show. Look closely and you'll see my name being the one she is trimming at the time. Funny accident that I just happened to take that pic at that time. ;-)

 
Storefront @ 8 East Lincoln Street. Columbus Ohio.

Memories sweet as stevia...

Many wonderful things happening around the homestead. Spent a great week in NYC during the first week in November. Nice weather, nothing too cold to deal with. Got a fantastic amount of interviews for the documentary film. Had a wonderful time with Klaus Kertess, Karen Wilkin, John Zinsser, and Peter Reginato. While there I also got to hang out with other participants whom I didn't get to film this time. Including Pat Steir, Ronnie Landfield, and Michael Brennan. Also finally got to meet and hang out with Matthew Deleget, Daniel Levine, and Ruth Ann Fredenthal. Wonderful memories i'll carry with me the rest of my days. 

I really can't wait to let everyone see these wonderful interviews. You can check out a few extra little interview sections on the film blog. Have fun. The Kickstarter campaign begins at the beginning of the new year. Get ready for one hell of a push.

New title

I decided to change the name of this website to no longer pretend it had a focus primarily to painting. But to all fine art that I dig. I have decided to get rid of the Painter title with my name, as I figured it was too much of a play on the work of Joseph Marioni. Yes I still like the guy, who wouldn't.

I was in Moma, staring at the enormous Barnett Newman painting there and it hit me that I shouldn't feel a need to title myself. My name is my title and that is all I should need. Not to take anything away from anyone else. Everyone has their own ways of going about things. I just felt it was time for me to be Jeffrey Collins, and not Jeffrey Collins: Painter. There was really so much more to this idea when I was sitting there in front of Newman, but I guess I really should have written it down. I had a number of eureka moments in NYC during my stay while working on getting interviews for my film "Untitled: Stories of Painting 1970-2012". But like so many other times, I never wrote them down. Oh well. At least I got what I felt was the strongest one. The one that has stayed with me since that day.

I wanted to send out a web based Thank You to the many people in NY that I met and hung out with. Those I did film...Peter Reginato, Karen Wilkin, John Zinsser, and Klaus Kertess. Those that I didn't get to film or at least not yet...Michael Brennan, Daniel Levine, Ruth Ann Fredenthal and Ronnie Landfield. I had a blast with all of you. You are all wonderful people and I look forward to many many more conversations with you about life love and art.

Cheers.

I leave you with this image I got outside on 8th Avenue at about 10PM. A couple trucks getting rid of what the CW television station had put up but apparently not paid for. Since they left the advertisement turned around and it ended up looking like a giant Ad Reinhardt painting on the corner. It was pretty wild watching these guys. I hope I will get to see it again.

October Painting....

I love the feeling of finishing a new painting. So new, a wonderful addition to my family of paintings.

If you want to learn more about it, check out my website.
Thanks for viewing.

Studio Update 10-09-2011

Nice wonderful day, enjoying the light. New table for painting, trying out color. Making what would normally be characterized as preliminary paintings. The photos speak.

DuoChrome Films and "Untitled"

I have been focusing more these days on my film project and a bit less on this blog.  I am quite sorry about that and will not do that anymore. I do however finally have a blog where I am beginning to post more information about participants and other little links I find interesting that have something to do with documenting the arts. This is also my way of getting funding for travel expenses for the film, as I do have quite a bit of travelling to do. Until I get to my NYC interviews, that is. I am hoping to have a place in NY for about a month or two where I can get as many interviews as possible for the film at one moment. So please if you have $5 to $1005 to help out with...please do.

http://duochromefilms.blogspot.com/

Carl Belz

My first of many interviews for the upcoming film "Untitled"

Included is Carl Belz: Director Emeritus of the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University.

Looking forward to the next interview and the one after that, and the one after that. ;-)

Thanks for watching.

Documentary work.

Many of you know about my desire to work on the documentary on Modern Painting that I have been talking about. I have recently gotten most of the equipment needed to do my work on the film. There's only a few things I have yet to get, and i'm not in much of a hurry to get them, as they really aren't needed.

I have in the meantime begun making a short documentary on a local painter who makes some amazing atmospherical paintings. His name is Marc Ross. And you can view his work on his site, but to tide you over, here's a few images.

You can also check out the previous post on his show in Columbus Ohio here.

I'm almost done with the video and will be putting it online within the next day or two. So until then. Aloha!

Mark Grotjahn

Giving you many insights into Mark Grotjahn's paintings. I wish I could get to see these in person. I'm sure they are so much more intriguing in person. Check it out for yourself at Anton Kern's Gallery in Chelsea NY.



Big thanks to Loren AKA James Kalm for taking his time to document this event.

Learn about history for a few minutes.

Thought I'd share what was at one time THE most interesting show on television. Well at least what I think was. This show Weapon Masters was amazing. A way of showing you the history of weapons and how this genius Chad would take those old weapons and update them in striking scariness for the new era. This one in particular was when they were going to try to better the old Sikhs weapon...the Chakram. They couldn't really improve upon perfection in a weapon...but you'll see what they do anyway. Very Cool.

One new painting

One more painting done, many more to finish. Click the link below to take a look for yourself. You can also find a side detail image from my Facebook site.


















Enjoy and have a wonderful week.

Quote for April 18, 2011

Just came across a great thought from Mr. Albert Einstein that really caught my mind.

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.
It is the source of all true art and science."






















Thank you sir for your wonderful insights.

More Hodgkin..........

Here's another interesting video of Howard Hodgkin in Conversation with (Phillips Director) Dorothy Kosinski. Always nice to hear the actual artists perspective on their work instead of someone who's really just guessing.

Quote for today...April, 16, 2011

Whilst reading the book 'Japan and the West' which was an exhibition at the Wolfsburg Kunstmuseum. I came across a few interesting thoughts on how paintings can be filled and empty at the same time. One quote I liked came from the Tao Te Ching...

The Tao is an empty vessel;
it is used,
but never filled.
Oh, unfathomable source
of ten thousand things!

Such a wonderful un-thing as the Tao.

Pierre Soulages

Found this wonderful film of Painter Pierre Soulages in his studio. I definitely need to get to work on my French. Enjoy.

Photo: AP

Stairwell

Click to enlarge. Painting from 2011 and painting from 2000. Older work gives hints to newer work.

Structure and Imagery

A painting colleague of mine recently began his own blog about his work and work he is digging around the NY area. Great photos and great art. Check it out....

http://structureandimagery.blogspot.com/

Howard Hodgkin

Fantastic installation and behind the scenes videos of Howard Hodgkin's prints and painting.

Part I


Part II

You can see the exhibition up till mid May. Visit the Phillips Collection in DC.

Predominantly White...

I love white paintings. The color white for me is so soothing. So quiet, so reflective of what is pushed upon it. I found myself slipping into these paintings when visiting the Phillips Collection this past summer. Of course the room they were in was lit so wonderfully with natural light that it really brought out the beauty in them. I hope you are able to take with you a little of what I experienced in person, here in this documentary about the show.

A series of moments

Just wanted to share this moment with you...

Interviews

Was spending some time today reading some interviews from the Brooklyn Rail magazine, and thought i'd share a few of my favorites here. Always better to get your history right from the artists or writers mouth than from a third or fourth party.

Here's an awesome interview of David Anfam (who has written books on Rothko, Still, Kline, Pollock, Kapoor) with John Yau. You really get a sense of how David set about learning about his favorite painters. And how that love helped him get to where he is today.

http://www.brooklynrail.org/2009/12/art/david-anfam-with-john-yau

Here's another great one by Phong Bui with Painter David Reed. I always love these interviews with David as he's a stickler for history and you always learn something new about him or his work with each interview.

http://www.brooklynrail.org/2010/04/art/david-reed-in-conversation-with-phong-bui

And if you want the audio version of this, you can find it here.

Enjoy.

New works on Paper

Lately I've been making painting projections on paper for possible new works on canvas. It's been a great way for me to get a feeling as to how something is going to look on canvas. To be able to see how the colors either clash or compliment each other, to view their transparency and how another glaze upon that will enhance the pleasure I receive from the possible painting.

There are a number of images on my website. But I'm not going to share the images with you on here. As I wish for you to view them directly from the site, so that you have a dedicated computer experience with these works on paper. I will however give you peeks that lead you into the full works.


































Enjoy.

Slight changes equal big changes

While working on my new painting '02-17-2011' I was contemplating the impending change in my life it could possibly bring. As would be seen through my catalog of paintings. I have been toying with the true allover color painting for a long time. In the last year my work has undergone what I feel are major changes, with this new painting comes the culmination of over 15 years of developing myself as a painter. From making hard edge to collage to paintings depicting who knows what, and onto my development as a painter of textural color. I have spent a lot of time making a lot of paintings and will continue to push the development of myself as a painter deep into my future.

Painting goes on.

"02-17-2011"
25.5 X 16"
A/WF/C

Click to enlarge...

SOLD!

01-27-2011

More to be seen at... http://www.jeffreycollins.us

Marc Ross & Molly McNitt

Just got back from a tremendous show in Columbus Ohio. Painter Marc Ross and Sculptor Molly McNitt are having a show called Recounting the Sublime at Marcia Evans Art Gallery.

Marc makes paintings that contain layer after layer of beautiful color that makes for a very moving painting experience. One that changes as you move around it, along with how the light is illuminating. I'm definitely going to have to visit the gallery again this week to see everything in the wonderful glow of a southern light. Molly makes some amazing sculpture with bent and cut wood. She layers veneers together and bends them to her will and allows them to become gracious curves and flowing shapes. Definitely two artists who's work you would enjoy seeing in person.

Here are a couple photos from the show. I'll have more in a few days.

Here you can see how the paintings looked with the flash on.



And with the flash turned off. Here you get to see more of what they look like in person, and also how they change with the different lighting situations.



One of McNitt's sensual sculptures.

"Untitled" A documentary on Modern Painting.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/105716108/untitled-a-documentary-on-modern-painting

This is to become a historical document on modern painting at the beginning of the 21st century. And I hope one that will be as beloved 40 years from now as the seminal 1972 painting documentary by Emile De Antonio 'Painters Painting' is right now.

This will be a film with an emphasis on interviews with painters. Along with commentary from art writers, critics and curators.

Painters i have already received confirmation to be interviewed include...

Joseph Marioni:
http://www.thepainter.net/
Marioni is a leader in high modernist painting.

John Zinsser:
http://www.johnzinsser.com/
Zinsser is a leader in duochrome painting.

Max Cole:
http://www.artnet.com/artist/4256/max-cole.html
Cole is a leader in minimalist painting.

Michael Brennan:
http://www.michaelbrennan.info
Brennan is a powerful source in modern painting.

There are a number of other painters I am in negotiations with for being included in the film. You'll be advised on them as they make their decisions.

Writers and Curators I have received confirmation to be interviewed include...

Carl Belz:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss...
Belz is Director Emeritus of the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, along with being a writer in many art books.

Klaus Kertess:
http://www.amazon.com/Klaus-Kertess/e/B001K22I84/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1...
Kertess is the curator of the 1995 Whitney Biennial along with being a gallerist and writer of many art books.

James Elkins:
http://www.jameselkins.com/
Elkins is the writer of such books as 'What Painting Is...', 'How to Use Your Eye's' and is also a professor at the School for the Art Institute of Chicago.

Matthew Deleget:
http://www.minusspace.com/
Deleget is an artist, and runs the Non-Profit Minus Space in NYC. Which showcases the best in modernist and contemporary art.

I am going to be getting a lot of help from friends on this project, many of whom have a lot of film experience.

This film is currently in pre-production and donations raised will go solely into the funding of this documentary. This includes equipment, research, conducting interviews, editing costs, and miscellaneous financing. All funds will be used for the film. If we exceed our budget goal, all proceeds will go toward the production budget. With your funding help through Kickstarter, we'll be able to move forward on this film with less hurdles.

Any donation is very appreciated to help me achieve this dream.

Quote for the day 1-14-2011

Today I begin my year on this blog with a very worthwhile quote to make you think. Comes from a man who put his mind to his goal and truly achieved it.

"Once you say you are going to settle for second, that's what happens in your life."
John F Kennedy

These words have been ringing in my ears the past couple days...

Cheers and have an exciting and goal achieving year.
J