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    Devoted to Realism
    Devoted to Realism
    Devoted to Realism
    Ebook166 pages1 hour

    Devoted to Realism

    By Xlibris US

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    About this ebook

    It occurred to me a while ago that the art of realism is having a hard time surviving among the modern onslaught of abstract expressionism and whatever one calls the ensuing trends that emerged from this movement. I was pained to see such unimaginative color slashes parading as serious art, and even worse, five-minute session of slash dash being sold at extraordinary high prices.

    At first I thought, why should I care...just do your own thing, and never mind what the others think. Which I did for many years. Then I thought, people will never know the modern alternative to sloppy painting, and who can deny that a lot of it is. (Wols,Tanguely, Gorky, Pollock, Twombly, deKooning, and many others) Perhaps this slap-dash technique appeals to certaint types of person with a certain amount of psychedelic drugs in their systems or an endless amount of cash. As well as to people who listen to promoters selling for their clients. It always resonated as false to me, as in impostor, or not caring anymore. Once artists receive hundred of milions of dollars for what is considered by the public as in, and they are gloriously rewarded for their art, no matter how it looks or how it?s done, then who?s to judge anymore?

    Yet I wanted to represent the alternative, the New Realism, so that those types of people who cared for exquisite painting would also be served with modern realistic beauty. I took my cue from nature, the grandest and most perfect example of good stuff. I worked with composition and backgrounds and color. It felt good to render something hard to capture, rather than easy to slap-dash. The bounds of realism are endless and worth discovering. The rewards are lovely as well as enormously satisfying.

    Seen in this book are four major categories: Landscapes, Still Life, Floral and Children studies.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherXlibris US
    Release dateJun 6, 2014
    ISBN9781483699134
    Devoted to Realism

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      Book preview

      Devoted to Realism - Xlibris US

      Copyright © 2014 by Helga Olsson. 540074

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2013922058

      ISBN: Softcover 978-1-4836-9911-0

      Hardcover 978-1-4836-9912-7

      EBook 978-1-4836-9913-4

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

      Rev. date: 06/09/2014

      Xlibris LLC

      1-888-795-4274

      www.Xlibris.com

      Contents

      Dedication

      Preface

      Understanding Realism

      Preface For Still Life

      Preface For Landscapes

      Preface To Floral

      Preface For Children Study

      Portraits

      Question And Answer

      About The Cover

      Dedication

      It is a great pleasure and a unique honor to be able to dedicate this book to the person who is most responsible for helping in this effort. Marc Cohen of Wet Stone Graphics, River Vale, New Jersey, has photographed all the images in this book, and on some, he has fiddled with the colors and heightened the result. His wonderful eye and imagination never fails him, and I have been the beneficiary. It is true to say that without him and his enormous skills, this book would never have seen the light of day. He also introduced me to the making of cards from these images—a wonderful new way to say hello to people in a truly personal way. I use them for all holidays and letters and thank-you cards and, of late, invitations. I send them to my grandson so he can see how one thing ignites another: from a very simple beginning much grows. I am blessed to have found the genius of Marc Cohen, and I hope our working relationship continues, at least for as long as I can paint. 

      Sergio Lee and Edward Taylor of Xlibris Publishing brought such a sense of enthusiasm to this project, right from the beginning, which even convinced me that this was the right thing to do. These guys are not only hard workers but also so adept at exacting computer skills that were necessary to carry on this discussion between ourselves, they from Bloomington, Indiana, and me from Closter, New Jersey. How patient they were with this old gal whose real skills were applied to canvases rather than to websites. I am sure that because of my technological shortcomings we lost much valuable time. But because their mommies did a good job raising them to exquisite professional standards, they never complained when things just disappeared, and I had no way to get them back. (I should also thank AOL tech support for helping me retrieve lost files.) 

      Thanks also to Amy Scott whose patience was truly remarkable and constant. She did not hesitate to make needed decisions in the interest of the book, and for that I am touched and totally grateful. Working with people like these make an impossible project not only doable but perfectly wonderful. You’ve helped to create a beautiful work, Amy, and I want to thank you here for all your efforts.

      Thanks too to my husband, Carl, who has always been so supportive of my work and even gave up an afternoon of hitting golf balls in order to drive me to Ringwood, New Jersey, to retrieve my three paintings from a juried show, two of which were first and honorable mention prize winners. Thank you, Carl. 

      I am blessed to have had these people in my life. Thank you!

      signature.tif

      Preface

      It occurred to me a while ago that the art of realism is having a hard time surviving among the modern onslaught of abstract expressionism and whatever one calls the ensuing trends that emerged from this movement. I was pained to see such unimaginative color slashes parading as serious art and, even worse, five-minute sessions of slapdash being sold at extraordinarily high prices. 

      At first I thought, Why should I care? Just do your own thing, and never mind what the others think. Which I did for many years. Then I thought, people will never know the modern alternative to sloppy painting, and who can deny that a lot of it is. Perhaps this slap-dash technique appeals to certain types of persons with a certain amount of psychedelic drugs in their systems or an endless amount of cash. As well as to people who listen to promoters selling for their clients. It always resonated as false to me, as in impostor or not caring anymore. Once artists receive hundreds of millions of dollars for what is considered by the public as in, and they are gloriously rewarded for their art, no matter how it looks or how it’s done, then who’s to judge anymore?

      Yet I wanted to represent the alternative, the new realism, so that those types of people who cared for exquisite painting would also be served with modern, realistic beauty. I took my cue from nature, the grandest and most perfect example of good stuff. I worked with composition and backgrounds and color. It felt good to render something hard to capture rather than easy to slapdash. The bounds of realism are endless and worth discovering. The rewards are lovely as well as enormously satisfying.

      Seen in this book are four major categories: landscapes, still lifes, florals, and studies of children. 

      Helga Olsson

      Understanding Realism

      Realism, that which is actual, accurate, unidealized in real life as we see it in the objective world. We know that each person has his or her own images of reality; from the time they are born, real visions abound, and each person’s access to reality is linked to what they have experienced and what they see and trust as that which is. Hence, each person has grown and developed within his or her truths as they reflect the kinds of lives they have lived. Hence, no two people are alike in what they have experienced. 

      Realistic art preys on these individual truths. In order to be a realistic artist then, the first requirement is to be able to know oneself. This knowledge is not as easy as it sounds. Realistic art, for instance, is based on what we’ve amassed in our lifetimes, which then reflects who we are, what opinions we hold dear and invaluable, and what we like or don’t like.

      As art student in my early classes, students were asked to answer questionnaires about themselves, what they hold dear and what not, what is most important in their lives, what is essential and what is not. Very often many students had no idea what the answers to these questions were. They didn’t know themselves, and what they knew often did not make sense to them. It confused them, or it was perplexing. Therefore, we spent a lot of time trying to ask the right questions, probing for each person’s answers. We probed their interest in art, their various backgrounds; we made them get in touch with themselves, with their inner beliefs, and ideas on the world. There was much talk, much discussion, and many tears. 

      One of the first things that

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