“FAMILY REUNION” oil / 48 x 36 in. / by Henry Vermillion

NICE HOME, NICE PICTUREs

By Henry Vermillion

Britt (my wife) yesterday reminded me of a familiar truism: You can know a lot about a person by the pictures they hang in their home. This applies to folks with money as well as those with less, whether the pictures are reproductions or original art. The art should be beautiful/handsome, should suit the color of the couch/rug/curtains, and, most importantly, it should be TASTEFUL.

Of course, serious painters learn this early in the game. If you need to sell your art to pay the rent, you learn to paint reasonably beautiful, tasteful pictures. Common sense. They should be in your own individual style, but beautifully/handsomely done.

But if you have chosen art as a means of working out your personal hangups, your psychological or existential searching (a perfectly legitimate path to take), it´s best if you have an external source of income or a very big talent and/or a very big talent for self-promotion. Painters like van Gogh, de Kooning and Basquiat did it that way, but only the latter two made it financially, and Basquiat didn´t live long enough to enjoy it. In other words, norms and tastes of society change, but “tasteful” is always going to be a constant.

Which brings me back to Britt´s point. She was looking closely at a large oil I had done a few years ago. Six people populate the picture. All are gathered on or around a puffy cumulus cloud somewhere above the earth. In the center is an anguished young man, his head bowed, his arms and hands joined over his chest. Below him, seated, is a grossly obese nude man; he is looking up at the young man. To the right of the young man, the profile of a maternal gray-haired woman also looks up at the central figure. On the left side of the picture, the profile of a stern older man looks in, but his glance is at something over the head of the young man. In the top left, and from behind the cloud, a haloed Catholic Virgin looks benevolently down at the youth. The sixth and final figure is a winged and angel-like nude impudently sprawled atop the puffy cloud. One leg passes through the cloud and reappears below it. She has copper-red hair, attractive breasts, but wait! She also has a penis! He/she (or should I say “they”?) is also staring, with an accusatory look, at the young man. And at this point, we may have noticed that the celestial blue behind the Virgin on the left has transmogrified into turbulent reds and red-oranges behind the winged figure. What does all this mean? Why would anyone paint such a thing? Talk about bad taste!

Good questions.

Since I’m the one who painted the picture, I’ll mention that since I was a kid, I´ve been interested in what makes one person different from another, what makes them tick, and why they do what they do (me included): I was a child psychologist, with me being the child. Now, as a painter, I enjoy painting and drawing psychological types and situations. After all, down deep, people can be pretty, pretty strange.

The working title for the picture above is “Family Reunion”. Of course, the viewer can interpret (or not) what´s happening any way they choose, untasteful though the picture may seem (should you someday see it over someone´s couch). It hasn´t been shown in public before, but can be seen during our:

ARTISTS´ STUDIO AND GALLERY VISITS

Please contact us to set up a time to see for yourself.

“LEARN TO DRAW POSTER” / 11 x 8.5 in. / April 2024

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ARTISTS´ STUDIO AND GALLERY VISITS OPEN HOUSE APRIL 10th, 1-5 PM

By Henry Vermillion

Britt and I have decided the time has come to have an open studio/open house. Our larger house has given us space to convert it into a gallery (as well as living, teaching, and painting space).

So, on Wednesday, April 10 from 1-5 pm. we´re inviting friends and the public to come visit. This will be a sales event also, with special pricing on work by both of us. (Since we closed Galeria Izamal after 29 good years, I now show at Galeria Blue Moon (Stirling Dickinson #7, San Antonio, SMA), but Britt´s work has not been available to the public.)

As an added fillip, each of us will give away a framed print.

VIEW ARTISTS´ STUDIO AND GALLERY VISITS

'HAPPINESS' AFTER CHARLES BRAGG. pencil, watercolor by Henry Vermillion

'GUILLERMO' charcoal, pastel. by Henry Vermillion

‘LA CATRINA CON SU PERRO’ silkscreen 21 x 18 in. by Britt Zaist

‘ELEGANT CAT’ silkscreen 21 x 18 in. unframed by Britt Zaist

ON-GOING DRAWING CLASSES WITH HENRY VERMILLION

Henry Vermillion is currently teaching an on-going series of two-week "How To Draw" sessions (M-W-F, 10 to 1 pm) at his home at Lucero 43 in La Lejona, 2da. Sección (behind La Comer).

The classes deal with the fundamentals of drawing and are for both beginners and for painters who want to sharpen their drawing skills. Maximum of 6 people. Drop-ins may pay per class.

NOTE: Henry teaches students at different levels in the same class setting. And everyone gets individual attention. So, anyone can join his classes at any time.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Cell/WhatsApp: (+52) 415 215 1591
Home Phone: 415 152 6171

DRAWING CLASSES

Henry Vermillion will teach another two-week "How To Draw" series (M-W-F, 10 to 1 pm) beginning February 26 at his home in La Lejona, 2da. Sección (behind La Comer). The classes deal with the fundamentals of drawing and are for both beginners and for painters who want to sharpen their drawing skills. Maximum of 6. (Sessions may be paid individually.)

For more information:

Cell/WhatsApp: (+52) 415 215 1591
Home Phone: 415 152 6171
Email:henryavermillion@yahoo.com

´TUESDAY NIGHT CLASS´ pencil on paper 11x8.5 in.

ANYONE CAN LEARN TO DRAW

BY HENRY VERMILLION

That´s almost true. The exceptions are folks with severe dyslexia. But while those folks often cannot accurately draw something in front of them, sometimes their drawings, while different, are amazingly expressive.

The rest of us ordinary folks can indeed learn some simple rules that enable us to draw well. The techniques are simple, but like any other skill, it needs practice—and more practice, to get better.

In my classes I teach simplification. Make simple shapes or scribbles, and they can become faces, people, houses, or landscapes. An oval becomes a face, a rectangle becomes a human body—or a house, a horse, or the body of a dog.

Drawing should be done as much as possible the way a child draws: exploring and recording what interests them; what´s important to them in the world. But after some rules (and magic tricks) are learned, a grown-up person can learn to also measure—visually—the proportions of a figure, a tree, or a flower, in order to draw it more accurately, if that´s what is wanted.

Line is very important. Thick, strong lines, or thin, sensitive, probing lines add character to a drawing, as rapidly or slowly-drawn lines add a different feeling.

I, myself, am still learning different ways of drawing, still discovering. There´s no end to it, I think.

Finally: drawing accurately is not the most important objective. Drawing expressively, with conviction and feeling is most important. We´re not civil engineers or architects, we´re artists. As I always say: God gave us cameras so we could make exactly accurate images, if that’s what we want.

´PILLO THINKING´ 2001, pencil 10.5x7.5 in.

´FABIOLA´ pencil 12x9 in.

´PRODIGAL SON´ oil on canvas / 36 x 36 in.

AH, TO BE AN ARTIST!

Ah! For the life of an artist! A bit---or very—romantic. A life given meaning by creating beautiful paintings, sculptures. Free from the daily grind, from the rat race. Expressing one´s deepest feelings! The tragedy, as well as the glory of life!

Of course, that´s an old-fashioned notion, more 19th Century than 20th. Artists of today areunburdened by such ideas. They know how to build a solid platform on the Internet: Facebook, Instagram, Etsy, e Bay, Zazzie, Fiverr. These days, an artist is expected to be a savvy marketer.

I´m not one of those, but more about that later.

Living in San Miguel de Allende, as I and most of you do, I find the situation a bit strange. The place is a magnet for artists and arty folks. At my current co-op gallery (Galeria Blue Moon, on Stirling Dickenson) normally half of the visitors are artists looking for a space to show their work. Non-painters tend to be photographers, writers, Theosophists, or nice New Age folks who are trying to eliminate much of the stuff they have accumulated. Nice folks, bless ‘em, but I´d like to see more middle-aged retired captains of industry who know something about art and are collectors. I´ve heard there some around, but personally, the only ones I´ve seen were in the City Market buying cuts of expensive meat and good whiskey.

But enough grousing. Why did I become a serious painter? It´s all because of Joy Lynne Robinson. I discovered I had a talent for drawing when I was in the sixth grade. I sat down to copy a newspaper photograph of President Harry Truman. Wow! It was easy! It was fun! And my drawing looked just like him, shading and all. Joy Lynne was the cutest and most vivacious girl in the class, and to impress her, I gave her my new piece of art. As you might guess, she was not in the least impressed. (Two years later, I gave her my football letter jacket—a serious matter—and she didn´t even remember my gift many years later, at a class reunion.)

In any case, my path to Art began with that drawing of Harry Truman. Figurative work which is expressive and narrative suits me best. (The urge to decorate is innate and necessary to us humans, but to me, serious abstract painting tends to be a loftier breed of decoration, beautiful and interesting though it often is.) We humans are self-centered. We crave faces and figures---TV, cinema, People or Vanity Fair Magazines. Or even in Degas or Andy Warhol pictures.