The CAS has some big news! Ryan Brown, the director of the CAS, will be moving over to Paris by summer 2014 and will then open the school over there as early as October of that year! We're all super excited for this to happen and what it means for the growth of the school and curriculum for students.

Here's Katie Liddiard's recap lecture of her experience in Switzerland as a part of the Alpine Fellowship

This is Lavey Village, Switzerland. Charming, ain't it? Couldn't get much more perfect than this. Everywhere you looked was a painting waiting to happen. Inspiration in everything- Landscape, architecture, people, animals. I'm never happier than when I'm in Europe surrounded with other artists. But I think that my happiness has not as much to do with the landscape- though let's admit, that definitely adds to it- but more the atmosphere of having people who think like me, who want the same things I want, and who are willing to do anything that they have to do in order to get it. There's a sense of professionalism, camaraderie, and uplifting of minds that happens when a group of people like that get together.

I focused on what I had to do, why I was there and I worked my butt off. I was motivated every morning  to get out of bed and go paint. I almost always had a plan for what I wanted to accomplish that day or week. I threw out all of my insecurities and just painted my heart out. I experimented with new techniques that I was forced into such as having no access to any solvents and trying to work around that, as well as techniques that were suggested by the other artists. Since everyone had a slightly different background in their education, everyone had a slightly different way of doing things. Though it all was under the same umbrella of academic thought. So I tried all sorts of new things like toning my canvas with a color that I would normally have not tried before, and using bigger brushes than normal. Some of the techniques I liked and immediately incorporated into my work. Some I quickly realized were not for me. But the fact that all this new information was so readily available was exciting and enchanting and encouraging. I was swept up in it all.

We had regular lectures from visiting philosophers and professional artists which were enlightening.

Of course the lecture given by Roger Scruton and the symposium afterward with him, Dr Hubert Burda, Dr John Adamson, Jacob Burda, and Alan Lawson were mind blowing. I was reeling for days afterward trying to digest all of the information. And if you haven't already, go to DigiQualia.com to watch both videos. But the things that I came home thinking about over and over again were the practical things I had learned out in the field and from other artists, not the theories about what art is and the future of it.

After Zacheriah Kramer's lecture on limited palette I was completely rethinking how I use color which prompted me to paint a house the next day with only four colors. My idea of color theory radically changed in one hour. Though I don't think that I'll pare down my palette permanently, it was a good exercise in how much someone with a masterful hand can accomplish if they know their tools well enough. The hope is that we all can know our tools well enough to use them to their full potential. That takes years of work though. Every time I think I have this art thing kind of under control there's always something else that comes up that needs to be mastered. It's constantly a quest which is exciting and intimidating. I was forced to see how much I still have to learn with all of the different discussions, presentations, and demonstrations that we had.

I was high on the environment with everybody and everything encouraging me to keep going, but that made me think about home and the environment here and my seeming lack of motivation. I’ll get back to that in a minute. One morning I went out drawing with Andreas Birath, the director of the Florence Academy of Art in Sweden. I quickly gained a great respect for him, as a painter and as someone who constantly thinks about painting and teaching, and someone who is very humble. He related a story to another student, Amy, and I that day: the Russian hockey team a few years back was the best in the world. Not just by a little bit, but by a lot. Every single day they practiced at least 5 hours a day. And every person on the team both on and off the ice put forth 100% every single time. They won the world championship easily, but that didn't stop them from working harder, perfecting their techniques, and always pushing for more. All day, every day. If there was even one person putting in 95% instead of 100% then they were stealing away time and energy from the rest of the team. That person would immediately be weeded out because the team didn't want to be dragged down by people who weren't as committed as they were.

I asked Andreas how to weed out people like that in the studio. He said to get rid of them, though I don’t know that’s the best answer. I would like to try and encourage people to make the sacrifices it takes to reach their goals more than dismiss them entirely. Though I think at some point if that person doesn’t come around to the groups collective thought then they are doing more damage than good. But I liked the idea of everyone putting forth their greatest effort in order to achieve their highest aspirations. I don't know if you've ever been in a situation like this, but there is a very tangible feeling in the atmosphere. It's encouraging. And if you are not adding to the atmosphere then you are stealing from the others who are.

This is why I felt it so important to teach more and add more to the studio. I need to take steps to add to the atmosphere that I'd like to be a part of. Ryan has been trying to tell me for years that I need to be an example to the newer students, but I'm sorry to say I'm a slow learner. However, I finally get it, and I want to be someone who helps boost the school to it's full potential. We all have the potential to be amazing artists, but we all need to help each other in order to achieve our goals. This little community that we've created for ourselves is pretty amazing given our surroundings. But we can and need to do more.

I don’t know if you guys have ever felt this, but for a long time I was concerned that I didn't really have what it takes to be a great artist. I felt that I didn't have enough passion, enough drive to accomplish the skill level that I need to have in order to achieve the goals I have for myself. I felt like I would get distracted too easily. I still do, to be honest. I lack the discipline I really need, though it's something I'm constantly working on. I recently read an article that eased my fears and made me believe that this is where I belong:

by James Clear

The Myth of Passion and Motivation

One day while I was working out in the gym, there was a coach visiting who had worked with thousands of athletes over his long career, including some nationally-ranked athletes and Olympians.

I had just finished my workout when I asked him, “What’s the difference between the best athletes and everyone else. What do the really successful people do that most people don’t?”

He briefly mentioned the things that you might expect. Genetics. Luck. Talent.

But then he said something I wasn’t expecting.

“At some point,” he said, “it comes down to who can handle the boredom of training every day and doing the same lifts over and over and over again.”

That piece of advice surprised me because it’s a different way of thinking about work ethic.

Most of the time people talk about getting motivated and “amped up” to work on their goals. Whether it’s business or sports or art, you will commonly hear people say things like, “it all comes down to having enough passion.”

As a result, I think many people get depressed when they lose focus or motivation because they think that successful people have some unstoppable passion and willpower that they seem to be missing. But that’s exactly the opposite of what this coach was saying.

Instead, he was saying that really successful people feel the same boredom and the same lack of motivation that everyone else feels. They don’t have some magic pill that makes them feel ready and inspired every day. But the difference is that the people who stick with their goals don’t let their emotions determine their actions. Top performers still find a way to show up, to work through the boredom, and to embrace the daily practice that is required to achieve their goals.

According to him, it’s this ability to do the work when it’s not easy that separates the top performers from everyone else. That’s the difference between professionals and amateurs.

I think that because we all go home every night, places that are extremely comfortable for us, it's easy to get bored and distracted. Most of us haven't removed ourselves to places where our sole reason to be there is to learn more about our trade. When you're in a place like that your mindset is completely different. You tell yourself that this is it. You have nothing to do than improve your skills. It's quite luxurious despite how much money it usually takes to put yourself in that sort of situation. I've been fortunate enough to experience that three times in my life. Every time I'm able to get more out of the experience than the time before. This last time really amped me up. I hounded Ryan over email about how I didn't want to come home because it felt lifeless and uninspiring here. This is one of the emails I sent in annoyance:

People stay up late to talk art, work together to figure certain problems out, encourage each other in moments of doubt, etc. that we just don't get at home. Sure, part of it is the logistics of it all. Almost everyone here is under the same roof, eat the same meals at the same time, drink wine together, or whatever else that we don't have in Utah. But I still see no reason why we can't have late night chats. Why we all have to be separate from one another when we should all be working together for a common goal.

I can't feel artistically dead anymore. I need to feel inspired in order to create pieces that I feel are truly worth creating. I can't rely on my surroundings to dictate inspiration because it won't come from Utah. So I have to create it.

It was after this email that Ryan and I started to talk extensively about how we can change things here in order to keep the motivation and encourage everyone around us.

Despite the CAS being in “Art City” a lot of our supposed ideas that we teach at this school are pretty radical in the art community here. Though we, as a group, prove that there is a want and a need for this education here. What we make of the school here will only help to magnify the school in Paris where it ultimately belongs. Let's all help each other. Let's all share ideas. Let's all be awesome friends. In the Ecole des Beaux Arts there was a definite ranking system that they held to. We've joked several times about it in this school with the Massier and the Rapine, but I don't actually want that sort of atmosphere in here. I am no better than anyone else in this room who works as hard for what they say they want. I'm trying to be more open to critiques from everyone, not just Ryan because everyone has a different point of view. I can learn from all of you even though I'm close to the end of my formal education here. You all have something to offer.

The future of representational art is high according to certain philosophers, publishers, and painters. Everyone in the art community on both sides of modernism and representationalism is feeling the shift. Though work that we call silly and thoughtless is still claiming millions of dollars at auctions, work that we hail as good art is catching up. The collectors will start to change their preferences and it's entirely possible that we could see contemporary representational artists making millions, consistently, their own lifetime. Work is finally being created that people can and should relate to. Though the road ahead is long and rocky, I'm in it for the long haul. I truly want to change the world, but I can't do it alone, obviously. We are stronger as a group. I have fought against this idea for a while because I didn't want to be tied to anyone else or a school of thought. I wanted to be me and make my own name for myself. Be little miss independent. But I've recently changed my thought about this. Groups that think alike are able to have more of a voice because they are able to focus each other and lift each other up to their full potential. I want people to know where I come from and when they think of me they think of all of my friends or vice versa. The masters of the 19th century were constantly talking to and critiquing each other. Sharing ideas and techniques. I got a taste of that in Switzerland and it was amazing. I don't want to lose that because now I'm home. We can and should create an atmosphere of openness, acceptance, and ultimately producing great work. People will start to listen once we have the work to back up our claims.

After having the experiences we had in Switzerland, Brock, Ryan and I traveled north to Paris. At every turn opulence abounded. Our minds were blown. The first night we went to see the Eiffel Tower. We were all taken aback by the realization of where we were. The history that occurred in that city is rich and everywhere you look that history is reflected in the culture. We visited Shane Wolf while we were there and he mentioned that the Parisians seem to hold themselves different because the surroundings they’ve been brought up in. The museums are amazingly accessible and hold some of the world’s best masterpieces in their walls. Bouguereau, Corot, Friant, Morot, Bonnat, Gerome, and countless other masters were waiting for us to come converse with them. Being able to be 2 inches away from this Bouguereau and seeing just how deep his mastery ran was life changing. I was swept up in this painting and felt like I was the only person in the museum while I was looking at it. I just wanted to sit and stare all day long- all month long, really. Copying from the master’s paintings became obvious to further our own educations and the educations of students. Then true mastery can be achieved in our own work as we apply the lessons that the masters teach us. The CAS can be bigger and better than what we are right now. I truly believe that Ryan’s big idea for the school will change the entire art community and bring high culture to general society. But we’ve got to start somewhere. Whether you attend the CAS or are just a friend, we as a group need band together and make it happen.

For whatever reason I have had the goal of being one of the best artists in the world for as long as I can remember. Every thing that I’ve done in my life has been to take steps toward this goal. Now I’ve achieved more than I thought I’d be able to on a technical level, and my goals have expanded. I want to be a part of a culture that brings back values that I feel have been compromised in the 20th Century. The idea is that if I create paintings of beautiful, universal subjects that enrich, uplift, and engage society the viewers will hopefully want more of that in their lives. I want to help strengthen values such as love, respect, honesty, faithfulness, beauty, and education.

Practice and Science of Drawing, Harold Speed

Chapters IV- VIII

 "...the eye only sees what it is on the look-out for..."

~Harold Speed

Harold challenges us to see what it is that we're drawing. Anyone can look at a rose, but the artist must see how the light hits the petals in different degrees of brightness. Or how the color isn't just a gradient from light to dark. Or the delicacy of it. Or the texture of every part. Or the naturally occurring rhythms. The artist must see what the laymen only glimpses.  

The Impressionists seemed to recreate how to see, how to paint. Strokes of pure color were laid down side by side to create the desired effect of light on objects. But what they forgot as they did their studies was the strength of drawing.  Everything was flat on the picture plane. Nothing was rendered or turned as form. So though their new way of seeing objects as they actually appear on the retina was groundbreaking, it's not how our mind perceives the world around us. We are able to see depth and form because we have two eyes. So the artist is challenged with the task of making a two dimensional object (the canvas) an illusion of three dimensions. 

There are several ways of going about this. Mr. Speed insists that the student must study both line and mass drawing at the same time in order to eventually weave the techniques together and thus more fully get the natural effect of how we perceive objects.  At the CAS we focus more on mass drawing as it relates more to paint, but we must not forget the power that the line can hold in drawings. Rhythms, strength, and expression are all embedded in a properly placed line while masses contain atmosphere and solidity.  Both are crucial to an accurately represented drawing. 

The fear of nearing what we actually see in nature is that our drawings become lifeless. The closer we get to nature, the farther away we get from the emotions that either the artist or the subject emanate because the artist is more concerned with technical accuracy and not with how the subject "feels".  While it is imperative that the student study how to accurately represent whatever is placed before him, it is just as imperative that the student remember what it is that makes him want to be an artist in the first place. Being able to express one's self is what art is about, but it's very easy to lose sight of emotion in favor of accuracy as you go through your studies. Therefore, having the discipline to work on one's own time without the fear of critiques would be advantageous.  (Not that I have the authority to say these things as my own discipline tends to lack at times.) If the student always keeps a sketch book with him and uses it at every spare moment, the life of the world around him will fill it up. It's hard to have static figures in a two minute sketch. And sometimes I need to take my own advice. 
~Katie Liddiard 

There has been a lot of discussion on what is art and what makes an art piece true art.  It is interesting the public has longed for and craved excellence from antiquity.  Watch any sport and the best athletes are admired, envied, and copied.  Books are written and movies are made about the best of the best.  The best of the best truly inspires.
  Recently an artist stretched primed canvas and laid them on the floor in an art gallery and the controversy flew on whether or not this was real art.  It is interesting the canvases were put on the ground.  What we usually find on the ground is discarded and deemed as garbage, picked up and thrown away.  Something of real value is never left on the ground where it can be walked upon, or something spilled on it, or ends up covered in dust.
  If you want to be successful in anything, find someone successful, find out how they became successful, and do exactly what they did to become successful.  Think of golf legends, or basketball, football, or basketball legends.  Many a child studies about them and dreams about becoming as good as they are.
  As a child I would spend hours in the encyclopedia (this gives my era away) pouring over paintings by Goya, Velaquez, Rembrandt, etc.  These paintings were alive to me.  It seemed as if I could reach into the photo and touch the fabrics and or the hands or faces of the subjects in them.  I marveled that someone could make silk fabric read as silk fabric with paint.  The flesh looked alive.  How did the artist render that?  What did they know in order to achieve greatness?
  In college, one of my art teachers talked about what she believed would bring an inexperienced artist to fame and fortune.  She believed there had to be some knowledge of the basics, but the artist had to be on the edge, a trend maker.  The art of the past was just that-the past.  The wheel had to be re-invented.  The William Bouguereaus, Velasquezes, Rembrandts, they had had their day.  Why would you ever think to become like them?  This goes back to my thought-find a highly successful person and do exactly what they did to become as good.
  Harold Speed in his book The Practice and Science of Drawing describes what it takes to accomplish what the best of the best artists achieved. This book is not a one time read for the aspiring artist.  Every time I read it I am in a different place and I find something new to apply.   He speaks about art schools producing only academic students. "It has been the cry for some time that Schools of Art turned out only academic students.  And one certainly associates a dead level of respectable mediocrity with much school work.  We can call to mind a lot of dull, lifeless, highly-finished work, imperfectly perfect (which in my opinion is what a lot of art nonsense is happening now, and is supposedly the beauty of it) that has won the prize in many a school competition...
 But perhaps the chief mistake in Art Schools has been that they have too largely confined themselves to training students mechanically to observe and portray the thing set before them to copy, an antique figure, a still-life group, a living model sitting as still and lifeless as he can.  Now this is all very well as far as it goes, but the real matter of art is not necessarily in all this.  And if the real matter of art is neglected too long the student may find it difficult to get in touch with it again."
  There lies the difference, mediocrity or greatness.  Sometimes with recognition artists believed they have achieved and their education ends. They believe they have arrived to greatness, but lay their work side by side one of the master artist's work and their weaknesses are glaring.
  It takes real humility to recognize one's faults and weaknesses.  It takes real strength and perseverance to do something about it.  I am speaking to me as well as to you the reader.  There is something noble in the struggle from mediocrity-to good-to great.  I love "to dream the impossible dream," and then to strive to achieve it.

~Laurie Bell

Practice and Science of Drawing, Harold Speed

Preface - Chapter III

“The emotional side is beyond the scope of teaching...all you can do is surround [students] with the conditions calculated to stimulate any natural feeling they may possess...by familiarising the students with the best works of art and nature.”

-Harold Speed

I've been mulling around the idea recently of the development of taste in society. How do we come to recognize truly masterful works, or even tasteful ones, much less create them ourselves? In the quote above, Speed offers an answer: surround ourselves with the best we have and in us will grow understanding and discernment.

Having been burned once in the university system where the modernist movement was lauded as a seminal event in the progress of the arts and where previous works and achievements were passed over or even scorned, I am skeptical of what I am told are the best works. The art world today seems so divided, that if asked to identify the greatest artists, each faction of a different answer. The abstract expressionists would name Rothko, Pollock and Brancusi; impressionists, Monet and Degas; we Academics, Bouguereau and Gerome. 

I echo the reaction I have heard from many outside the art world who are disenchanted with art today, "Where are the standards by which we are to judge, and who creates them?" Though I identify more with the academics and impressionists than any other group, I am unwilling to say that those in the 19th century had all of the answers, and take only the few masters from that era as models. But who else? 

Speed does make a few statements on the subject which resonated with me:

- “Art for art’s sake,” and “art for subject’s sake,”...neither position can neglect the other without fatal loss.” 

- “...whether they are good or poor artists will depend on the quality of their feeling and the fitness of its expression.”

-“Great things are only done in art when the creative instincts of the artist has a well-organized executive faculty at its disposal”

Taken together, I understand his point to be that artists who are worthy of our study are those who have refined both their intuitive and feeling natures, as well as the technical skills involved in relaying those feelings to others. Mastery and balance. I can buy into that.  

Even with some clear criteria, finding "the best" work off all of the centuries and all the cultures past and present - is quite a task! One which Speed points out is a unique challenge to the modern generations. "Not only European art, but the art of the East...is part of the formative influence by which [the student] is surrounded; not to mention the modern science of light and colour...no wonder that a period of artistic indigestion is upon us. Hence the student has need of sound principles and a clear understanding of the science of his art, if he would select from this mass of material those things which answer to his own inner need for artistic expression.”

So, as we recover from our bought of indigestion, Speed offers a beautiful analogy that has brought me a good deal of hope: "The position of art to-day is like that of a river where many tributaries meeting at one point, suddenly turn the steady flow to turbulence...After a time, these newly-met forces will adjust themselves to the altered condition, and a larger, finer stream be the result. The hope of the future is that a larger and deeper art, answering to the altered conditions of humanity will result.”

I feel, with so many students asking similar questions - trying to make some kind of order out of the masses of information and opinions available - that we are on our way to achieving that "larger and deeper art" - and, like Speed, I look forward to the future. 

~Emily Taylor

 I've  always enjoyed reading Harold Speed. He has a sense of humor that whether he meant to put into his writing or not makes reading the material he presents enjoyable.  He was also, clearly, an educated man. He was able to put into words what I've felt at times not knowing how to describe it. He's one man whom, were he still alive, I would love to have lunch with and just pick his brain to attempt to gain a drop of knowledge from his reservoir. 

One thing that I've been thinking about for a while now is why it is that we do what we do. As artists, I mean. Why do we feel the need to copy nature and hang it on a wall? We can talk about technique, draftsmanship, form, line, mass, etc., but what does it all mean? 

"The visual blindness of the majority of people is greatly to be deplored, as nature is ever offering them on their retina, even in the meanest slum, a music of colour and form that is a constant source of pleasure to those who can see it. But so many are content to use this wonderful faculty of vision for utilitarian purposes only. It is the privilege of the artist to show how wonderful and beautiful is all this music of colour and form, so that people, having been moved by it in his work, may be encouraged to see the same beauty in the things around them.This is the best argument in favour of making art a subject of general education: that it should teach people to see." 
-Harold Speed

How concise. It's practically the old cliche "stop and smell the roses." Taking a moment in life to enjoy the simple beauty that is everywhere in our every day routine. And shouldn't everybody be given the opportunity to be taught the ability to do so?  The painter purposefully takes from nature that which moves him to feel something and puts it on canvas in the hope that someone else will feel something similar through it. 

Having the power to implement a certain feeling into someone else is something that should not be taken lightly. Art has traditionally been used for the uplifting of society, but modern artists often times seem to feel the need for more of a shock factor than actual deep emotion and value.  And society has responded. If asking strangers on the street what good art is, how many people could come up with a definite answer? Yet, back in the 19th century, art was criticized harshly by the public if it didn't meet certain standards of quality in both technicality and emotion perceived. I feel, personally, that it's about time that we re-educate the public by first putting values in our work. Work on a higher level than our contemporaries so that the difference will be clear to the viewer. Once society learns to see the difference between "modern" art- art which holds a facade of pure emotion and if you don't "get" it then you just aren't looking hard enough- and art rooted in nature, tradition, hard work, mastery, values, and emotion, I believe we will see a better society overall. 

~Katie Liddiard

“An act of vision is not so simple a matter as the student who asked her master if she should “paint nature as she saw nature” would seem to have thought. And his answer, “Yes, madam, provided you don't see nature as you paint nature,” expressed the first difficulty the student of painting has to face: the difficulty of learning to see.”

Harold Speed

There is the crux of the matter. What am I supposed to see? The first tendency to see too much, or to fall in love with the darkest shadows. It can be putting down too much information too soon. Goldilocks, “not too much, not too little, but just right.” I see what I want to see. Even if I see “it”, putting it on paper accurately is a whole new challenge.

I am training my eye to see the hierarchy of importance. Which is why I am here in CAS, to understand exactly what is important and when.

~Laurie Bell