Perspectives
On May 3rd, the Warwick Art League hosted Timothy John-Luke Smith in a pastel demonstration. Timothy, a self-confessed unconventional realist, dazzled us with an in depth walk through of his work in pastel portraiture.
He starts out with a pencil drawing of the subject on a marble dust mixture board. The drawing is a complete line drawing. Timothy then builds layers of pastels in a glaze effect. The results are stunning, full of luminosity and life. If you are interested in more detail, please visit Timothy’s web site. It is fantastic and he takes you through the whole process.
The perspective I would like to leave you with is that through out the demo, Timothy would impart pearls of wisdom that gave insight into his concepts and approach to his work. Combining his rich traditional background from the Academy School of Fine Arts and a bold sense of adventure, Timothy insists that the art should look beautiful in all stages of the painting and will break the rules to get there. He mixes the softness of the pastels to serve what is needed at the moment. In his unconventional approach to pastel are the “cool things” he finds to manipulate the medium; electric erasers, razor blades and slivers of foam core, to name a few. While blending, he uses his painting as a palette, stealing from one spot for another with the scoop of a foam core sliver. The energy in the room builds while he throws out “to heck with convention” and “take what your teacher says and throw it out the window – do your own thing.” Perhaps, his most important pearl was to keep your mind open for inspiration, best exemplified his Andy Warhol, soup can inspired “Currency” series of portraits. Timothy says his next series is inspired by credit cards. It tickles the imagination,what else can I say but ….Charge!
