Four years ago, in the beginning of my post-Atelier journey to understand how to paint color, I began painting small studies of ordinary chicken and duck eggs.   The eggs were various colors, mostly subtle shades of brown and white, but some pale blues and greens.  The colors turned out to be surprisingly complex, especially in the natural light of mid-winter Minnesota which is generally blinding, bright, white or soul-crushing gray, with very little in-between.

I know that I must have started the paintings right after the Valentine's chocolates were replaced on store shelves by the Easter candy.  The process of painting the eggs helped me to remember that at least the commercial start of spring would soon arrive.  After 29 years in Minnesota, I am convinced that "spring" as a season exists here for about 24 hours, sometime after the last hail storm and before the lilacs are completely spent.

From their debut at Art-A-Whirl 2018, through several neighborhood art shows and open studios, and up until the sale of the final painting from my NEMAA shop two months ago, the eggs have been popular.  They are affordable and they have the radiance you only find in original oil paintings. But I think that people are also drawn to them for the same reasons I enjoy painting them: they are simple, common objects that, when given a bit of attention, give us the opportunity to briefly contemplate the wonder of nature every time we glance their way.

I scored the amazing collection pictured above from the shop at Gale Woods Farm in Minnetrista, Minnesota and have begun another series of small oil paintings. some of which will pair the eggs with one or more of the small pitchers, vases and cups which I have been saving for no other reason than "this might look good in a still life." Hopefully I will find some sweet little frames from my favorite NE Minneapolis frame shop, Hang It! (I always do) and they will make their way onto Instagram and into my NEMAA shop, and maybe onto the walls where they'll serve as a reminder of the reason why eggs, especially in spring, are a reason to be hopeful.

 
One of the themes running through this blog is probably going to involve my struggle to breach the wall that sometimes rises up around artists with intensive or exclusive training in academic realism.  To survive three or four years of full time atelier study means, at best, feeling like you're in drawing and painting boot camp or, at worst, like you're being indoctrinated into a cult. When you leave that bubble (and thanks to social media, you can unfortunately cocoon yourself in it for a very long time), you realize that many people may see your beautifully executed work as quite boring. (Trust me, "this looks just like a photograph" is a compliment that rarely leads to sales unless you unintentionally painted someone else's favorite toy or food.) In other words, you're on the way to mastering a craft, but you've mislaid your creative soul along the way.

I've recently been trying to find my way back to creativity and self-expression by playing around with cold wax medium.  My goal is to set aside a few hours each week and experiment with small, abstract studies on Arches oil paper using few colors, no brushes, some weird scraping and rolling tools and a short amount of time to complete. In spite of quite a few easily tossed, obvious fails, I've been amazed at how emotionally engaging the process can be.  Sometimes I've produced something that captures how I feel before I am aware I am feeling it.  The piece above, "Black Rain," seems to be exactly how I was feeling about the pandemic; watching helplessly as a firestorm seems to rage out of control.  That certainly wasn't consciously in my mind as I was playing with my wax and paint, but I realized it as soon as the first stroke of "rain" appeared. Even when one of these is a fail and I don't wind up with any emotional connection to it beyond disgust, it acts like an attitude cleanser that gets me back to my regular work. I wind up glad I can draw realistically because I clearly don't have a career in abstraction!

There are realist artists who have incorporated cold wax into their work and perhaps I will do that someday.  In the meantime, I am hoping that I am at least taking the first steps on a journey to find my own artistic voice.

Happy New Year! Or maybe we should just say Better New Year!; the bar is so low after 2020.

In an effort to impose some discipline on myself with regard to maintaining my website and other online presences, and also to return to an activity which I always enjoy - writing - my new year resolution is to make some regular blog posts here during 2021. Diving right in, some thoughts on art education and some advice on how to navigate the world of online art education which is something like the wild west right now.

First off, I am wondering what will be the fate of community art education. For many people, including me, my first exposure to making art since middle school was a weekly watercolor class at the local art center.  It was a refuge from both my jobs (parent and attorney) and it set off a quest to find my own voice as an artist while mastering the tools and techniques needed to express that voice.  After I finished my Atelier training, I taught at a couple of community art centers and at the Atelier.  The experience really helped me to cement my understanding of what I had been taught.  For many artists, community art center teaching is the financial lifeline that makes their own artwork possible.  Many centers provide opportunities to show work which are hard to come by with so many galleries closing. With these schools and centers shuttered, I wonder where beginner artists will be able to find the nurturing environment to learn to create and also wonder how teaching artists will solidify their skills or even survive. Independent non-profits will need to compete for funding with so many other worthy causes, and taxpayer supported community education centers may simply be axed from cash starved municipal budgets.

If you are an aspiring art student, a dedicated hobbyist, a person wanting to return to art, or even a "serious" artist (more about that in another post someday) you may have ventured into an online search for art classes, or you may already be bombarded by offers of online workshops, demos and mentorships.  Individual artists, and some independent art centers and schools, are desperately trying to stay afloat by moving into the digital age.  Needless to say, the quality of these offerings, as well as the expense involved, varies tremendously, So rather than signing up for an overcrowded Zoom with some artist whose paintings you may have seen once and liked, here is some advice for choosing the right online content.

No matter what your level of experience, do your research.  Look for "free samples" on the internet by watching YouTube videos, following artists you like on FB who may be doing FB Live demos, or searching for short free courses being offered by art centers or individual artists you admire.  When you watch these, make sure that the instructor is more than merely comfortable with technology, but that they also know how to exploit its unique advantages FOR TEACHING.  Unfortunately, some of the priciest content is often just a low quality recording of a sometimes shy and inarticulate master moving his brush around. Great art, zero education.

Second, carefully think about your needs and intentions.  Be honest about your own level of experience, the time you have to commit to practicing the skills being taught, whether you have the work space and materials to follow along with the class.  For people without a great deal of time or resources, many artists teach via Patreon and you can choose what to follow and when for a very reasonable fee.  If you are a serious beginner, find online schools or ateliers with well-developed, progressive educational content with at least the option of regular feedback on completed lessons and assignments. If you simply want to try out new materials or produce a project for you wall - sort of the wine and paint approach - you can find events like these via EventBrite.  Just be very suspicious of someone who tells you you can learn everything you need to know about ______ in just six short hours.  You might have one nice picture, but that will be the end. It's also perfectly fine to admit that you are isolated and stuck and just need regular contact with a group of human beings who are making art.  In fact, right now, that feels like a path to sanity for many of us.

If you are an experienced artist, you can spend some time analyzing your work and figuring out your weak areas and targeting courses that will address them.  But any teacher worth his salt may very well make you take several steps backward and struggle with some initially stupid seeming exercises in order to address those skills.  Do not resist.  The hard work will pay off in the next painting. You may also want to consider a mentorship.  This is the most expensive type of learning, and really the one that most depends upon your research and the relationship you are able to create with the individual instructor as well as your commitment to following his or her advice.

I've sampled a number of online courses since the pandemic lockdown began: free samples from art academies, Zoom workshops, formal online courses, a couple of Patreon accounts and more.  Many were excellent, even if they were not a perfect fit for my needs. If you have an interest in academic realism and are looking for some recommendations, please get in touch.

I wish you all the best in your search for human connection and sanity in these hopefully waning months of the pandemic.

ps.  I have set up an online shop through my membership in the Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association.  I hope to regularly add more small works to that site and the wizards of NEMAA have made it very easy for you to purchase and me to ship these works.  Check it out at https://shop.nemaa.org/artists/jan-wagner-jan-m-wagner-fine-art/

'Tis the season for visual artists to show everyone what they've been up to for the past 6-12 months and hopefully clear the decks for a new year in the studio by finding homes for their artwork.
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But first some good news:  my painting, "Fall Harvest," won first place at Norseman Distillery's fall art show. I was very surprised!  Many thanks to the judge, Sarah Schulz of the American Craft Council, and also to Norseman for supporting local artists with a no-entry-fee show, a beautiful gallery space and even some prize money.

My work will be showing in three locations in November/December.  First, on November 29 and 30 (10-3 both days) I will be participating in our second Bryn Mawr neighborhood crafts fair.  Once again, we can't hang things on the walls (!) so I will have small oils (pets, eggs. still lives) as well as drawings and watercolors.  The following weekend, December 6 (4-8) and December 7 (11-5), I will be having an open house at my studio.  Many people have asked about where and how I work and now you will have a chance to stop by, have some wine, coffee, and treats and see some of the larger works actually hung on walls.

Finally, my friend and fellow artist, Dyan Padgett, has graciously allowed me some wall space in her beautiful studio on the 4th floor of the Northrop King Building (Studio 400A).  Northrop King will be open every Saturday starting November 30 through December 21, as well as the usual First Thursday event on December 5.

For 2020, I hope to focus on portrait (look out friends and family - you will be modeling), figure, and maybe some more pet portrait commissions.  It's so much fun to work on cats and dogs, and it's kind of a relief to have to paint from photos.

Hope to see you soon - and happy holidays!

Spring has at last arrived in Minnesota (we hope) so that means it is time once again for Art-A-Whirl, the largest open studio artist event in the U.S.  This year I will be exhibiting at a small pop-up gallery, Salted Artist, located in the Steller Connect Space, 945 Broadway St. NE, Minneapolis 55413 (right next door to Spyhouse Coffee on the corner of Broadway and Central).  Salted Artist promises a very diverse selection of art, from paintings and prints to digital works to up-cycled clothing.  I will be showing about a dozen new small works (6" x6" to 6" x 8"), mostly alla prima dog and cat portraits, Many of these can be seen on the new Small Works page of my website.  This year Art-A-Whirl runs May 17, 5-10 pm, May 18, 12-8 pm, and May 19, 12-5 pm.  Hope to see you there!

Thanks to all of my wonderful friends and neighbors who stopped by the first ever Bryn Mawr holiday arts and crafts sale.  Four paintings and three watercolors found permanent homes at the sale and I am very happy about that.  For those of you who might still be interested in egg paintings for yourself or for gifts this season, only the three shown below are still available.  If you are interested, please get in touch soon so I can get them to you ASAP.  

​Happy Holidays everyone!

The Bon Appetit show is beautiful!  Two works by Jeffrey Larson, the show judge, are on display and, if you have never seen his work in person, you are in for a treat!

My final marketing event of the year is a fun and friendly one.  About 8 neighborhood artists are gathering in the Bryn Mawr community space at Penn Ave. and Cedar Lake Rd. to show and sell our wares on the two days after Thanksgiving, 10 a.m. -3 p.m.  We aren't allowed to hang on the walls, so I will be bringing only small framed paintings and watercolors.  If you tell me you learned of the sale from this post, I will give you a 20% discount on any purchase.  There will be beautiful jewelry, pottery, handmade wood frames, wind chimes, salsas, quilts and much more.  The space is opposite Cuppa Java in Bryn Mawr and is should provide a great place to start (or end) your Black Friday shopping.  Hope to see you there.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by during Art Attack at the Northrop King Building.  It's a long walk - or a steep climb - to Studio 402B, but Colleen and I really appreciated seeing you.

Two of my paintings, "Fall Harvest" (seen on the home page of the website), and "Heirlooms" (a new work), have been accepted into a juried art show hosted by the Studio Pintura Gallery on the second floor of the Northrop King Building (Suite 293 - right across from the passenger elevator- YAY). The show is entitled "Bon Appetit" and features about 30 food themed works.  I will be at the opening on Saturday, November 17, 5:30-930 p.m.  The show runs through January.  

Where does the time go?  Seems like I just set this up for Art-A-Whirl and now it's time for another great Northeast Minneapolis event, Art Attack.  Art Attack is exclusive to the Northrop King Building, 1500 Jackson St. NE, Minneapolis, 55413, and I will be a guest artist in Suite 402B, home to Michael Speaker, an amazing sculptor.  Joining me will be my Atelier buddy, Colleen Semmer.  Art Attack runs Friday, Nov. 2, 5-10 pm, Saturday, Nov. 3, Noon-8 pm, and Sunday, Nov. 4, 10-5 pm.  There will be live music, great food trucks and of course you will be less than a block from two great craft breweries.  HOWEVER, if you can't make it to Art Attack, Michael, Colleen and I, together with Dyan Padgett and Carrie Kleinberger in Studio 400A, will be having a Sneak Peek preview party on Thursday, November 1, 3-8 pm.  No parking hassles, no crowds and we'll even put out some simple snacks.  I will have several new pieces to show, oil still lifes, chalk and charcoal portraits, and even some small watercolors.  I will post some pics of these works as soon as the dust settles from preparing for this event.  Hope to see you soon - and don't hesitate to get in touch if you would like more info about these events.

Thanks to everyone who visited me at my first ever Art-A-Whirl.  I met lots of wonderful people, sold a couple of small paintings, learned a lot about the business of selling art, and got lots of ideas from my fellow exhibitors.  However, I am wondering if people really would be interested in seeing my work in my studio.  Should I have my own open studio event?  Let me know what you think in the comments.  

Some of the paintings I sold were studies of different colored hen eggs.  I painted six of these studies in February, then set up two small still lifes that featured these eggs.  Since it was March and I was going crazy with the endless winter, I decided to try my hand at painting clouds into one still live and - voila- the painting that my spouse calls "Eggs on the Beach" was born.  Images of one of the studies and the painting are below.  Please contact me if you are interested.  Happy summer!

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