J. Gordon Anderson - Contemporary Art

One of the major difficulties in being an artist is the problem of being "typecast". Successful contemporary artists, and the artists that are famous in art history, have a particular style (e.g. Monet), or always paint a particular theme (e.g. Morandi). This is problematic for artists who want to flit around and do a little of this, and a little of that; or paint this way one day, and that way the next. You feel like you are not free to change, and just paint what you want. You have to paint what your public wants, or what they expect you to paint. Believe it or not, this is a problem for even us ultra-small time artists.

"Broken and Bent" Oil on Canvas, 2006 Life in the city. Conveying flatness and depth at the same time. Overlapping. Integrated. Confusion - but making sense. Mystery in the ordinary. Ordinary mystery.

My wife and I were talking about watching Bergman films, and she commented on how dark and depressing they are. Made me think of this great clip from Woody Allen's film, "Play it again, Sam."

Here is an article that the Roanoke Times did on St. Francis Anglican Church and my arrival . In the print edition the article is entitled "Renaissance Man of the Cloth". That's kind of snappy sounding! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. JGA+

Living in south Florida for two years I'd forgotten how much I loved the deadness of winter... particularly when the leaves fall off of the trees. The "bones" of nature are revealed, and the underlying structure of everything, and all of the lines and shapes that form the framework of the trees is laid bare for all to see. It is tremendous inspiration for painting.

I am back to painting now after several months of packing, moving, unpacking, churching, ministering, etc. It is nice to feel the brush in my hand again. There's no suitable place to paint in oils here at my new home so I am working solely in watercolor and egg tempera. I found some good egg tempera sites, by the way, here , and here . It is a great medium because of the subtlety of and quality of the brush stroke you can get, and because it works with the ease of watercolor, but has the permanence and versatility of oil painting. I have been doing some landscapes, and will soon go back to painting buildings, I guess. That reminds me of a funny story. A lady who came by and did a TV news story on the church recently, when she found out that I paint said, "Oh, so do I. I am taking art classes in college. But I can't paint in oils because whatever you paint is there forever. I am not good enough to paint in oils because there is no room for error." A lot of people have ...

Anyone who wants to see what most art schools are like, and what most art school students are like needs to watch the movie " Art School Confidential ". It was on my "to watch" list for a couple years, and I finally got around to watching it a couple of nights ago. It's quite comical, though you might have had to go through an art program to understand some of the jokes. I can personally say that it is very accurate: it captures all of the different types of folk in art programs, the deep-sounding but meaningless philosophical lingo, the PC crap, etc. Check it out if you are interested.