Pastel Journal December 2014
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
INSPIRED BY INDIA | 3 ARTISTS’ TIPS FOR CAPTURING THE COLOR & MOOD your ultimate creative resource DECEMBER 2014 STREET SPIRIT PAINTING THE LIFE & ENERGY OF URBAN SCENERY US $7.99 A Foolproof Trick for 12 Simplifying a Subject An Artist’s Solution 0 FnL1 04 0120 01 JUYrVyBQdWJsaWNhdGlvbnMsIEluYyAo 02 SW9sYSBkaXZpc2lvbikPR3JlZ29yeSBL 03 cnVlZ2VyAFKpwYUEMTAuNAI4MAExBVVQ Qy1BDDAwOTI4MTAyOTU1NwA= 09281 02955 7 for Staying Inspired Displaypy until Januaryy, 5, 2015 pastel journal.com C1_PAS1214_COVER.indd 1 9/30/14 12:20 PM For celebrated actress Kim Novak, painting has always provided a wonderful escape, allowing her to explore the world of nature and her own imagination. BY ANNE HEVENER an inner d LEGENDARY FILM ACTRESS KIMworl NOVAK of the pastel medium to present a sense of MAY BE BEST KNOWN for her starring altering states. Surrealism meets traditional roles in Hollywood classics such as the 1958 realism in an eff ect that’s anything but Hitchcock thriller Vertigo and the romantic static. Images meld into other images, and comedy Bell, Book and Candle, but in recent the eff ect is at once classically beautiful and years, the actress has been garnering praise for wondrously mysterious.” another creative talent—painting. Although she’s an accomplished painter in a variety of Making Art a Part of Life media, pastel is a favorite, and Novak’s work in Like many painters, Novak’s fascination with the medium was celebrated this past summer art began in childhood. “I was never a great with a solo exhibition at Th e Butler Institute student in school,” she says, “but I did excel of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio. in art.” Both she and her sister, who grew up Painting provides Novak an outlet for on the south side of Chicago, earned scholar- a vigorous and imaginative inner world. ships to study at the Art Institute of Chicago. Her portraits, interiors and landscapes are “Th at was really special,” Novak says, “getting personal and emotionally potent, expressing to take the ‘L’ and go downtown to study.” the artist’s unique vision, her connectivity to Receiving that recognition affirmed her nature and spirituality, and her passion for dream of one day becoming an artist, but a life. Dr. Louis Zona, director of The Butler, summer trip to Hollywood for a modeling job describes her work this way: “Part of the changed all that. While there, Novak was dis- Mountain Man appeal of Kim Novak’s art is that sense of the covered by a talent agent in the fi lm industry (16x12) ethereal. She utilizes the unique qualities and signed to Columbia Pictures. 58 www.pasteljournal.com 58_PAS1214_NOVAKv2.indd 58 9/30/14 12:21 PM d 58_PAS1214_NOVAKv2.indd 59 9/30/14 12:21 PM Horse Heaven (12x16) Tides of Humanity (opposite; 16x12) THE HEALING ARTS Last summer, The Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio, presented an exhibition of 27 of Novak’s pastel paintings as part of the museum’s “Art & Healing” programming. As a fi rm believer in the healing and transfor- mative power of the arts, Novak has helped raise awareness of artistic expression as a coping aid for people dealing with physical or mental illness, emotional trauma, or other chal- lenges. Dr. Louis Zona, the museum’s director, said Novak’s life-affi rming pastels “are a reminder that art in its many forms exists to raise our spirits and inspire us to see beauty throughout God’s universe.” In her own life, Novak is no stranger to life’s ups and downs. She has struggled with bipolar disorder, survived breast cancer, and suffered devastating loss when her home was destroyed by fi re 14 years ago. Through it all, her paint- ing was an important part of her recovery. “Art is such a healing, wonderful thing,” she says. “Even when life has me in the grips of depression, I’m still inspired to paint.” “I hadn’t intended to go into show business,” she says. “I had intended to become an artist.” But, even as her career as an actress fl ourished, Novak continued to work on her art when she could. “I needed it,” she says. “Th e fi lm business didn’t come easily for me, and I found I needed to paint.” Novak learned that her artistic abili- ties were useful as a way to explore and develop the characters she was portraying on screen. “I’d make sketches on the back of my script, or sometimes I’d work it out on canvas,” she says. “It helped me get inside a character’s head to fi gure out how to interpret her.” And then there were the restorative benefi ts of painting. Making art helped Novak vent some of the inevitable frustration and emotional strain that seems to go hand in hand with movie- Clockwise from left: making. Although both acting and painting fed Zona presented Novak with a framed print of the 1872 Winslow Homer her creatively, she found it diffi cult, as an actor, painting, Snap the Whip, held in the museum’s collection. not to have control over the vision. “You’re often Novak’s mentors, master pastelists Harley Brown and Richard McKinley, not in agreement with the interpretation that attended the exhibition opening at The Butler. Novak is pictured here you’re given by a director,” she says. “And that’s with Brown (far left) and McKinley (far right) and Zona. Her painting of Nelson Mandela, which hangs behind them, is now part of the museum’s the thing I love so much about the visual arts— permanent collection. it’s your personal interpretation.” Having her Novak spends a moment in quiet refl ection in the museum’s Giffuni own creative outlet made it possible for Novak Gallery, where her body of work in pastel was on view. to go on a fi lm set during the day and express the vision of the director, and then, when she 60 www.pasteljournal.com 58_PAS1214_NOVAKv2.indd 60 9/30/14 12:21 PM got home, work out her own feelings at her easel. Th e artist—who lives with her husband, “Th at was important to me,” she says. “I needed Robert (Bob) Malloy, on a quiet ranch in to be able to express things my way.” beautiful southern Oregon—has confi gured her studio to suit her various creative pursuits. Putting It in Writing One side is outfi tted for writing and the other Not only does Novak enjoy an active visual for painting. “On the painting side, I can open imagination, she also fi nds pleasure in writing the windows and doors, so I can step outside,” poetry. Sometimes her poems come fi rst and she explains. “But if a thought comes into my inspire a painting; other times, it’s a painting mind that I just have to get down, I can go over that inspires a poem, giving voice to the people to the writing side and use the computer.” she portrays. Th e artist remembers, as a child, sketching at the train station while she waited for her father, who worked as a railroad freight In her career as a fi lm actress in the 1950s dispatcher. “I loved to sketch the people sit- and ’60s, Kim Novak (www.kimnovakartist. com) starred in such highly praised fi lms as ting at the station,” she says. “I’ve always been Picnic with William Holden, The Man With the fascinated with faces and what’s going on in a Golden Arm with Frank Sinatra and Vertigo person’s mind.” with Jimmy Stewart. In 2003, she was presented with the Eastman Kodak Archives By writing a poem to accompany a painting, Award for her contribution to fi lm, joining Novak is able to convey what she imagines her a list of recipients that includes Greta subjects are thinking. Her painting, Mountain Garbo, Audrey Hepburn, Martin Scorsese and Meryl Streep. Novak chose to leave Man (on page 59), for example, inspired her to the fi lm industry at the height of her career write the following: and relocated to Big Sur, Calif., where she focused her creative inclinations on painting and writing poetry. She has studied painting with pastel masters Harley Brown and Richard He spends his time, his mountain time McKinley, whom she considers important mentors. Novak currently No clocks, just life in slow motion; lives on a ranch in southern Oregon with her husband, equine He thirsts for the stream that follows his dream, veterinarian Robert Malloy. To fi nd time to explore the great ocean. Pastel Journal ■ December 2014 61 58_PAS1214_NOVAKv2.indd 61 9/30/14 12:22 PM Like most artists, Novak wishes her studio Harley Brown—has been an important mentor. were bigger. “Bob has already removed some “What intrigued me,” she says, “was Richard’s doors for me,” she says, “but I can’t go any further use of the watercolor underpainting. I love pas- or I’d go into the dog run.” Still, it’s a creative tel, and I love watercolor, and putting the two haven for the artist, keeping her within reach of together is the most incredible combination.” her beloved animals and the world of nature. Much of Novak’s imagery grows out of her imagination, and many times the key to Letting It Happen unlocking inspiration is simply to begin with Novak remembers experimenting with pastels an underpainting and see where it leads. Of Looking Back to in her classes at the Art Institute, but she really her pastel, Looking Back to See Ahead (above), See Ahead (12x12) came to appreciate the special qualities of the which began with a watercolor underpaint- River Dancers medium when she started working with artist ing, the artist explains: “Th e underpainting (opposite; 12x16) Richard McKinley, who—along with artist fi rst led me to a waterfall, which you can still 62 www.pasteljournal.com 58_PAS1214_NOVAKv2.indd 62 9/30/14 12:22 PM “My only limitations are the boundaries of my imagination.” see, especially on the upper-right side; then I just don’t see it yet.” Th e artist also will turn the water parted, and it led me to her—a lovely a piece sideways or upside down to unleash an young girl looking back at me.” Once she had image.