Thursday, July 31, 2008

Jon Sarkin's studio
















I stopped by Jon Sarkin's Gloucester studio last week. Sarkin, who was featured in the 2006 DeCordova Annual, has been painting portraits lately. He explains:
When I started going to a portrait drawing/painting group, about five years ago, I mentioned to my dear friend and fellow artist, Susan Erony, that I had decided to learn to draw people. She said that she loves to draw the human face/figure because it's the only thing we draw where we know how it feels like to be that thing, and we can bring our feelings of being a fellow human being to our art. I mean, when we draw a picture of the ocean or a tree or whatever, we've no idea what it's like to be that thing, so whatever feelings we bring to THIS subject are anthropomorphic and un-genuine, no matter how objective we try to be. Yes?

Thanks, Susan.

Anyway, I guess this is why I draw portraits, especially self-portraits, because I REALLY know how it feels to be me, and not you or whoever.

I work from other artists work - I especially like drawing self-portraits by other artists, e.g., Van Gogh, Degas, Rembrandt and Tintoretto. I do this because it makes me study very, very closely how these guys did their magic, and I start to feel like they must've felt. This makes me feel important in regards to my art, and I like this feeling.





3 Comments:

Blogger CEEJ said...

Nice stuff. I noticed the shot of the wall that says "Absolve" or something with "I never wanted anything. I only wanted life to give me something to live for and to be good at. I just want to live."

It's from a song that Sten Bowen wrote and the crappy hand writing is mine, not Sarkin's. Liam King and I shot Jon making a stop-motion music video test for the song.

You can see it here.

http://www.baitandtackle.biz/Ext/sten/stenjontrain.mov

-Chad C.

July 31, 2008 1:18 PM  
Blogger Darg said...

Good work Jon! What am I saying, not good- GREAT! Of course I like the old style I'm used to seeing, but this new work with portraits is... very good, to say the least. It reminds me alot of Van Gogh. Congrats!

July 31, 2008 4:57 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just because they are huge doesn't make them good.
I think it all looks like childish scribbles,and I'm am artist too.

November 28, 2009 4:49 PM  

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