For art lovers, viewing a painting is all about the finished product: a landscape with striking light, a unique portrait, a photorealistic depiction of wildlife. But Victor, Idaho-based landscape artist Scott Christensen knows that the steps that lead to the painting are just as captivating.
“What people don’t see is the process of painting,” Christensen said. “They just see what someone painted. They don’t know the little thumbnail sketches, the bad paintings, the changing in composition that led to that.”
Christensen has been deeply rooted in process lately as he creates a new body of work for a show opening in October at the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Georgia. A conversation about divergent versus linear thinking sparked an idea to share the process.
“We don’t challenge ourselves to think differently,” he said. “We overthink and push our conformality away from creativity. We work hard to be creative. The creative thought process is not as linear as math. It is based on feeling and knowledge, so your knowledge procures your execution and your intent.”
Christensen and four artists — Christine Lashley, Jason Saunders, Scott Tallman Powers, Larry Moore — invite art devotees and artists to Scott Christensen Studio and Gallery in Victor from 1 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 12. Visitors will be able to dive into the process with conversation, live painting and an exhibit of small works with pieces focused on stages of paintings.
Lashley, a contemporary impressionist painter visiting from Virginia, is known for her painterly realism-style. She said process for her, like many artists, is ever-changing. She took one of Christensen’s workshops and, after he and she crossed paths at art events a friendship developed.
“Scott and I got excited to share, not only with the public but with the other artists, this idea of how we vary our visual voices,” Lashley said. “It’s about taking an idea or a thumbnail sketch or a couple of color chips and a sketch book and making that into a painting. It boils down to, what is your idea and how can you best express that idea. Sometimes that means repainting, sometimes going smaller and sometimes going bigger.”
Each artist will discuss his or her individual progression and share what makes an idea develop beyond the initial concept. The event will also feature accessible painting sizes with affordable prices by each artist. The artists will also all contribute to a painting, adding their style and voices.
“It is a great way to learn about your personal aesthetic,” Lashley said. “You find out what the other artist’s intent is and see how that feels. Sometimes it feels good, and sometimes it feels uncomfortable. But sometimes it is good to feel uncomfortable.”
From watercolor to photorealism, each artist will bring a different perspective and creative background to an afternoon of art, conversation and learning.
