December 2024 Newsletter
I MET A COUPLE IN A BAR…
By Henry Vermillion
I met a couple in a bar recently; married, very nice. After a bit of talk, I found he was a financial planner, mid-westerners, both. When I said I was a painter, the lady brightened. “How wonderful, to have a job you can find so much joy in!” Well yes, I said, but the joy sometimes comes at a hard price. There’s a lot of hard work, doubts, revisions, and so on. Inspiration is an ephemeral thing. Here one minute, gone the next. I´m a story teller in many of my pictures, and I try to express some complicated ideas in some of them. And, most art is bought as decoration, not for museum walls. It´s for that empty space above the mantel, or over the couch. And the colors must match the furnishings. And, certainly, it should show the good taste of the owners; at best, it´s an antidote to the difficulties of life, not an investigation of them.
(If you have detected a sour note here, I hope you´ll forgive me. I really have nothing against beautiful decorative art, though I´m not very good at making it.) What I do try to do is to show some of the depths of life as well as the highs, to strike some of the chords below the surface. To urge folks to look more closely, to figure out what´s going on there.
Joy? Yes. I don´t think my work is joyless. Nor was the work of Picasso. Or Norman Rockwell. Or de Kooning. Or Degas. They´re some of my models, among many others. And yes, art gives me a high. It gives me joy.
Note: My shows at El Tupinamba Restaurant (45 Zacateros-open daily 1:30 pm to 1am) and at Galeria Blue Moon (#7 Stirling Dickinson, Col. San Antonio-open Tuesday-Saturday 11-2 pm, 3-6 pm) will both be up until after the New Year; I hope you might stop by either or both!
Please have a Good Christmas, and an even better New Year!
“DANCING COWBOY" 24 x16 in. / pencil on paper / study for DANCERS / by Henry Vermillion
“DANCERS" Oil Painting / 18 x 25.5 in. / by Henry Vermillion
“IT'S A DEAL” oil on canvas / 31 x 23.5 in. / by Henry Vermillion
“FUTBOL 1” oil on canvas / 38 x 54 in. / by Henry Vermillion
“WAITING” oil on canvas / 23.5 x 19.5 in. / by Henry Vermillion
“CHRISTMAS HAPPINESS” After Charles Bragg, by Henry Vermillion, Prints Available
LIFE DRAWING SESSIONS are held each Tuesday night- at Henry Vermillion´s home/gallery
Lucero 43, La Lejona, 2da. Sección. from 7-9 pm.
No instruction – just come and draw.
$200 Pesos, snacks and drinks provided.
A long tradition.
Henry Vermillion Cell / WhatsApp: (+52) 415 215 1591 / (+52) 415 115 5888
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November 2024 Newsletter
THE NEW EL TUPI REOPENING
By Henry Vermillion
The Tupinamba Bar and Restaurant on Zacateros 45 downtown will re-open Friday, November 29 with a with a new concept. Old friends and new are invited to a public reception and cocktail from 5 to 7 pm.
After a successful eight years of Flamenco music, dancing and hearty regional Spanish food, The Tupi will dance to a different and more relaxed drummer: their fine food and new fine art will set the new atmosphere. It´s a challenge for San Miguel: a real art bar. (Live music and dancing will continue at the Rain Dog Lounge upstairs.)
In 1993 or 1994, I donated a piece of artwork for a children’s benefit. There I had the luck to meet the major donor--It was the bullfighter Marcial Herce, who remains a great friend to this day. In the years following, he became a restauranteur; in 2016 he opened “El Tupinamba” downtown. Some artist friends and I have long displayed art for the place (a thing I don’t normally do). Now, after a successful eight years, for the Tupi’s eighth birthday, new lighting and new and colorful art will transform the place for their birthday party.
REAPERTURA DEL NUEVO EL TUPI
ESPAÑOL:
por Henry Vermillion
El Bar y Restaurante Tupinamba en Zacateros 45 en el centro de la ciudad reabrirá el viernes 29 de noviembre con un nuevo concepto. Se invita a viejos y nuevos amigos a una recepción pública y un cóctel de 5 a 7 pm.
Después de ocho años exitosos de música flamenca, baile y abundante comida regional española, El Tupi bailará al ritmo de un tambor diferente y más relajado: su buena comida y su nuevo arte crearán la nueva atmósfera. Es un desafío para San Miguel: un verdadero bar de arte. (La música en vivo y el baile continuarán en el Rain Dog Lounge en el piso superior).
En 1993 o 1994, doné una obra de arte para beneficio de los niños. Allí tuve la suerte de conocer al principal donante: fue el torero Marcial Herce, quien sigue siendo un gran amigo hasta el día de hoy. En los años siguientes, se convirtió en restaurador; en 2016 abrió “El Tupinamba” en el centro de la ciudad. Hace tiempo que algunos amigos artistas y yo exhibimos obras de arte en el lugar (algo que normalmente no hago). Ahora, después de ocho años exitosos, para el octavo cumpleaños de los Tupi, una nueva iluminación y obras de arte nuevas y coloridas transformarán el lugar para su fiesta de cumpleaños.
“CARTEL TAURINO” pastel and charcoal on paper / 25.5 x 18.5 in. / by Henry Vermillion for the cartel for the Dic. 31, 2009 bullfight
“CARTEL TAURINO” 27.5 x 18.5 in. / paper print / artwork by Henry Vermilion
“IT’S A PUZZLE” Oil on canvas / 23.5 x19.5 / by Henry Vermillion
OLD & NEW SHOW Ray Herrera Leguizamo & Henry Vermillion choosing the painting for the poster for Henry’s Show - Old & New
“ALI AT REST" Charcoal pencil drawing / 7.5 x 11 in. / by Henry Vermillion
ONE MINUTE DRAWING by Henry Vermillion
“JORGE” Ink on paper / 11 x 8.5 in. / by Henry Vermillion
LIFE DRAWING SESSIONS are held each Tuesday night - at Henry Vermillion´s home/gallery
Lucero 43, La Lejona, 2da. Sección. from 7-9 pm.
No instruction – just come and draw.
$200 Pesos, snacks and drinks provided.
A long tradition.
Henry Vermillion Cell. / WhatsApp: (+52) 415 215 1591 / (+52) 415 115 5888
Follow Henry on Social Media
OCTOBER 2024 Newsletter
“DANCE, AMERICAN LEGION, BANGOR, PA”, MARCH 1979, charcoal study for painting
UP-TO-DATE ART
By Henry Vermillion
As a painter, one of my big challenges has been the art of Norman Rockwell and of Will James. Norman Rockwell is well-- but condescendingly—known as the painter of bucolic All-American Saturday Evening Post magazine covers. Will James was the writer-illustrator of “Smoky the Cow Horse”, a standard fiction for ranch kids and other children in Texas and New Mexico. The ethos of both is still unavoidably rooted in my subconscious. Yes, a person grows beyond such childhood pleasures, but---
My mother was born in Marfa, Texas in the many years of its innocence before Donald Judd took it over with his steel art structures. (She was born in Marfa because it had the only hospital within hundreds of miles of her father´s ranch South of Marfa.) As a child, some of the other artists I knew of were Frederick Remington, Charles M. Russell, and the crew of other Saturday Evening Post magazine cover artists such as Mead Schaeffer, John Falter, Ben Stahl, and Harold von Schmidt, wonderful illustrators all. Those pictures still echo in the fading mists of my recollections.
Another thing has muddied the art waters for me. My father, though anti-religious, was the product of generations of hard-rock Southern Baptist stock. And, to invent a phrase---you can throw out the water, but the bucket is still metal. In addition---another Southern Baptist trait—he was a word person-- and very few of those, except for printed words. He was a newspaperman. He owned, edited, and published a series of weekly newspapers in West Texas and Southern Arizona. He never actively discouraged my interest in art---he never said anything about it at all. Of course, that said a lot. (My mother had a talent for art, a source of both great happiness and great misfortune for her.)
Then, at a certain point, Picasso entered the picture. He was only some weird distant foreign art deity until after I had degrees in English literature and Social Work, a wife, a daughter, and a regular job. Then, somehow, what Picasso did began to make sense to me. He knew the rules only too well before he decided to break them-- or rather, look for other rules which made more sense in his unstable times. But those distorted figures, those primitive faces. How did he get away with that? Well, there were those African masks, those masks from the South Pacific. They did have more authenticity, more gravitas than the pleasantries of the impressionists. In their way, they took art back to the forgotten authenticity of Giotto and van Eyck. And it took a lot of nerve to declare that those “primitive” images were relevant to modern times.
So, one of my challenges as a painter has been how to integrate the human, positive Rockwellian impulses with a more honest contemporary---but skeptical—view of the world.
I can´t resist a last note: a big recent show of Andy Warhol works claimed equal status for Andy with Picasso in the realm of art. Andy´s work basically tells us that consumerism and advertising culture is just fine---don´t worry about it, it´s all OK. Picasso´s work, on the other hand, challenges our values, makes us work, makes us think. There´s a big difference.
“GEISHA” Oil on canvas / 48 x 32 in./ by Henry Vermillion
“SMALL FIGURE” Oil on canvas/ 14 x 11 in. / by Henry Vermillion
“WOMAN WITH DARK HAIR” Oil on canvas / 70 x 50cm. / by Henry Vermillion
LIFE DRAWING SESSIONS are held each Tuesday night- at Henry Vermillion´s home/gallery
Lucero 43, La Lejona, 2da. Sección.
From 7-9 pm.
No instruction – just come and draw.
$200 Pesos, snacks and drinks provided.
A long tradition.
Henry Vermillion. Cell / WhatsApp:
(+52) 415 215 1591 / (+52) 415 115 5888
Follow Henry on Social Media
September 2024 Newsletter
THE EVOLUTION OF A PICTURE
By Henry Vermillion
A few weeks ago, I saw a picture of a painting done in Germany about 1480. It was the old story---a saint-to-be was being martyred. A frightened young man was tied to a millstone and a crowd of angry men were about to push him off a bridge into the river below. For some reason, the setting struck me most; it was the bridge that was unusual for such an event.
Recently, I´ve been making paintings which begin as rapid charcoal gesture drawings (just a few seconds) based on photos. Then, with the photos put aside, the aim was to build up a painting over the drawing which drew its energy from the quick gesture.
I did this gestural layout of the old picture, changing, adding, and then adding oil paint. The young martyr got left out. This went on, or off and on, for a week or so.
Then I realized I´d painted myself into the proverbial corner. The abstracted men on the bridge---I´d reduced them to two or three--- were interesting, but I had no idea what to paint under the bridge-- half of the space of the canvas. The river under the bridge of the original old picture was placid and nondescript, but my men were abstracted and full of movement; they were suggested people more than real people. Only the bridge they were on was solid.
In the bottom half under the bridge, I put in a stream, trees, and two figures having a picnic. Didn´t work. I finally said goodbye to the picnickers and painted in a brighter-colored and simpler version: just an ultra-marine blue river and expressionist trees.
My wife is my best critic. She thinks it looks like two separate pictures.
“SCUFFLE ON THE BRIDGE” Reference photo
“SCUFFLE ON THE BRIDGE” work in progress / 8. 24. 2024 / oil on canvas 35.5 x 23.5 in. / by Henry Vermillion
“SCUFFLE ON THE BRIDGE” work in progress / 8. 29. 2024. / oil on canvas 35.5 x 23.5 in. / by Henry Vermillion
“SCUFFLE ON THE BRIDGE” work in progress / 9. 14. 2024. / oil on canvas 35.5 x 23.5 in. / by Henry Vermillion
OPEN LIFE DRAWING SESSIONS are held each Tuesday night- at Henry Vermillion´s home/gallery
Lucero 43, La Lejona, 2da. Sección.
From 7-9 pm.
No instruction – just come and draw.
$200 Pesos, snacks and drinks provided.
A long tradition.
Henry Vermillion. Cell / WhatsApp:
Follow Henry on Social Media
August 2024 Newsletter
“THE MAGICIAN” oil by HENRY VERMILLION / 32 x 44 in.
THE DEVIL´S LAWYER
By Henry Vermillion
A recent article in the New York Review of Books, while praising the six-year presidency of Andrés Manuel López Obrador for his achievements: student aid, a 300% increase in the minimum wage, a decrease in the number of Mexicans in poverty, universal old age pensions..., criticized him for making little progress in reducing the power of the drug cartels. In this, the authors compared him negatively to his predecessor, Felipe Calderón, who they observe, "kept a lid on crime through pacts with the cartels."
What the article fails to mention is that that "lid on crime" was the result of millions of dollars of protection payoffs from the cartels to Calderón's cabinet minister for national security, Genaro García Luna. García Luna is currently serving a long prison term in the U.S. for taking those payoffs to protect El Chapo's Sinaloa Cartel and to prosecute other, competing cartels.
The middle-man between García Luna and the Sinaloa Cartel was a Mexico City lawyer named Oscar Paredes, the same lawyer who in 2010, during Calderon's presidency, came into our gallery and bought several large paintings of mine. I made inquiries about him and was told he was an "Abogado del Diablo," a lawyer who defended drug dealers in court. Well... He paid cash for the paintings. He liked San Miguel. In a couple of weeks, he returned and bought another painting. I met him and got to know him a bit. He was an agreeable fellow; I liked him. Every artist needs collectors; he was an art collector. He came to a get-together at our house, along with his five- or six-man entourage. Guitars and drinks came out, and a good time was had. A young man in his group lit his cigarette by pulling out his billfold; when he opened it, a flame came out. He performed other magic tricks as well. The young magician particularly admired a painting of mine on our wall which featured a magician; Oscar said "It's yours," and bought it for him on the spot.
Oscar invited me to visit him in Mexico City; I did, and stayed in one of the several houses he owned in the Capital. I was his guest for an afternoon of shooting at the firing range of the Mexico City Police Department. He was well known there, and we were easily passed through the several security checkpoints. After two and a half hours of target shooting with everything from pistols to AK47s, my right shoulder was sore for a week from the kickback of the long guns.
While in DF, we drove to one of Oscar's haciendas. (I believe he owned three, in various parts of the country.) This one was in the mountains past Mineral del Monte, near Pachuca, Hidalgo. A beautiful but semi-deserted place, the old hacienda property sheltered a spectacular waterfall which cascaded over basaltic granite columns. (It was much more striking than a similar well-known basaltic waterfall nearby which is open to the public.)
On a later visit to San Miguel, Oscar invited Britt and myself to a cocktail event at another of Oscar's ex-haciendas, this one closer to home. This partially reconstructed site is visible from the San Miguel-Dolores highway. Behind the handsomely restored main building, Oscar had built a small factory equipped with modern lathes and machine tools; the plan was to train locals to learn to make fine furniture there. The workers would share in the proceeds. I got to know the place. Oscar urged that we open an art gallery in the main building, rent-free, but I couldn't see it—too far away from town.
We kept in touch. Oscar promised to come to the early August opening of a one-person show of my work at the Instituto Allende.
When he didn't show up, I was disappointed, but not overly concerned. He was a busy man. Two weeks later, I learned that on August 20th he had been killed in Mexico City.
It was a revenge killing. Sometime before we knew him, his teen-age son had been kidnapped; eventually, Oscar paid the ransom. The boy was freed, and Oscar immediately sent him off to finish his schooling somewhere in the U.S. Midwest, far out of harm's way. The rest of the story, as I learned it: Oscar had discovered that the kidnapping was planned and carried out by a ranking official in the Mexico City police department. That official was then shot and killed on the street by unknowns. Some months afterward, a man knocked on the door of the after-hours bar in Colonia Roma where Oscar was talking and drinking with friends. Pizza delivery! the man called. The locked door was opened, and the pizza man opened fire, killing Oscar and wounding two of the other men inside.
An internet search of newspapers from that time made it clear that Oscar's bodyguards were the ones who carried the duffle bags of cartel cash into the presidential palace.
Thinking back, I remembered the first time I climbed into his car. It was on a visit to his hacienda at Mineral del Monte. I noticed that the big sedan had two-inch thick windows. It was my first ride in a bulletproof car. I realized I should have expected a scenario something like that.
“THE HISTORY OF MEXICO II” oil on canvas by Henry Vermillion
Open life drawing sessions are held each Tuesday night- at Henry Vermillion´s home/gallery
Lucero 43, La Lejona, 2da. Sección. from 7-9 pm.
No instruction – just come and draw.
$200 Pesos, snacks and drinks provided.
A long tradition.
Henry Vermillion Cell / WhatsApp:
(+52) 415 215 1591 / (+52) 415 115 5888
Follow Henry on Social Media
July 2024 Newsletter
“THE MURAL PAINTER” 30 X 42 inches. oil on canvas / $3,000 USD plus shipping
ART RECYCLING
By Henry Vermillion
Somewhile back, I wrote a newsletter about stealing ideas and techniques from other artists. Of course! It´s the only way to learn new things, to improve. Steal techniques, ideas, subject matter, anything useful or interesting. Today´s note is along the same lines, but it´s what most artists do routinely---recycling your own work.
Hardly any painter can sell every piece they make. Old paintings stack up in the corner or in a portfolio. Of course, some pieces just don’t work from the beginning, no matter how much work you put into it. (I knew a painter—a good one—who simply left a stack of old paintings on downtown street corners at night, free for anyone to take.)
But new blank canvases are not free, so like most other painters, I sometimes paint over not-so-successful pictures. I've just re-cycled an older painting I did of my wife Britt years ago. Neither of us liked it much; it gathered dust for several years. I first painted out her image, leaving the long bamboo-y green leaves of the background, then turned the canvas on its side and painted in the back of an artist, brush in hand, as though he is in the process of painting the picture anew. It looks as though he´s painting a big mural. I like it now.
OPEN LIFE DRAWING SESSIONS
are held each Tuesday night- at Henry Vermillion´s home/gallery
Lucero 43, La Lejona, 2da. Sección.
From 7-9 pm.
No instruction – just come and draw.
$200 Pesos, snacks and drinks provided.
A long tradition.
Henry Vermillion Cell / WhatsApp:
Follow Henry on Social Media
June 2024 Newsletter
“THE BLUE CAT” 38x20 in. / oil on canvas. / SOLD
STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST
By Henry Vermillion
“STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST” is the title of a worthwhile little book by Austin Kleon. I certainly recommend it. It points out that Shakespeare, Picasso, and Paul McCartney (among many, many others) became their authentic selves only by copying, by imitating artists and writers they loved and admired. McCartney learned from Little Richard. Picasso learned from the carvers of African masks. Shakespeare learned from Chaucer and Marlowe.
As Kleon writes: “When good artists are asked ‘Where do you get your ideas?’ the only honest answer is ‘I steal them.’” As when we were children, we learn most of what we know and do by imitating others who have more skills and knowledge than we do. It´s pretty obvious. And, as we copy and imitate, we absorb and consolidate.
That´s what every famous artist has done.
I´ve added some examples of my work which are, at least in part, stolen from other artists: The face of the woman watching TV is taken from a drawing by the German artist George Grosz. The composition for “The Prodigal Son” is from a painting by Caravaggio. “The Birth of Venus” is a rough, inelegant version of the famous work by Botticelli. (I made the face in the style of early Greek sculpture.) Lastly, “The Blue Cat” is a version of a drawing my daughter made as a child. Children´s art has much to recommend: simplicity, freshness, charm.
ANOTHER NIGHT OF TV oil on canvas 48x30 in. / $2,500.USD + shipping
“THE PRODIGAL SON” oil on canvas. / 36x36 in. / SOLD.
“THE BIRTH OF VENUS” oil on canvas / 50 x 30 in. / $2,500.USD+ shipping
Open life drawing sessions are held each Tuesday night- at Henry Vermillion´s home/gallery
Lucero 43, La Lejona, 2da. Sección. from 7-9 pm.
No instruction – just come and draw.
$200 Pesos, snacks and drinks provided.
A long tradition.
Henry Vermillion Cell / WhatsApp: (+52) 415 215 1591 / (+52) 415 115 5888
“FIVE ONE MINUTE POSES” pencil. / pastel / 13x9 in.
“PILLO” a funny pencil drawing by Henry Vermillion
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“TWO MEN, A WOMAN AND A DOG” Oil on canvas / 34 x 36 inches / by Henry Vermillion / $2,200 USD
TWO MEN, A WOMAN AND A DOG
By Henry Vermillion
As you may know, I have a nearly life-long habit of making quick drawing on napkins of interesting people in restaurants and bars. From time to time, these images show up in my paintings. I just revived three of these “quick people” ---along with a “quick dog” --- in a good- sized oil painting. The young man on the left is from a fellow I drew in Madrid. The other man and the woman were noted down, at separate times, in Benja´s Bar here in San Miguel.
I moved the setting to a more outdoors place, and separated the figures with a couple of imaginary panels, making it more interesting, I think.
If you´re interested, contemporary painters can by divided into two groups: formalists, and non-formalists. Most non-formalists depend on action and color to achieve their ends (Pollock and many abstractionists), while formalists (like myself) are still concerned about composition, balance, and so on, no matter what else goes on in their picture.
“TWO MEN, A WOMAN AND A DOG” napkin drawing studies
“YOUNG DUDE” Charcoal and acrylic on amate paper / 24x34 inches / by Henry Vermillion /$800 USD
“LEARN TO DRAW POSTER” / 11 x 8.5 in. / April 2024
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“FAMILY REUNION” oil / 48 x 36 in. / by Henry Vermillion
NICE HOME, NICE PICTUREs
By Henry Vermillion
Britt (my wife) yesterday reminded me of a familiar truism: You can know a lot about a person by the pictures they hang in their home. This applies to folks with money as well as those with less, whether the pictures are reproductions or original art. The art should be beautiful/handsome, should suit the color of the couch/rug/curtains, and, most importantly, it should be TASTEFUL.
Of course, serious painters learn this early in the game. If you need to sell your art to pay the rent, you learn to paint reasonably beautiful, tasteful pictures. Common sense. They should be in your own individual style, but beautifully/handsomely done.
But if you have chosen art as a means of working out your personal hangups, your psychological or existential searching (a perfectly legitimate path to take), it´s best if you have an external source of income or a very big talent and/or a very big talent for self-promotion. Painters like van Gogh, de Kooning and Basquiat did it that way, but only the latter two made it financially, and Basquiat didn´t live long enough to enjoy it. In other words, norms and tastes of society change, but “tasteful” is always going to be a constant.
Which brings me back to Britt´s point. She was looking closely at a large oil I had done a few years ago. Six people populate the picture. All are gathered on or around a puffy cumulus cloud somewhere above the earth. In the center is an anguished young man, his head bowed, his arms and hands joined over his chest. Below him, seated, is a grossly obese nude man; he is looking up at the young man. To the right of the young man, the profile of a maternal gray-haired woman also looks up at the central figure. On the left side of the picture, the profile of a stern older man looks in, but his glance is at something over the head of the young man. In the top left, and from behind the cloud, a haloed Catholic Virgin looks benevolently down at the youth. The sixth and final figure is a winged and angel-like nude impudently sprawled atop the puffy cloud. One leg passes through the cloud and reappears below it. She has copper-red hair, attractive breasts, but wait! She also has a penis! He/she (or should I say “they”?) is also staring, with an accusatory look, at the young man. And at this point, we may have noticed that the celestial blue behind the Virgin on the left has transmogrified into turbulent reds and red-oranges behind the winged figure. What does all this mean? Why would anyone paint such a thing? Talk about bad taste!
Good questions.
Since I’m the one who painted the picture, I’ll mention that since I was a kid, I´ve been interested in what makes one person different from another, what makes them tick, and why they do what they do (me included): I was a child psychologist, with me being the child. Now, as a painter, I enjoy painting and drawing psychological types and situations. After all, down deep, people can be pretty, pretty strange.
The working title for the picture above is “Family Reunion”. Of course, the viewer can interpret (or not) what´s happening any way they choose, untasteful though the picture may seem (should you someday see it over someone´s couch). It hasn´t been shown in public before, but can be seen during our:
“LEARN TO DRAW POSTER” / 11 x 8.5 in. / April 2024
ARTISTS´ STUDIO AND GALLERY VISITS OPEN HOUSE APRIL 10th, 1-5 PM
By Henry Vermillion
Britt and I have decided the time has come to have an open studio/open house. Our larger house has given us space to convert it into a gallery (as well as living, teaching, and painting space).
So, on Wednesday, April 10 from 1-5 pm. we´re inviting friends and the public to come visit. This will be a sales event also, with special pricing on work by both of us. (Since we closed Galeria Izamal after 29 good years, I now show at Galeria Blue Moon (Stirling Dickinson #7, San Antonio, SMA), but Britt´s work has not been available to the public.)
As an added fillip, each of us will give away a framed print.
'HAPPINESS' AFTER CHARLES BRAGG. pencil, watercolor by Henry Vermillion
'GUILLERMO' charcoal, pastel. by Henry Vermillion
‘LA CATRINA CON SU PERRO’ silkscreen 21 x 18 in. by Britt Zaist
‘ELEGANT CAT’ silkscreen 21 x 18 in. unframed by Britt Zaist
ON-GOING DRAWING CLASSES WITH HENRY VERMILLION
Henry Vermillion is currently teaching an on-going series of two-week "How To Draw" sessions (M-W-F, 10 to 1 pm) at his home at Lucero 43 in La Lejona, 2da. Sección (behind La Comer).
The classes deal with the fundamentals of drawing and are for both beginners and for painters who want to sharpen their drawing skills. Maximum of 6 people. Drop-ins may pay per class.
NOTE: Henry teaches students at different levels in the same class setting. And everyone gets individual attention. So, anyone can join his classes at any time.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Cell/WhatsApp: (+52) 415 215 1591
Home Phone: 415 152 6171
DRAWING CLASSES
Henry Vermillion will teach another two-week "How To Draw" series (M-W-F, 10 to 1 pm) beginning February 26 at his home in La Lejona, 2da. Sección (behind La Comer). The classes deal with the fundamentals of drawing and are for both beginners and for painters who want to sharpen their drawing skills. Maximum of 6. (Sessions may be paid individually.)
For more information:
Cell/WhatsApp: (+52) 415 215 1591
Home Phone: 415 152 6171
´TUESDAY NIGHT CLASS´ pencil on paper 11x8.5 in.
ANYONE CAN LEARN TO DRAW
BY HENRY VERMILLION
That´s almost true. The exceptions are folks with severe dyslexia. But while those folks often cannot accurately draw something in front of them, sometimes their drawings, while different, are amazingly expressive.
The rest of us ordinary folks can indeed learn some simple rules that enable us to draw well. The techniques are simple, but like any other skill, it needs practice—and more practice, to get better.
In my classes I teach simplification. Make simple shapes or scribbles, and they can become faces, people, houses, or landscapes. An oval becomes a face, a rectangle becomes a human body—or a house, a horse, or the body of a dog.
Drawing should be done as much as possible the way a child draws: exploring and recording what interests them; what´s important to them in the world. But after some rules (and magic tricks) are learned, a grown-up person can learn to also measure—visually—the proportions of a figure, a tree, or a flower, in order to draw it more accurately, if that´s what is wanted.
Line is very important. Thick, strong lines, or thin, sensitive, probing lines add character to a drawing, as rapidly or slowly-drawn lines add a different feeling.
I, myself, am still learning different ways of drawing, still discovering. There´s no end to it, I think.
Finally: drawing accurately is not the most important objective. Drawing expressively, with conviction and feeling is most important. We´re not civil engineers or architects, we´re artists. As I always say: God gave us cameras so we could make exactly accurate images, if that’s what we want.
´PILLO THINKING´ 2001, pencil 10.5x7.5 in.
´FABIOLA´ pencil 12x9 in.
´PRODIGAL SON´ oil on canvas / 36 x 36 in.
AH, TO BE AN ARTIST!
Ah! For the life of an artist! A bit---or very—romantic. A life given meaning by creating beautiful paintings, sculptures. Free from the daily grind, from the rat race. Expressing one´s deepest feelings! The tragedy, as well as the glory of life!
Of course, that´s an old-fashioned notion, more 19th Century than 20th. Artists of today areunburdened by such ideas. They know how to build a solid platform on the Internet: Facebook, Instagram, Etsy, e Bay, Zazzie, Fiverr. These days, an artist is expected to be a savvy marketer.
I´m not one of those, but more about that later.
Living in San Miguel de Allende, as I and most of you do, I find the situation a bit strange. The place is a magnet for artists and arty folks. At my current co-op gallery (Galeria Blue Moon, on Stirling Dickenson) normally half of the visitors are artists looking for a space to show their work. Non-painters tend to be photographers, writers, Theosophists, or nice New Age folks who are trying to eliminate much of the stuff they have accumulated. Nice folks, bless ‘em, but I´d like to see more middle-aged retired captains of industry who know something about art and are collectors. I´ve heard there some around, but personally, the only ones I´ve seen were in the City Market buying cuts of expensive meat and good whiskey.
But enough grousing. Why did I become a serious painter? It´s all because of Joy Lynne Robinson. I discovered I had a talent for drawing when I was in the sixth grade. I sat down to copy a newspaper photograph of President Harry Truman. Wow! It was easy! It was fun! And my drawing looked just like him, shading and all. Joy Lynne was the cutest and most vivacious girl in the class, and to impress her, I gave her my new piece of art. As you might guess, she was not in the least impressed. (Two years later, I gave her my football letter jacket—a serious matter—and she didn´t even remember my gift many years later, at a class reunion.)
In any case, my path to Art began with that drawing of Harry Truman. Figurative work which is expressive and narrative suits me best. (The urge to decorate is innate and necessary to us humans, but to me, serious abstract painting tends to be a loftier breed of decoration, beautiful and interesting though it often is.) We humans are self-centered. We crave faces and figures---TV, cinema, People or Vanity Fair Magazines. Or even in Degas or Andy Warhol pictures.
´THE KING & HIS NIECE´ Watercolor / 10.5x7.5 in. / by Henry Vermillion
'ACCUSED MAN' Oil on canvas / 36x18 in. / by Henry Vermillion
´THE RED LADDER´ Oil on canvas / 24x36 in. by Henry Vermillion
click on images to enlarge