figurative painting

Moods and Patterns

acrylic paintings, art, contemporary, contemporary art, contemporary painting, contempory art, female artist, Figurative art on canvas, studio visit

A visitor to my studio:
“I look around at every painting of yours and don’t see a glimmer of hope.”

Ha-ha.

The joke is, I’m happy as a clam when I paint. The minute I enter my studio my spirits lift. Even in the face of a difficult painting, I’m ecstatic!

So what does an artist make of what people see in her paintings? Do people see what they want to see? Do they see what they don’t want to see?


Some of my favorite shows recently (and best of all, I was INVITED!):
Art & Words, Emerge Gallery — I wrote poems to my paintings and poets wrote poems to my paintings and then I did a painting inspired by a poet.

344 Second Street Troy — the curator and owner, Jean Tansey, herself a wonderful artist, selected a bunch of my paintings to exhibit, especially the larger ones, especially happy about that am I, since I’m painting really, really small lately. (I prefer to think I’m squeezing big ideas into small spaces.)

Albany Center — an email out of the blue invited me to exhibit in this beautiful space in the heart of downtown Albany surrounded by soaring brutalist architecture.
And… upcoming

The one and only Saugerties Open Studio Tour — visit me in my studio August 12 and13,
STUDIO #3 c’est moi ! Visit me, visit me. I love studio visits.

Babysitter (1)
Samhain
Phoning In

Art as Therapy, “Branding” or not?

acrylic paintings, art, contemporary art, contemporary painting, female artist, figurative art, portraits, portraits of women

One visitor to my studio remarked (or was it a complaint?) that I have “too many ideas” — I should stick to one idea and develop it. I got the same advice (or complaint) in art school. One of my art professors was a painter of directional signs. His work was shown in one of NYC’s best galleries. I recently looked him up online to see if, forty years later, he was still painting directional signs. Yes! There they were, painting after painting of arrows. Arrows pointing up, pointing crossways, pointing down, etc. So, he had a brand — to borrow from corporate marketing — easily identifiable, uniquely his. And me? Do I have a brand?

Child Looks at the Dance of Life (Munch) 16 x 24 inches
Give him flowers (studio view) each 10 x 12

Me? I start from the inside. I focus on whatever’s bothering me. Or what intrigues me. The past year, for example, I was faced with an upcoming court date and constant, nightmarish anxiety. How to alleviate my anxiety? I was tempted to throw paint against the canvas – expressionism!

Instead, I discovered a simple therapy: I focused on details, tiny intricate shapes, dots, triangles, stripes, using my trusty ink pens and fluid acrylics and acrylic markers and occasional watercolor pencils. Will I go on “developing” my “patterned” paintings? Probably not.

Like the Mirror when Nobody’s Looking

acrylic paintings, art, contemporary, contemporary art, female artist, male portraits

It’s as if you’re dead and looking at life through a veil, someone said to me at my recent solo show of my work.

Not a bad analysis — because I don’t paint from life. 

My companions in my studio are fluctuating moods and passing thoughts and squelched memories bubbling to the surface. 

I paint because I like being off-balance. 

Teacher 

Leave your sleepy rivulets to trickle down my wrist,

Teacher. Put up a mirror for an answer

so I can ask the same question

twice

            Seal shut last year’s envelopes, your lesson’s feral cabinet,

            Say, The mirror is facing the wall, your secrets are safe

            Don’t ask me,

            “Dear little cobweb: why so brooding, mysterious, and  quaking?”

            Don’t say, “I’ll seize this and this and this”

Leave everything alone as is

            like the mirror, when nobody’s looking

“Afternoon Dust”
“A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall”
“Selfie with Jenny”

School Days

acrylic paintings, contemporary art

I used acrylic markers for most of these paintings…

Gutelius, 40 x 23

School Days (Museum Trip), 40 x 23

Gutelius, 28 x 17

School Days (Mirror, revised version), 28 x 17

Gutelius, 35 x 40

School Days (Dads), 35 x 40

Gutelius, 17 x 14 new

School Days (Going on 13) new version, 17 x 14

Gutelius, 20 x 16

School Days (Comicon), 20 x 16

Gutelius, 26 x 26

School Days (Wall), 26 x 26

 

Solo Show of My Paintings’ series “School Days”

acrylic paintings, contemporary art

This April, my first solo show, “School Days,” curated and presented by Paul McMahon, a pioneer of the the alternative space movement (Google him and you will discover many surprises).

Gutelius, Solo use

Gutelius, Solo show, partial installation view

Gutelius, Solo, Nina

Gutelius, Solo show with Nina

 

School Days (series)

acrylic paintings, contemporary art, figurative art

School Days (reflections), acrylic on canvas, 23 x 19

School Days (reflections), acrylic on canvas, 23 x 19

School Days (Diaspora), acrylic on canvas, 33 x 32

School Days (Diaspora), acrylic on canvas, 33 x 32

School Days (History), acrylic on canvas, 33 x 25

School Days (History), acrylic on canvas, 33 x 25

School Days (Corridor), acrylic on canvas), 34 x 37

School Days (Corridor), acrylic on canvas), 34 x 37

New Paintings

acrylic paintings, contemporary art, figurative art, Figurative art on canvas

Gutelius, 26 x 19, Push to Open jpg

Push to Open, 26 x 19 inches, acrylic on canvas

Gutelius, 20 x 17, Watch

Watch, 20 x 17 inches, acrylic on canvas

Gutelius, 19 x 15, Marilyn at Walmart

Marilyn at Walmart, 19 x 15 inches, acrylic on canvas

Gutelius, 26 x 20, My Girl

My Girl, 26 x 20 inches, acrylic on canvas

Josepha Gutelius | Paintings

acrylic paintings, contemporary art, female artist, figurative art, male portraits, portraits of women

Experiments … Take a look at the painting “Every Memory Is Older Than You ” — I scraped off the original image.

Gutelius, 20 x 16, Man in the Holocene

Man in the Holocene, acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16

Gutelius, 24 x 18, New Car Smell

New Car Smell, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 16

Gutelius, Another Exit Plan

Another Exit Plan, acrylic on canvas

Gutelius, 36 x 24 Building in Chelsea

A Building in Chelsea, acrylic drawing on engineering paper, mounted on canvas, 36 x 26

Gutelius, 24 x 18 Bracelets

Bracelets, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 18

Gutelius, 29 x 16 Learning to Swim

Learning to Swim, acrylic on canvas, 29 x 16

Gutelius, 16 x 23, Lingerie

Lingerie, acrylic on canvas, 16 x 23

Gutelius, 36 x 24, Every Memory is Older than You

Every Memory Is Older Than You, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 24

Using acrylic markers

acrylic paintings, contemporary art

A strange, new departure for me (okay, not strange for most people), but:

Buying canvas (rather than stretching it myself) and using acrylic markers (rather than finger painting, which is my usual method) — something about those combinations… well,  the result is a patchwork style that’s a little off the grid for me. And maybe way too familiar to others.

This one is probably unfinished. No title even. And why are these so small here? Sorry for that.

18 x 36 acrylic on canvas

18 x 36 acrylic on canvas

These two, titled “What the Astronaut Saw” — belong together as far as I’m concerned. But probably unfinished. I’m inordinately proud of the sheep on the right though.

What the Astronaut Saw, 16 x 20, acrylic on canvas

What the Astronaut Saw, 16 x 20, acrylic on canvas

What the Astronaut Saw, 16 x 20, acrylic on canvas

What the Astronaut Saw, 16 x 20, acrylic on canvas