Art Blog/Eric Whollem

Thursday, February 4, 2010

ANCESTRAL TREE/ Mixed Media With Natural Earth Pigments For Texture/ ABSTRACT PAINTING

Ancestral Tree

1974

by Eric Whollem

earth pigment, casein and watercolor on paper

Collection of the artist

8.5" x 11"

Copyright by the artist.

Visages of My Ancestors

This is an early mixed media watercolor. It is an imaginary family tree.

The faces have a bit of a Saxon or Celtic look to them. And one may

note the shamrocks that grow here and there.

This work bears an affinity to the works of Paul Klee, who I had

discovered as a boy. My fifth grade art teacher, Mrs. Boyd, was a

fan of Klee. And she gave her classes more than the usual amount of

art time. In high school my art teacher also promoted the work of Klee.

Klee's art has great affinity to children's art, so many enlightened

educators have contributed to Klee's fame among generations of new artists,

a considerable boon to the proliferation of abstract art.

_______________________

THE VIDEO BELOW PRESENTS

A VARIETY OF MY APPROACHES TO

MIXED MEDIA PAINTING

Mixed Media by Eric Whollem

FIGURATIVE ABSTRACTION

THE YELLOW FISH/ Earth Pigments With Gouache: A Visionary Abstraction

The Yellow Fish

1980

by Eric Whollem

earth paints and gouache on paper

Collection of the artist.

14" x 11"

Copyright by the artist.

A SIERRA NEVADA LANDSCAPE:

Rainpools Among the Granite Boulders

I painted this work in Feather Falls, California. I was living as a caretaker on an

old Maidu Indian rancheria. My Indian friend, Robert, was fond of carving in

soapstone. He gathered stones to carve "for his old age" around his house. Many

good carving stones could be found up towards Camp Eighteen and Fall River

Crossing.

Thaumaturgian Fox

1984

by Eric Whollem

gouache and wax resist on paper

Collection of the artist.

3 7/16 " x 4 1/16"

Copyright by the artist.

FOX MEDICINE

Fox in Native American medicine stands for intellect,

cleverness in all it's forms.

Fox is very independent, stands alone, and gets done

what needs to be done.

Fox is a blend of dog and cat. Intelligent like a cat

but with surprising strength for it's size.

Fox does not get lonely. It is very adventurous.

It can amuse itself. It is a survivor. It can live in

any condition: snow or heat.

These ideas were related to me by my muse, who

is part Iroquois and part Cherokee Indian.

_________________________

See my posts about MEDICINE ANIMALS

http://artblogericwhollem.blogspot.com/search/label/medicine%20animals

THE VIDEO BELOW

TALKS ABOUT MEDICINE ANIMALS

OF THE CONCOW MAIDU INDIANS

ERIC WHOLLEM

Indian medicine animals, shamanism, abstract art, mixed media painting.

THE GREAT MOTHER/ Figurative Abstraction: A Goddess Icon/ FIGURATIVE ABSTRACTION

The Great Mother

                                                       1986
                                                       by EricWhollem
                                                       India ink and wax resist on paper
                                                      Collection of the artist.
                                                      6" x 9"
                                                         Copyright by the artist.

The Great Mother Cradling a Goddess in Her Arms

This painting demonstrates how my ceramic sculpture had influenced my
drawing and painting. The Great Mother shows plastic versatility and
the exploration of mass. Shapes are pulled, stretched and expanded,
much as a sculptor would do with clay.

O, CITY WOMAN/ Natural Earth Pigments and Watercolor: A Geometric Abstraction

O, City Woman

1981

by Eric Whollem

earth paints, casein, and watercolor on paper

Collection of the artist.

5 5 /16" x 5 7/16"

Copyright by the artist.

Approaches to Mixed Media Art

"Mixed media" when applied to painting, refers to the artist's use of

a variety of paints, such as oil and watercolor, for example, in a single

work of art.

Sirens of the Quay

                                      1977
                                      by Eric Whollem
                                      earth pigments, casein, & watercolor on paper
                                      Collection of the artist.
                                      14" x 11"
                                          Copyright by the artist.

A Sighting of Dos Sirenas At the Wharf

In 1977 I took my big trip to Mexico. I wanted to see Tiotehuacan and the
Aztec pyramids, not to mention the famous anthropology museum in Mexico
City. This museum experience was overwhelming. It was the great stylistic
variety in Mesoamerican ceramics and sculpture that impressed me. The
level of personal vision is extremely high among the ceramic artists of the
Americas.

Windows of the Night

1974

by Eric Whollem

earth paints, casein, and watercolor on paper

Private Collection
Copyright by the artist.

Playing With Space and Texture

In works from this time period, my early twenties, I often would
create a shape and then repeat it, creating visual assemblages of
that defy apparent gravity. (I was twenty-three years old in 1974.)

Sweat Vision

1986

by Eric Whollem

gouache and wax resist on paper

Collection of Jim Nelson and Denise Furlong

11" x 8.5"

Copyright by the artist.

The Tradition of the Sweat Lodge

Native Americans univerally acclaim the virtues of the Sweat Lodge.

Sweating is considered an excellent health regimin. In my painting

three men are walking to a green pool in the desert to cleanse themselves

after a session in the sauna.

Amasis

1984

wax medium on paper

by Eric Whollem

Collection of the artist.
14 " x 11"

Copyright by the artist.

BACCHANTES

Amasis is the name of a famous ancient Greek pottery painter.

I did this work in homage to his art.

Three Nudes

1984

by Eric Whollem

gouache and wax resist on paper

Collection of the artist.

6" x 9"

Copyright by the artist.

Homage to Les Demoiselles d'Avignon

Pablo Picasso's famous masterpiece, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, has been

emulated by a great number of artists insofar as it was a pivotal work in the

foundation of Cubism.

Leto

1984

by Eric Whollem

gouache and wax resist on paper

Collection of the artist.

6" x 9"

Copyright by the artist.

The Egyptian Sybil

The Egyptian equivalent to the oracle of Delphi in

Greece was the oracle of Leto, who was known

especially in Crete. In Egypt she was called Wadjet.

In the painting above Leto upholds the Veil of Isis,

the Veil of the Mysteries. There are some that believe

the term "veil" might be better translated "net." Much

of ancient mythology is set in aquatic symbolism. The

idea may originally refer to the function of the goddess

catching souls rather like fish in the sea.

Wax medium is one of the more permanent of all art

binders. Wax resists bacteria and age. The murals at

Pompeii in Italy were wax paintings, and lived through

volcanic upheaval and burial in lava.

________________________

THE VIDEO BELOW

SHOWCASES SOM OF MY

MIXED MEDIA

PAINTINGS

ERIC WHOLLEM

Mixed media painting, abstract art, Egyptian and Greek mythology, Veil of the Mysteries.

EARTH SPRITE/ Ash Paint and Gouache on Paper: A Folk Art Icon/ FIGURATIVE ABSTRACTION

Earth Sprite

1998

by Eric Whollem

gouache and ash paint in acrylic emulsion on paper

Collection of the artist.
11" x 8 3/8"

Copyright by the artist.

A NATURE SPIRIT

Earth Sprite is an imaginative vision of a

gnome. I used wood ash from my stove to

make a thick paint, which I applied with a

stick for a palette knife. This heavy impasto

was used to outline the forms in this work.

GARDEN OF THE TURTLE/ Mixed Media: Earth Pigments and Gouache/ FIGURATIVE ABSTRACTION

Garden of the Turtle

1998

by Eric Whollem

earth pigments, gouache and acrylic emulsion on paper

Collection of the artist.

14" x 11"

Copyright by the artist.

Coon Man and Bearfish Mother in Turtleland

Many Native Americans posit the Turtle as a Creator Spirit. A being who

created the world and all that lives in it out of a handful of mud. I have

followed this tale in sympathetic sport, having taken a bit of earth paint

from the archaic bed of the prehistoric sea that used to fill the Sacramento

Valley floor and mixed it with some gouache paints from the art store.

The result is Garden of the Turtle.

Earth Mother

1981

by Eric Whollem

earth pigments, charcoal and ash paint in casein on panel

Collection of the artist.

32" x 22"

Copyright by the artist.

EARTH COLORS FROM NATURE'S ALCHEMICAL STOREHOUSE

This painting is an image that borrows much in technnique from
Australian aboriginal art. I used sticks as brushes like the aborigines.

Luncheon of the Bird People

1974

by Eric Whollem

watercolors with earth pigments and casein on paper

Collection of the artist.

11 1/4" x 9 7/8"

Copyright by the artist.

HOPI INDIAN CERAMIC TILE PAINTING:
AN INFLUENCE IN MY EARLY YEARS

In 1973 I made my first earth paints from raw natural earths.

At that time I had been inspired by the power of Native American sand
painting, which is traditionally used in healing ceremonies.

I fell in love with Hopi ceramics, their pottery and their ceramic tiles.
The design in the painting in this post is derivative in a degree of their
tile art. I had read The Book of the Hopi about this time; it was a
popular book in the 1970's, describing the cosmological beliefs of
the pueblo Indians.

HOPI INDIAN CUBISM

The modern art of the Hopi people is amazing. Many of the traditionally
trained painters have done renderings of tribal ideas in a style distinctly
Cubist. I feel that Hopi Cubism is some of the best in the genre of Cubism,
though public recognition has never been commensurate with the degree of
excellence exhibited in the art.

If Braque had been Hopi, he would have spun circles around Picasso.

________________________

Readers may find my posts about the MAIDU INDIANS of interest:

http://artblogericwhollem.blogspot.com/search/label/maidu%20indians

BELOW IS A VIDEO

DEALING WITH THE RELIGION OF

THE CONCOW MAIDU INDIANS

OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

ERIC WHOLLEM

Some might be interested in my articles on DIGITAL CUBISM:

http://artblogericwhollem.blogspot.com/search/label/digital%20cubism

BELOW IS A DEPICTION OF

'AUGUST BOWER'

A DIGITAL WORK OF MINE

THAT UTILIZES

CUBISTIC

TEXTUROLOGIES

(COPYRIGHT BY THE ARTIST)

FIGURATIVE ABSTRACTION

JEWEL DESERT/ Native American Motifs in the Figurative Art of Eric Whollem/ Abstract Art

The Jewel Desert

1985

by Eric Whollem

mixed media on paper

Collection of the artist.

9" x 6"

Copyright by the artist.

THE JEWEL DESERT

This painting evokes the art of Native American
Indians. Not just the turquoise pigmentation of
the image, but the pictographic symbols that are
arrayed across the image's surface.

American Indian rock art has been a huge influence
on my work. Rock art is generally divided into
two types: pictographs and petroglyphs. Much of
my art has been dedicated to exploration of Native
American pictographic art.

PICTOGRAPHS AND PETROGLYPHS VIDEO

EARTH PAINTS AND INDIAN LORE

The label, earth paints, will lead you to articles
that describe Native American inspiration as the
basis for the development of my own paints made
from natural earths, ash, and charcoal, etc.

EARTH PAINTINGS VIDEO

See my posts on EARTH PAINTS on this link:

http://artblogericwhollem.blogspot.com/search/label/earth%20paints

See more of my FIGURATIVE ABSTRACTIONS here:

http://artblogericwhollem.blogspot.com/search/label/figurative%20abstraction

GODDESS' GARDEN/ Mixed Media Figurative Abstraction With Earth Paints

Goddess' Garden

                1997
                 by Eric Whollem
                 gouache and earth paint in acrylic emulsion on paper
                 Collection of the artist.
                14 3/4" x 9 3/16"
                   Copyright by the artist.

The Golden Child at the Gate of Initiation

Demeter is the Goddess of the Mysteries. In this painting the
Goddess has birthed an initiate, a golden child, whose destiny it is
to follow the path of Mystery.

THE FOREST OF HANDS/ A Pictogaphic Evocation of Nature/ Abstract Art/ FIGURATIVE ABSTRACTION

"Plants are feeling beings."

Forest of Hands

1978

by Eric Whollem

mixed media on paper

7 3/8" x 9 5/8"

Collection of the artist

Copyright by the artist.

THE HANDS OF NATURE

This painting is a fine example of what some might call

anthropomorphic projection, which is to say the application

of human traits to objects or beings in the world.

Dancing Color

1984

by Eric Whollem

mixed media on paper

Collection of the artist

11" x 8.5"

Copyright by the artist

THE HUMAN FORM

The human form has been a major theme of art since the
beginning of time. In Dancing Color I have attempted to
give a bit of movement to my figures, incorporating a
reference to dance, another of mankind's archetypical
expressions.

Seer Among the Stones

                                                   1978
                                                   by Eric Whollem
                                                   gouache and earth pigments in acrylic emulsion on paper
                                                    Collection of the artist.
                                                     11 3/8 " x 12 3/4"
                                                        Copyright by the artist.

A VISION OF CENTRAL ASIA

Music has great influential power.

I painted this work listening to Central Asian folk music.The blue
mountains in the background are reminiscent of the color of mountains
as is commonly rendered in Persian miniatures.