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We at Sight-Size.com wish to thank American Artist Magazine for allowing us to reprint their December 1970 interview with Robert Douglas Hunter. The copyright for the article belongs to American Artist. An Interview with Robert Douglas Hunter by Richard Goetz Page 2 G: Did that finish your preparation for a career as an artist? H: I managed to get a studio in Boston and support myself through the Gallery in Provincetown and the Vose Gallery in Boston. By now, of course, I have taught at the Vesper George School for a number of years and derive my steady income from this source. G: Lets talk about your painting. H: Primarily I consider myself a still life painter; however, I do paint landscapes and portraits. I limit the portrait commissions to about six to eight a year. I don't care to get too involved with portraits, although I enjoy doing a few and try to put as much into them as I do into my still life work. This in itself limits the number of persons who are willing to pose for me, as I require a great number of sittings to get the same degree of finish and refinement as in my still lifes. G: Your small landscape drawings art so precisely and beautifully rendered that they remind me of some of the early masters. H: Drawing presents a completely different point of view from painting. After working for weeks on a still life, it is quite an enjoyable change to be able to sit down and finish something in 2 1/2 hours. I use two-ply smooth paper and 2B to 5H drawing pencils. I begin the drawing by lightly delineating the big masses. After predetermining all the statements in my mind's eye-very much as a watercolorist does. I then lay-in the tones. I don't use a chisel point, but the pencil is fairly sharp, creating the tones and values in a series of crisp lines. My pressure on the paper is always about the same, and the different values are created by the softness or hardness of the pencil: the harder the pencil, the lighter the tone; the softer, the darker. G: Your landscape drawings are very small, about 4 by 7, but are very finished. Do you use these as reference material for future paintings? H: My landscape paintings are done on the spot in 2 1/2 or 3 hours to capture the mood and light of that particular day. I don't believe in doing a sketch and then working it out in the studio with formulas or memory because what I am really trying to do is capture a quick impression. It's good to get out of doors occasionally to get a fresh eye for light after studio work. It helps to see color correctly because out of doors the local color is lost in the color of light. G: What materials do you use in still life painting? H: I paint with artist grade oils of flake white, yellow ochre, light red, Indian red, ultramarine blue, ivory black, cadmium yellow pale, cadmium orange, cadmium red light, alizarin crimson, cerulean blue, and viridian. I always use artists' grade paint; it's particularly important in using cadmium's, but perhaps not so in the earth colors. The coloring agents in the better paints are so superior to the inexpensive paints that it makes no sense to use cheap paint at all. If you are using a paint that is not sufficiently strong in hue, you will never be able to hit certain color notes, such as the color quality in fruit, in particular. G. What brushes do you use? H: Mostly long bristles, the ones called flats-not filberts; occasionally sables in some small passages. I always use the largest brush to do the job. G: What medium do you find most suitable? H: I use the paint as it comes from the tube and add a little turpentine if the paint is too stiff. I always clean off all paint remaining on the palette at the end of each day's work and put out fresh paint for the next day. Occasionally, near the completion of the painting, I will use a small amount of poppy oil in the very dark areas. I paint on double-primed linen canvas with lots of rags. I believe in lots of rags. I don't see how anyone can use a paper towel in painting. I never have had the problem of lint from my rags getting into my painting, but maybe that's because the lint does get in and becomes part of the impasto. I use a mahl stick all the time, because I am walking back and forth from my observation position and my palette is at that point too, which is normally about 12 feet away from the canvas and 12 feet away from the arrangement itself. The mahl stick is great because I can almost use it as a balancer for myself. By keeping my fingers at the very end of the brush and resting the mahl stick against the easel, I can stay quite a distance away from the actual canvas when I am brushing the paint on. G: Now let's discuss the procedure you use in painting a still life.H: The first consideration is composition. That includes the arrangement of the setup .and its placement on the canvas. If you were to divide art into three categories-illustrative, decorative, and historical-mine would certainly be decorative. I therefore deal with abstract patterns of shapes and colors rather than storytelling arrangements. I try to make these arrangements so that they create the illusion of complete control of design within a given picture plane. I generally used curved linear shapes, because they are more voluptuous and sensual. With these forms I try to create a sense of harmony, unity. As to subject matter. I started off by more-or-less specializing in New England Americana - crockery, bottles, brasses and coppers-and while traveling in Europe developed a collection of 18th-century porcelain. Both my studios and my apartment are absolutely loaded with things I like to paint, and to maintain variety I keep buying continuously. Go to page: 1 2 3 |