http://www.cheapjoes.com -- Welcome to Cheap Joe's Test Studio!
Q - How did you come into painting?
A - Like everyone I came to painting in a circuitous route. I was a pre-law English major at the University of Maryland.
I went to the University of Maryland and was a pre-law English major and one of my old girlfriends talked me into taking a dancing class which didnt work out. Another girlfriend talked me into taking a drawing class which did work out.
I've never had a real job. Fortunately I've always been a painter or visiting artist at different colleges.
Back before they had computer chips, women would bring in color samples and swatches and I would have to match and mix paint. It was my job and I learned more about color mixing there than I did anywhere else.
I worked as an electricians apprentice for years after graduating so that I could work for a few months to get enough money to paint for a few months to spend all the money to work for a few months to get enough money.
Then I got my first visiting artists position in the 70s and got to North Carolina in 1984 as a North Carolina visiting artist. After my 4 year stint I was going to move back, I was in Baltimore prior to North Carolina, I was going to move back there and Jerry Melberg picked me up in 1988 and I was with the Melberg Gallery for several years.
I left there and was handled by Hodges Taylor for a while and from there it was Gabriel Shane and Shane Fine Art, then Red Sky Gallery picked me up. Kelly Scott very kindly said she'd let me paint anything I wanted to and I was in heaven.
Going backwards in time, I moved to Charlotte to get my relationship with Jerry and met my wife, fell in love and Ive been here in Charlotte since 1988. She actually is the one who talked me into opening a studio.
Still I've saved Friday and Saturday or Friday and Sunday as a day for me just to paint. That selfish pleasure is still pretty important to me.
Q - Tell us a little about Braitman Studios.
A - I'm pretty adept at handling figure work and representational work and pretty abstract work. I can help people find their own voice and have been fairly successful with that.
Its gotten pretty sophisticated over the years, I have workshops that are actually named and titled. Its basically just helping people find a voice and get comfortable with using more paint and more color and more personal expression.
Q - Why do you paint?
A - My canned answer is its the only way I know how to break the rules and not go to jail.
My practical answer is I'm not happy, its like meditation, I don't get through the day unless I paint a little bit every day.
The real answer it thats what I do. In that Myers Briggs test I'm right on the cusp between introvert and extrovert. The introvert in me paints and the extrovert in me teaches.
Q - Who were some of your influences?
A - Starting from representational work, figure work and abstract I would say Frank Stella.
Clyfford Still is probably my first big influence. There was a great little blues restaurant/bar called the Child Herald off of DuPont Circle.
Around the corner was a gallery, a museum called the Phillips Museum. I would sit in there and there was a Clyfford Still painting I used to look at.
It got to the point month after month that I would stop going to the blues club and stop drinking and just go in and migrate once a week or so to that Clyfford Still. It was a very heavily impostured painting.
I grew to like Frank Stella's work, it really excited me. For figure painters, Lucian Freud is spectacular and also Pearlstein.
I think in the late 40s and early 50s, all the artists that took elements of painting and concentrated on one element like Pollock did the action painting. He and DeCooney were action painters.
Morris Lewis and Sam Francis were color field painters. Everyone had their own strength they concentrated on.
I always tended toward those people who celebrated surface so anyone who had a surface in their painting really intrigued me.
Q - Any other thoughts youd like to share?
A - Painting for me is more than a hobby or pastime; its been a way of life for me.
Like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Any time you study something long enough you're really studying yourself.
I get better and better and each of my most recent paintings I do is my favorite. I think I just love to learn and love to paint. I love to be in nature, I think it all comes back to being comfortable outdoors and observing nature and finding bits to bring back into your painting.
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Defining Color Masses Part 5 of 11 with Andy Braitmanby cheapjoes10,544 views
great vid! I LOVE people who hate doing dead end jobs cause all the want to do is paint! people stay creative!
kidzsanlorenzo 2 years ago
Very nice thoughts.
Airave 2 years ago