Interview With Artist Chuck Rosenthal
When asked what he, as an artist, wanted to communicate to the viewer in his paintings, artist Chuck Rosenthal gave a superb, nearly poetic answer. He said:
“I like to show the paint to the viewer with brushwork in some areas of the painting, but like all artists and particularly the most successful ones, I want the viewer to be able to participate in the work. I want the viewer to feel that if it’s a landscape, it’s a place where he wants to be. If the artwork is a still life, it should have some ineffable familiarity to the viewer, and create a feeling that ‘this is right, I know this.’
The artist continued with, “That is the universal impingement of a really good piece of artwork. I want the viewer to be able to escape for a moment into my painted world that has, in the viewer’s eyes, a rightness, a balance of placement and light values that is in agreement with the viewer’s own internal universe.”
For an example, take a look at Rosenthal’s “Houses on the Marshland, a 16×20 oil painting (it’s on his website www.chuckrosenthalfineart.com). The houses are in the background, but the eye of the viewer is drawn into the painting by the fabulously bright sunlight that colors the grasses and wetlands in the foreground, making them various shades of yellow and orange, with some contrasting dark blue shadows.
The artist paints actual places, rather than things he makes up in his mind, but really the location in the painting was only there at one point in time. The sun changes, the light changes. Because it is now on canvas, it is captured perpetually, a single moment in time. Now it can also be captured in the mind of the viewer.
Enjoying a view of ” Grapes and Nectarine,” another painting on the artist’s website, gives you an idea of what the artist meant when he said “ineffable familiarity to the viewer,” and that he wanted to create a feeling of “this is right, I know this.” It is a still life painting. It was bought by a viewer who knew “this is right, I know this,” and it now hangs in a dining room or living room or perhaps a den.
When you see that painting, it seems as though you can feel the textures. Of course, if you touch the painting, you will only feel paint, but the thick, rough gold and purple cloth with smooth, cool purple grapes resting on it, brings up the feelings in the mind. The artist’s concept and execution of the painting is very real.
Visit the artist’s website and enjoy viewing these paintings and others, and making your own contribution. You may now have a new viewpoint since you have read what the artist said.
Learn more about oil paintings. Stop by Chuck Rosenthal’s site where you can find out all about still life and what it can do for you.
