Preparing to take my art to Mt. Gretna this weekend, I am also cleaning up the studio. This means that I am finding all sorts of good infobits about which I intended to blog or which I intended to put in my notebooks. (Let's not talk about intentions today, eh?)
One of these infobits is a Watercolor Artist Magazine article about the late George Luks, a native coalcracker who painted the working men and women of Pennsylvania's anthracite coal fields. I've always been a fan of his, not because I paint the same theme but because I spent years photographing the coal region. So, I studied Luks' use of composition and value, which are terms used in all art media. I often return to look at his work, and to paintings by others in the Ashcan School. It was not about beauty, you see. It was about using art to capture real-life moments in time and real life for low-income, working class people and their communities.
Please do take a minute to look at some of Luks' work.
As for me, I return to cleaning up the studio and reviewing my old intentions.
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