Aaron Holland Fine Art

"To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded."

-Bessie Stanley

inaccurately attributed to
Ralph Waldo Emerson

~Photo of Charles Curran in his studio (public domain photo)~

The Bougie Studio was founded by Mr. Peter Bougie to teach interested students how to draw and paint.

The system he modeled in setting up his studio was based on a method of teaching called the Atelier (pronounced ah-tell-yeah' ) which means 'workshop/studio'. He and Brian Lewis taught at a ratio of 2:12, or, two teachers to twelve students. Naturally this has been proven to be a very effective form of teaching...

However, the environment can also be like a 'pressure-cooker' for both the students and teachers, one that requires close working quarters and sustained concentration. Needless to say, I felt (and continue to feel) enormous gratitude that they took a chance on me, by allowing me to study with them.

An interesting part of the Atelier system is that the student is able to learn directly from a professional, and that he is further able to learn by seeing the teacher work on his own paintings. It may look like a source of pride to some, but just as I was grateful to study with Pete and Brian, so did they reflect similar feelings of being able to study with Richard Lack, and in turn Lack was a grateful student of R.H. Ives Gammel, and so on and so on... all the way back to somewhere in France about the late 1600's. It is fun to think about carrying-on a tradition like that, and also about being a part of something bigger than oneself.

I learned during my studies at the Bougie Studio that in a contemporary world, Fine Art is still relevant. I also learned that it is more important to be successful as an artist and as a person, than to be successful in the worlds' eyes; and to be successful in anything takes hard work and dedication. I learned that quality takes time, and that there are no shortcuts in life.

These are some of the traits I learned to appreciate, from a man whose work and life were set as examples before me at the Bougie Studio:

Peter Bougie.

*paintings copyright Peter Bougie

Tom Ryan III

may be reached at: tomryanwesternart@netzero.net

"A Cool Drink" by Tom Ryan III

oil on canvas, 16x 22"

"A Perfect Catch" by Tom Ryan III

oil on canvas, 24 x 30"

"Fourteen at the Four 6's" by Tom Ryan III

oil on canvas, 24x30'

*all images copyright Tom Ryan III, used with permission.

Isaac Ilich Levitan
Golden Autumn
1895
oil on canvas
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Isaac Levitan loved nature, people, his country, and he also loved to paint.

To the undiscerning eye his work may belie the skill, and his uncanny ability to capture the 'essence of a scene' in a fresh and melodious painting. Levitan was primarily a landscape painter, but chose to paint it as a reflection of the human spirit- this was his great contribution to Russian painting. He painted mood. Landscape painting has always held a place of high regard in the Russian culture, but Levitan lived also during times of political oppression, which made his paintings especially poignant and vibrant.

Most artists go through stages of exploration and discovery during their lifetime. Some bloom early and some later (if they live long enough). This painting was painted a few years after Levitan had gone through a series of doubts and depressions, as well as some good years, and had come to a point of self realization. This 'realization' helped him to know what he wanted to convey through his paintings, as well as the manner in which he wished to do so. The paintings that followed this time in his life brought him fame and success as an artist, as well as a personal calm and peace that is reflected in his later paintings.

This painting "Golden Autumn", painted 5 years before Levitan's death, demonstrates his refined approach, his regard for the Imressionist painters, as well as a respect for the Naturalist painters.

Chekov ( the novelist, and close friend of Levitan) was noted as saying that Levitan was the best Russian Landscape painter of their time. He said of him after his death, "In his later years, Levitan attained a wonderful simplicity and clarity of motif, such as no one had ever reached before, and I doubt will ever reach again."

painting by Paul Strisik

"Consider Literature: Not being a writer, I might need ten pages to describe Rockport Harbor. I'd list all the details of the scene and hope that these pieces would give the reader a sense of the place. Tolstoy, on the other hand, could do the same thing in a paragraph. He would describe only the characteristic aspects of the scene. We don't expect him to tell us everything; if he did, we'd find his writing tiresome.

...the writer's statement will be more effective [ if ] its personal.

When you paint things exactly as they are, you don't show people anything they couldn't see for themselves; you're telling them what they already know. The viewer, however...wants you to help them. As Charles Hawthorne said years ago, the painter 'must show people more- more than they already see, and he must do so with so much sympathy and understanding that they will recognize it as if they themselves had seen the beauty and the glory.'."

Paul Strisik

(from his book "Capturing Light in Oils")

"George Ames Aldrich was born in Worcester, Mass, in 1872. As a member of the Chicago Galleries Association, he was established as a Chicago talent and exhibited there regularly. His early art experience was as a magazine illustrator in the 1890s, when he did illustrations for The London Times and Punch magazine.

Aldrich was enrolled at the Art Students League, his art studies continued in Paris, where he was a pupil at the Academies Julien and Colarossi. Aldrich won four prizes from the Hoosier Salon in Chicago, the first in 1923 for a snow scene. Many of his landscapes were painted in Normandy and Brittany, probably in 1909 and 1910, when he lived in Dieppe.

A critic who saw Aldrich's works in a Chicago show wrote that his paintings had 'a sense of a romantic approach to each subject, a spirit of adventure in painting it . . . . His American landscapes were painted with imagination and faithful observance of the original' ".

-source unknown*

"Winter Stream" by George Aldrich, (oil on canvas, 36 x 42" )

Image courtesy Janus Galleries, Madison WI.

Peter Lundberg/director Janus Galleries

www.janusgalleries.com

* please contact me if you know of corrections, additions or source changes that need to be made to this article. Thank you, Aaron