Turlock Journal

Turlock artist reflects local landscape in Sacramento show
By Sabra Stafford
sstafford@turlockjournal.com
209-634-9141, ext. 2002
POSTED Nov. 16, 2010 11:26 p.m.



A Turlock artist, who finds his inspiration in the lush and bountiful agricultural fields of the Central Valley, is having his work displayed at a Sacramento gallery.

John Karl Claes is the current featured artist at the Elliot Fouts Gallery in Sacramento. Claes is presenting a new series of paintings, titled “Vista and Horizons” that represent the San Joaquin Valley, as seen through his eyes.

“I paint my environment,” Claes said. “If I did not live in the Central Valley, my work would be of something else. I use this landscape as a departure point, and I distill what I have observed to make paintings that have a connection with the natural world. Even though I am strongly influenced by this landscape, I am essentially an abstract painter.”

Claes grew up in the San Joaquin Valley, earning a Bachelor of Arts from California State University, Stanislaus and a Masters in Arts from the University of North Carolina in Greensboro.

He has shown his creations locally and across the country and has garnered awards and critical acclaim for his paintings.

"I have painted the agricultural landscape of the West for nearly 20 years,” he said. “It is here, in this western landscape, that I have matured as a painter, and it is this land that challenges and inspires me.

“It is the formal elements of painting that are the most important. I use what I see and experience as an armature for my work. I pay closest attention to how the painting is put together, how the colors interact with each other and where those colors are placed. These elements are of utmost importance; for if these basic components fail, the painting will also fall short. I am successful when both image and paint become inseparable and fused together," Claes said.

Claes’ work will be on display through Dec. 2. The Elliot Fouts Gallery is at 4749 J St., in Sacramento. The gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays; 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays; and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays.

To contact Sabra Stafford, e-mail sstafford@turlockjournal.com or call 634-9141 ext. 2002.

November Bryan Mark Taylor Event

I'm very excited to announce that Bryan Mark Taylor is coming to the gallery on November 20th from 1:00 to 2:00 PM to give a special afternoon talk about his work, painting process, and experience as a painter.

Bryan is bringing over a dozen brand new originals for the talk, so it will be a great opportunity to see what's new and what's next.

Please take the time to watch this short video of Bryan painting below. You won't be disappointed! The painting featured in the video will be on display during the talk. Please call for further details.

November New & Noteworthy

A new month means a new show at the gallery, and it is with great excitement that we’re featuring John Karl Claes’ new landscapes in a one-person show called “Vistas & Horizons.” John's paintings bridge the gap between representational and abstract realms. His subjects are clearly landscapes, but his ability to abbreviate and condense detail allows him to depart from convention. This intermediary state has become a key element in his approach. We have 34 brand new paintings on display, and the show is on view until November 4, 2010.



We are excited to announce that Terry Pappas has just completed her first series of paintings since her October 2008 one-person show “Reflection and Introspection.” Don’t miss this unique opportunity to add one of her beautiful American River landscapes to your collection.



Leigh-Anne Eagerton is our newest addition to the gallery. Her graphic still lifes are bold and colorful with an underlying geometry that describes each form. All of Leigh-Anne’s paintings have a foundation in what she calls “stylized realism.” This style is marked by strong compositional qualities of clear planar and linear breaks on the surface, which create jewel-like facets. Leigh-Anne paints from life, all at once, marathon style, otherwise known as Alla Prima. Keep an eye out for an introductory email that will go out next week.



EFG is now showing ceramics by Jeff Nebeker! Jeff is considered to be one of the first Funk ceramicists to use pastry tools in clay sculpture. These tools help differentiate textures and ultimately transform his pastries into realistic looking forms. We have to admit, the pastries almost look good enough to eat. Jeff's cakes, cupcakes, and sundaes are topped with swirls of thick frosting, sprinkles, even cherries! Needless to say, they are wildly fun and witty.



Craig Stephens has a new collection of paintings now on display. His “daily painting” routine has found it’s way into his classroom, as he invites his art students to bring in their own props as subjects for painting demonstrations.



Christopher Stott has three brand new paintings on display. “1 Cent Gumballs” is bold and captivating and at 40” X 30,” it’s one of his larger paintings. "Five Empty Bottles" utilizes repetition and a gradated palette to unify and balance the composition. Chris has already started painting for his June 2011 show, so let us know if you’d like to be the first to hear about his new paintings.



Philippe Gandiol has brought us a series of brand new paintings, and we now have several landscapes and cityscapes on display. Make sure you check them out - they are thoughtfully composed and his ability to articulate light is better than ever.

Sacramento News & Review: Central Valley of the mind By Shoka

Third-generation Turlock resident John Karl Claes traveled across the country to earn his master’s degree in fine art in the ’90s and then returned to California to paint Central Valley-inspired landscapes full time. His brushwork sustains his family of four, including two young sons. He shows his latest Valley scenes at Elliott Fouts Gallery this month and says in his artist statement, “Even though I am strongly influenced by this landscape, I am essentially an abstract painter.” Here’s what else he had to say.

Where’s your studio space?

My studio is across town. I go to it nearly every day, except for weekends. Monday through Friday I go to work, just like everyone else. …
The secret is to figure out how to keep living without making a living wage for periods of time. That’s what I’ve discovered. People always ask me, “How do you do it?” Well, you have to figure out how to live your life very inexpensively. My wife did work before we had kids, so obviously, she was very supportive of my efforts.

Your work is of agricultural landscapes. Are you painting places you actually encounter, and where are they?

I work from my memories and then my feelings about the place. I work from my environment, so it takes me a while. Obviously, I’m from here, so it’s kind of an accumulation of images that have built up. I’ve built up a visual vocabulary in my mind’s eye that I can work from, and as I see new things, I can integrate those in my studio practice.
When I was in school back East, at the University of North Carolina, it took me a while to see how I was going to paint landscape. … When I came back to California, I had never really painted [landscapes]. I was an abstract painter. … I had this idea in my head of what I wanted it to look like—big expansive landscapes of what the Valley can portray—I just didn’t know how to do it. And then a friend of mine who’s a private pilot, took me up and literally, we took off from the small airport here, and I was like, “Oh my. This is what I can do.”

Someone asked me the other day what makes a good landscape painting? So I’m going to ask you now.

Our culture today, especially in art, it’s really “anything goes,” so what makes a good landscape for one person wouldn’t necessarily make a good landscape for someone else, and I think that’s where style comes in. But, I mean, personally, a good landscape has to have—any painting is about color. It’s pretty obvious in my work, color is vibrant. And its color and the position of those colors, thus making the composition.

You have a blog you update pretty regularly?

I try to do it once a week. Blogging for me helps me think about the work verbally, or written. Painting for me is obviously visual, and things make sense to me visually before things make sense to me in one part of my mind, but not the other part of my mind.

I always feel kind of bad asking artists to verbalize something they have a better visual language for.

(Laughs.) It’s part of the job. I have to be able to talk about my work to some level of articulation.

What was the most surprising thing you found once you went pro?

It’s the business stuff: I have to keep track of my books; I have to keep track of where things are on the inventory list, what’s where and when it’s being moved—the business end. They don’t talk about that at all in school. It’s just something you kind of have to learn as you go. You gotta learn from your mistakes. That and framing. Framing takes a lot of time. I hand [make] all my frames.

I read on your blog that you were getting inspired painting with one of your kids. How would you feel if one of your kids chooses an artistic path?

Well, the big joke was, when my oldest was born—he’s 6 now—I told all my artist friends, “I’ve already told him, ‘You can’t be an artist.’” And then I have a friend who has older children, and I was talking to him about it and said that I already told [my kid] “You can’t be an artist.” And he has a child that’s just graduated college, and he looked at me with a straight face and said, “It doesn’t do any good.” (Laughs.)
I would tell my kids what my parents told me: You can do anything you want, as long as you love it. My father was a professional photographer for 35 years, and he loved taking photographs. He told me that I could do what I love, and I’ll encourage my kids to do the same thing.

That’s ridiculous. You might just want to send them off to boarding school instead.

(Laughs.) That might not be a bad idea.

Now Showing Leigh-Anne Eagerton

Elliott and I spend at least an hour a day searching for new artists online - not only to broaden our visual vocabularies, but also to see what's new and exciting beyond the confines of our area. It's become a hobby, scouring through hundreds of artists' websites, blogs, and even Facebook pages. Social media has broadened the relationship between the gallery owner and artist - finding the right "match" is easier than ever.

In doing so, we've taken on a number of talented artists within the past year, including Alvin Richard, Paul Coventry-Brown, James Neil Hollingsworth, Derek Gores, Shawn Kenney, Donald Bradford, Paul Ferney, Otto Lange, and now, most recently, Leigh-Anne Eagerton.

Leigh-Anne currently lives in Nyack, New York (Edward Hopper's hometown, she tells me, which of course I'm very excited to hear!) and has had a fascination with art-making since childhood. In fact, she lived in Japan for three years, from age six to nine, and from what I can see, I think the clean and simple Japanese aesthetic continues to stick with her.

This influence reminds me the late 19th century "phenomenon" of Japonisme, a French term which describes Japanese art's influence on the west. Probably the easiest association to make is Claude Monet's fascination with Japanese wood-block prints, such as those by Katsushika Hokusai. The lack of perspective, shadow, overall reduction of form, and flat, broad areas of color were assimilated into the Impressionist style, as this push towards simplification seemed to harmonize with their stylistic motivations.


Katsushika Hokusai | Gohyaku Rakanji Sazaido |


Claude Monet | Terrace at St. Adresse | 1867

In the comparison above, it's evident that Monet took compositional liberties in his early landscape, Terrace at St. Adresse. For example, notice how the waves are simply described by a series of wavy lines. (He's beginning to give the "impression" of movement in the water, rather than realistically depicting the movement). Such modifications can also be found in Leigh-Anne's work. Take her still life Seedless Watermelon, for example. Form is created through the use of broad, geometric planes of color. She has preserved the "essence" of form, eliminating textural and other extraneous detail for a generalized (but still recognizable) depiction.



Seedless Watermelon | Oil on panel | 16" X 27"

I was really drawn to the graphic quality of Leigh-Anne's work when I first saw it online. She says, "All of my paintings have a foundation in what I call "stylized realism." They utilize the strong composition qualities of clear planar and linear breaks on the surface, which creates jewel-like facets." The painting below, Oranges On A Green Plate, certainly epitomizes this quality as the flesh of the orange is divided by varying hues of color.


Oranges On A Green Plate | Oil on panel | 8" X 10"

"Vistas & Horizons"

There's something extra special about one-person shows, and I think this is due to a combination of factors.

1. The amount of time and effort required to paint an entire show is definitely worth mentioning. John's show represents a years worth of painting - he started planning last year and began painting at the beginning of this year. Planning, alone, is an arduous task. Creating a collection of paintings can almost be compared to creating different "looks" for a fashion line - each painting is different, has it's own unique flair, but is ultimately a part of a bigger picture.

2. This is an adjunct of the first idea, but continuity is of great importance. Task of taking on a one-person show is incredibly daunting, causing me to wonder - where does a painter start? With an idea? Or simply by painting? The answer obviously varies from person to person, but here's what John had to say:

"I start by looking for a visual idea that I build a new body of work around. This time it was several drives down the I - 5 that were the inspiration for this show. I experienced the space of the landscape differently then ever before. I then did a hundred or so small drawings to work out these new visual ideas before starting in on the actual pieces that are in the show. I don't work from photography so it is important to get down my new ideas quickly."

3. The fact that viewers are able to see a large body of work and investigate the subtleties of each painting is an incredibly rewarding experience. John sent me a picture of his studio in August 2010, check it out below:


John's Studio | August 2010

My jaw dropped to the ground when I saw this image - it's too cool. My relationship to our artists' paintings is pretty one-dimensional. While I'm one of the first to see the pieces in their finished form, I don't get to see the several stages they've gone through to become a "complete" painting.

For instance, I know Round-About as the biggest piece of the show - it has a river winding through the valley, a tremendous palette of layered opaque colors (as opposed to blended gradations), and a wonderful contrast between land and sky. I think I see the painting to the right of the photograph, but I don't know! John says, "I work in layers, building up the colors in each painting until they are correct. I tend to work on any given piece until I get stuck and don't know how to proceed in a painting or until whole surface of the painting is wet and must be allowed to dry."

Even then, he says that his pieces can change radically from his initial concept to completion.

So what makes John's work unique and worth collecting?

He's academically trained. Born and raised in the San Joaquin Valley of California, John completed his B.A. in Studio Art at California State University, Stanislaus. After receiving his M.F.A. in painting and drawing from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, he returned to California, and currently lives in Turlock with his wife and two sons. He knows the "fundamentals" of painting and isn't afraid to create his own style.

It's the best of both worlds. John's paintings bridge the gap between representational and abstract realms. His subjects are clearly landscapes, but his ability to abbreviate and condense detail allows him to depart from convention. This intermediary state has become a key element in his approach.

He uses color expressively. John's vibrant palette is almost as much a subject in his work as it is a tool for description. His fervent use of expressionistic color invigorates and charges the Central Valley landscape with a compelling, new found dynamism.

Here are a couple of my favorites (amongst many!):


Turning Towards - Oil on canvas - 40" X 4o"



Round-About - Oil on canvas - 52" X 64"

Evening Highlights - Oil on panel - 8" X 10"



Light's Last Glow | Oil on panel | 10" X 10"



Skylight | Oil on canvas | 60" X 70"



Sunstruck | Oil on linen | 26" X 26"

Inside The City

Perfectly Simple
This Land Park artist is inspired by everyday things
By Kevin Mims



Every Sunday for the past year or so, The Sacramento Bee published “One Perfect Thing,” which combines a watercolor with a paragraph of related commentary. Both are the work of Land Park resident Kathrine Lemke Waste.

Each installment featured a still-life painting, usually of locally grown fruits or vegetables, but sometimes of a fully processed food, such as a jar of honey or a fruit tart, or maybe just a food-related item, such as a hand-woven marketing basket. Accompanying the watercolor is a brief, koanlike meditation on the painting’s subject. The painting of the basket, for instance, was accompanied by a text noting that reusable marketing baskets save “an estimated six shopping bags a week from ending up in our local landfill. That’s 288 bags a year . . . ”

One installment was titled “Ode to an Artichoke,” while another was captioned “A Study in Pumpkin and Cream,” both titles exemplifying the poetic quality of Waste’s work.

But “One Perfect Thing” was more than poetic. It often contains solid culinary information. A recent tribute to Meyer lemons informed readers, “A squeeze of Meyer lemon juice, with its hints of honey and thyme, adds a bright note to early crops of asparagus, artichokes and fava beans. Add the grated peel to tapenade, aïoli or herb butter to complement spring vegetables.”

The daughter of a naval officer, Waste was born at Camp Pendleton in southern California. Her childhood coincided with the war in Vietnam, which kept her father hopping from base to base: San Diego, Los Angeles, the Philippines.

Her parents had five children and not a lot of money, but they always saw to it that Kathrine had all the art supplies she needed. When she was in the second grade, she painted her first watercolor, a copy of a professional landscape painting. She still has a photo that her parents took of her with the painting, “holding it up to the camera and looking very proud of myself,” she says.

The family arrived in Sacramento when Waste was a sixth-grader. She stayed long enough to graduate from Sacramento State University with degrees in communication and theater. After that came a 15-year stint in academia, most of which she spent at Chico State, where she taught communication and theater while her husband, Bob, taught political science and public policy. Waste and her husband returned to Sacramento in 1999 when Bob was offered the chairmanship of the graduate program in public policy at Sac State. At that time, Waste left academia to dedicate herself full time to her art. Since then, her work has been featured in numerous magazines and art galleries, including Elliott Fouts Gallery in East Sac.

Art experts credit Waste with creating still lifes that possess a strong sense of narrative, but narrative isn’t her primary focus when creating a watercolor. “I think about color and shape and light and the best way to convey them,” she said. “People attach meanings to the objects I paint in ways that I can’t predict. The story unfolds differently for every viewer.” The predominance of food in her work developed naturally. “I cook. I grow vegetables. It’s all part of the fabric of who I am,” said Waste. “As a painter, you are expected to specialize, so I’ve chosen to specialize in food.”

When she isn’t painting food-related subjects for The Bee, Waste often paints objects she finds at yard and garage sales, commonplace consumer items that are connected in some way with her youth: soda bottles, vintage toasters, Mixmasters, marbles, autographed baseballs. Wonder Bread, an emblematic product of the 1950s and ’60s, whose brightly colored plastic wrapper is familiar to almost every American, is featured prominently in several of her works. “I like really simple objects that make a connection to the past,” explained Waste. “Our lives are very complicated these days.”

Waste doesn’t use her paintings to make ironic comments about American consumer culture, but merely to remind the beholder of simpler times. In a 2006 profile in American Art Collector, she told the magazine’s interviewer, “I want [the viewer] to think, ‘My grandmother had that iron. I grew up with that very same toaster. We had a coffee pot just like that.’”

Although her subjects are often simple and commonplace, capturing them on paper isn’t easy. Watercolor is one of the most unforgiving of artistic mediums. Unlike the artist who works in oil, the watercolorist can’t paint over a mistake. Waste says she has to know exactly how the finished painting will look before she can begin putting down the colors.

It’s a complicated process that used to begin with a pencil and a sketchbook but nowadays often begins with her iPhone. “If I’m at a grocery store or a farmers market and a display of fruits and vegetables catches my eye, I’ll take a quick reference photo with my phone,” she said. “It’s a great sketching tool.”

Many of Waste’s subjects come from her own backyard vegetable garden. She often paints those vegetables outdoors in the hour just after sunrise or just before sunset. “I like the way the light slants at those hours,” said Waste. “I think it says something about the passing of time. As I get older, I’m reminded more and more of how brief and fragile life is.”