Mark your calendars, opening Saturday April 6, 7:00-10:00. For a preview of the paintings go to waltercumming.com, current exhibit. Stay tuned for more live art before the opening.
“Le silence éternel de ces espaces infinis m’effraye !”- Blaise Pascal
I have been free for four years now. I was a “kept artist,” by choice, for 28 years at Atlanta’s biggest newspapers (there is, remarkably, only one newspaper in a city of this size) As a “free artist” I still proudly call myself an illustrator and, like most illustrators, want to be published. Prominently. A cover on Time Magazine, The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, Der Spiegel. One must have a dream.
Also, as a free artist, I have produced more and grown more in my four year visual journey than I did in 28 years at that large newspaper. This body of work for the PB&J exhibit is a culmination of four years of growth. These pastels of Atlanta and north Georgia are a nonfictional, autobiographical, visual report of scenes that moved me this past winter. Also, unlike my previous exhibits of foreign scenes from assignments and travels in Europe, these were painted from the longest period of time I’ve stayed in one place without leaving the country in many years.
These pastels were first drawn plein air in my sketchbook then painted later in my studio, usually in one sitting, using sketches, studies and photos as reference. My background as a courtroom artist and illustrator for print media is an advantage when working quickly. The choice of subject is based on my impression of a given scene at the time, a mood in lighting and a quest to capture a certain light or composition that is new for me. I don’t repeat myself. When I interviewed British illustrator Ralph Steadman for a story the ajc about caricaturists, he called this desire in visual art “the eternal quest for the unfound.” Walter Cumming
LIVE ART, Oeuvres nouveau, NEUE KUNST 