James Hartman

Bay Window, Original Painting

2021

Artist Comments
My intention here is to get the viewer to feel as if they were on a mountain in Northern California. I covered my wood panel with glue and paper as a mordant for the beeswax / damar crystal coating. I use oils and pigments for color and a propane torch to get the medium molten.

About the Artist
When James Hartman was in art school, he became fascinated with the Society of Six, a group of artists who painted en plein air (outdoors) and exhibited together in the San Francisco Bay Area during the early 20th Century. James's paintings of the Northern California landscape pay tribute to some of the great Bay Area artists of the past. His expressive scenes feel alive through his vibrant use of color and his painterly brushwork. James’s paintings have an immediate visual impact from a distance, yet up close, dissolve into a series of confident marks and strokes. There is a simultaneous complexity and steadiness in his flattened, color-blocked planes. Knowledge and observation are essential elements of James’s working practice. To this end, he spends a large proportion of his time painting on location. His body of work captures the fresh and sunlit essence of the coastal California hills.

Cows on Mount Diablo...

Artist Comments
A mom and her three kids walk toward a gentle surf on a fun summer vacation. Artist John Jaster paints a vibrant heartwarming family portrait under the bright s...

Artist Comments
Artist Jeff Fleming describes his painting style as kinetic impressionism. In this piece, a beagle triumphantly retrieves a stick thrown into the ocean. Jeff started the piece with a pencil sketch on the canvas, then with gloved hands, he applied oil paint using his fingers. Details were later added using brushes. Once these layers of paint dried, he moved the piece to his studio floor. "At this point, I whisked paint in random but authoritative strokes - a speckling technique which replicates water splashing."

About the Artist
Artist Jeff Fleming uses fingerpainting to create exuberant portraits of dogs. Growing up in Southern California, Jeff was first introduced to fingerpainting in kindergarten. He painted through high school and college and won several art awards, including Best of Show in a city wide student competition. After graduating with a degree in journalism and advertising, he went to work as an art director. For the next 40 years, he created print, radio and television ads for a number of top agencies. "After retiring in 2019, the clouds of stress and pressure cleared and allowed me to set my creative energy free," says Jeff. He began developing new techniques focused on the excitement and energy of painting. Today, he uses a variety of methods and tools, including fingerpainting wearing nitrile gloves, traditional paint brushes, bamboo shish kebab sticks, kite string, spraypaint and splattering. While working, Jeff always listens to music, including Broadway musicals, dance music and rhythmic Hawaiian tunes.

Words that describe this painting: beagle, dog, pet, impressionism, Iris Scott...

Artist Comments
More and more I love to experiment with abstraction. It's amazing how realism with some abstraction somehow looks more true than when rendered using just real...

Artist Comments
Birch trees standing proudly in early autumn. Bright greens balanced with muted tones of pink, purple, orange and yellow. This painting is part of Vahe's long...

Artist Comments
Artist Judy Mackey says she asked her patrons to help her title this impressionist painting of orange tulips, and she loved the sug...