Brandon Nelson: Artist’s Statement
Frankly, I do not feel I have a “manifesto” when it comes to creativity in general. I am not a partisan or a purist in any particular camp and I don’t ultimately have much use for labels, at least as far as my own output is concerned. If I find a particular method works best to express my ideas, whether it be seen as “impressionistic” or “abstract”, then I will not hesitate to use it.
I believe in creativity in the purest sense of the term. I honestly do not believe there is an art or artform that is “better” or “worse” than any other. I do believe quite firmly, however, that there can be a fair distinction made between “authenticity” and “inauthenticity.” So, too, do I believe that while aesthetics, broadly speaking, cannot be objectively judged, there certainly can be arguments made about respect for, and mastery of, craft. While there can never be accounting for taste, we can certainly scrutinize an artist’s intentions, whether or not the approaches utilized by an artist exemplifies a sense of “best fit” in attempting to express a particular concept (i.e., respecting the audience’s intelligence), and, if using a well-established style, whether or not that artist has demonstrated a high degree of mastery of the essential techniques of said style.
What you will see in my own work is that I generally prefer to use bold, vivid colors over muted tones. You will see that my eye invariably favors a certain Cartesian, grid-like geometric logic to visualizing the world around us, whether it be a piece of fruit, an old farmhouse, or an abstract composition. You might note a certain whimsical “license” taken in defining shapes and shadows (“coloring in the lines” need not always be the case). You may notice an even Zen-like feeling present in the depiction of certain routine scenes, denuded of sentimentality and, in its new starkness, hopefully a new appreciation forms.
It is, in short, no easy task to pin down my artistic output. My ideology is creativity, and in pursuing it, I shall always attempt to be authentic, choose from the “methods toolbox” appropriately, and, in using those methods, execute them skillfully and respectfully.
SAMPLING OF MY PORTFOLIO
Check back frequently as new pieces are rotated into the collection periodically!
Pear Etude No. 1
I went with a darker palette for this watercolor subject to play with variants in light and shadow.
Medium: watercolor and ink on A5 300gsm CP sheet
Price: US$50 (plus shipping, not including optional matting)
Pear Etude No. 2
More “conventional” coloration here than Etude No. 1, though still quite effective and attractive.
Medium: watercolor and ink on A5 300gsm CP sheet
Price: US$50 (plus shipping, not including optional matting)
Feather Etude No. 3
In this installment of the “Feather” series (and, in a surprise to me, one of my most popular pieces), I decided on three feathers to add a sense of “composition” to the piece–utilizing space and contrast as expressive means in themselves.
Medium: watercolor and ink on A5 300gsm CP sheet
Price: US$50 (plus shipping, not including optional matting)
Late Summer Forest
A crisp walk through a field of hedges and trees while the weather quickly begins to turn autumnal. A magical time of year for me, which I wanted to capture in this scene, not far from where I live. I wanted in this piece to expand a bit from smaller watercolor works to larger forms and to play more with gradient shading.
Medium: watercolors and ink on 11×17 hand-pressed 500gsm cotton sheet
Price: US$125 (plus shipping, not including optional matting)
Alpine Sunset
A beautiful glimpse of that “golden moment” when the sun sets right near the mountain’s peak.
Medium: watercolors on 8×10 CP 300gsm cotton sheet
Price: US$60 (plus shipping, not including optional matting)
A Love Letter to Cities
I live in what most would call “the country,” though I have always felt such a jolt of energy, activity, humanity, all coming together to form a beautiful, unique mass culture whenever I have the opportunity to visit our urban areas. There are certainly challenges here as anywhere, but I always love soaking in the weight and color of the city.
Medium: alcohol marker, metallic marker, ink, acrylic paint on 10×10 canvas board
Price: US$120 (plus shipping, not including optional matting)
The Unconquered Lifeforce
This might be “abstract,” but as a former medical professional, I can tell you that we really don’t know what the body looks like when one gets beyond a certain very small level. Here I have depicted my own vision of life rushing about, undaunted by the many forces that would stop it.
Medium: watercolor, alcohol marker, and soft pastel on 5.5×8.5 300gsm CP sheet
Price: US$47 (plus shipping, not including optional matting)
All Too Human…
An imagined landscape, though one that is not at all dissimilar to many I see cropping up around me. I’m no luddite, but there is a certain undeniable feeling that something has been “lost” when we continually build on and over our own necessity-restricted heritage.
Medium: ink, soft pastel on 9×12 100gsm sheet
Price: US$80 (plus shipping, not including optional matting)
Old Country Church and Graveyard
An advantage of living in an area rich in history is coming across scenes such as this. One can just imagine the people coming in from the fields and mines for Mass on Sunday mornings long ago.
Medium: graphite pencil on 4.75×8.5 300gsm CP sheet
Price: US$47 (plus shipping, not including optional matting)
Country Road with Tattered House
A spare scene where once life thrived. In such places, the imagination flowers.
Medium: graphite pencil on 4.75×8.5 300gsm CP sheet
Price: US$47 (plus shipping, not including optional matting)
Forest Farmhouse by Lake
A busy, bustling place tucked away in a quiet northern forest on a fish-stocked lake.
Medium: graphite pencil and soft pastel on 4.75×8.5 300gsm CP sheet
Price: US$47 (plus shipping, not including optional matting)
Plum
A simple, stoic study of a plum sitting in a sunny scene.
Medium: soft pastel on 5.8×8.3 300gsm CP Kraft paper sheet
Price: US$47 (plus shipping, not including optional matting)
English Country Roadside
Here in skeletal remains one could imagine life bustling in what once may have been a countryside keep with active serf farmland nearby.
Medium: graphite pencil on 4.75×8.5 300gsm CP sheet
Price: US$47 (plus shipping, not including optional matting)
Hummingbird Etude No. 2
Zippy, frenetic, beautiful, tiny–seldom is there a detail of the hummingbird that isn’t fascinating or quirky. I hoped to capture some of this unique motion and coloration in this study.
Medium: watercolor, alcohol marker, and ink on A5 300gsm CP sheet
Price: US$47 (plus shipping, not including optional matting)
Beetle Etude No. 1
I will admit I don’t actually much care for beetles. I don’t wish them any specific harm, I just don’t feel like interacting with them. But they are rather interesting looking creatures, as I tried to capture in this piece.
Medium: watercolor and ink on A5 300gsm CP sheet
Price: US$50 (plus shipping, not including optional matting)
Beetle Etude No. 2
I let my imagination go with the colors on this study as I depicted this insect I’d rather draw than encounter.
Medium: watercolor and ink on A5 300gsm CP sheet
Price: US$50 (plus shipping, not including optional matting)
Generator: One
I purposely chose highly contrasting colors, and represented in their stronger hues, but I placed them adjacent to each other rather than in any way blended or mingled. I boldly state these colors, in the form of simple shapes, to catch the eye and to highlight the unique textures that I knew would result when I chose to create this piece on mulberry pulp paper backed by a rough, thick, handmade cotton sheet. In short, this composition brings out a variety of unusual textures energized by loud, insistent colors. The edges are left frayed, both on the paper and in the colored shapes, on purpose.
There is electricity here, but of what sort?
Medium: acrylic paint on 11.8×15.7 thin mulberry pulp sheet overlaid on 11×17 thick handmade rough cotton 500gsm sheet
Price: US$125 (plus shipping, not including optional matting)
Moonrise
A dark, cool, foggy night in the mountains, illuminated only by the faint, haunting glow of the full moon.
Medium: watercolors, graphite pencil, charcoal pencil, soft pastels, ink on 8×10 300gsm cotton sheet.
Price: US$60 (plus shipping, not including optional matting)
The Annunciation
My first foray into the world of oil painting, I chose a subject close to my heart and soul. I feel like The Divine inherently calls for abstraction of some kind. (Obviously I have a few centuries of forebears who think otherwise…) So this is how I chose to depict the moment when Mary gave her assent to St. Gabriel and the Holy Spirit to make God a man. You can see I still largely favor highly geometric forms even when making abstractions of scenes (we think) we know well. I will let you dwell on what I have shown and how I have shown it. The viewer does this naturally anyway.
Medium: oil on 11×14 stretched canvas
Price: US$175 (plus shipping)
Brandon Nelson 