The Pendulum

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

Sewing the Sail Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida

We are in the middle of a quiet revolution in American Art, specifically, painting. The number of painters working today in representational art has mushroomed, and the interest and practice of painting outdoors is experiencing a phenomenal renaissance. We have recently been admiring the catalogue for the Oil Painters of America 20th Anniversary national exhibition, and were struck by the tremendous skill and talent in this show. Another impressive venue, the RayMar company’s monthly on-line art competition also exhibits work of similar high quality and technical expertise. We often wonder where all these incredibly skilled realist painters came from? We began our professional art educations in 1971, and the teaching focus of many, if not most of the art schools was right out of the Abstract Expressionist tradition. Our professors thought that teaching any technical skills would get in the way of “expressing on…