Jessica Crabtree

“True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.” Albert Einstein

I think all artists have their own customs and habits (some people might call them quirks) as part of their start-up routine. Whether you’re a professional who has a sophisticated studio stocked with an array of paint tubes and brushes, or simply go for a pencil and paper, chances are you’ve found a favorite way to warm up for work.

Maybe it’s a trick to get those creative juices flowing, or to avoid the artist’s version of “writer’s block” when facing a blank canvas. Lots of us doodle – and others do timed drills to see what they can come up with in a quick five minute session.

Some of us right-brain artists need a little music going to help us along, while the more left-brain types require absolute peace and quiet – and have to have our materials set up just so before we can get started.

How do you get started before working on a painting, drawing, or other piece of art? Log-in to share your own routines and ideas.

“An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one.” (Charles Horton Cooley)

“If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint.” (Edward Hopper)

A word on finishing

If you tend to be a perfectionist (like me), it can be hard not to get hung up with the tiny details and lose focus. I usually face this toward the finish of a painting, when last-ditch efforts to “get it just right” leave me with a potentially never-ending project. This is the point where I tell myself, “It’s almost done – just focus on the essentials and only fix what’s needed in order to have it ready for framing.” Sometimes it’s helpful to set yourself a deadline in order to avoid this kind of dilemma.

As artists, it’s our nature to keep challenging ourselves to do even better things, yet we also have to learn to work within self-imposed limits and move on, or we’ll never truly accomplish anything. It’s a hard line to straddle, but a lesson well worth the learning.

If you hear a voice within you say “you cannot paint,” then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.
(Vincent van Gogh)

Charles Banks Wilson (born 1918) is an Oklahoma artist famed for his Native American portraits, historical commissions, and mural art. He started drawing at an early age and received training at the Chicago Art Institute, quickly finding work as an apprentice illustrator.

His most popular works are the official commissioned portraits of Oklahoma legends such as Will Rogers and Jim Thorpe, part of the collection of the Oklahoma Capitol. One of the first pieces to earn him wide acclaim was his 1941 lithograph Freedom’s Warrior, modeled after a Comanche code talker, and later re-created as an oil painting.

Wilson’s exhibit page at the University of Arkansas, Celebrating Native America, says:

Images such as “Cherokee Matriarch,” “Katie ‘Osage’ Cheyenne,” and “Osage Orator” reveal Native Americans caught in the transition between native and white America. Wilson says this transition “was not a popular theme in anyone’s opinion” because “Americans wanted the Indian to remain a nostalgic keepsake, committed forever to chasing the buffalo across the boundless prairies.”

Wilson admits he was a bit baffled when people asked him “why I was making social comments.” He says simply, “I was just painting what my eyes saw.”

“Search for the Purebloods”

His most ambitious project was a catalog of portrait drawings of pure-blooded Native Americans. The resulting odyssey spanned fifty years of work and portrayals of over a hundred individuals, many of whom were the last individuals of their nation to have non-mixed heritage.

Wilson’s close attention to accuracy and solid, intuitive technique – combined with his good nature – earned him a strong rapport with his subjects, who willingly modeled for his portraits. In return, he promised never to sell their likenesses and instead donated the finished original collection to the Gilcrease Museum. The published edition, Search for the Native American Purebloods, was released by the University of Oklahoma Press in 1983.

Wilson was the subject of a public television documentary released in 2006 interviewing the artist and highlighting his major career achievements. (Watch an excerpt here.)

He has exhibited his work in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Museum, and received countless prestigious awards for his art, historical research, and educational & cultural contributions.

University of Arkansas: Charles Banks Wilson’s Celebrating Native America Exhibit

Charles Banks Wilson exhibit at the Will Rogers Museum

Bama’s career reads like a cross between that of Norman Rockwell and Charles Marion Russell. Born 1926 in Manhattan, his early career paralleled that of Rockwell (as a commercial artist and illustrator, including work with the Saturday Evening Post). But like Russell, he became a “child of the West” after moving to Wyoming in the 60′s to be closer to the subjects he desired to portray.

Since then he has become a living legend of Western art. His extensive portfolio covers nearly 50 years of work in capturing the iconography of Western lore, from cowboys to mountain men, in gorgeous life-like realism. He is one of the most renowned painters of Native American portraits (which makes up a sizable share of his portfolio), generally painted from live models in historical attire. One of the things I appreciate most about his work, aside from his skill in realism, is the historical integrity and his no-nonsense, un-romanticized treatment of the subjects.

“James Bama’s modern realism approaches the larger-than-life romance of the West from a new angle. The subjects of his portraits are real people, doing real work, with the history of generations past written in their faces and the surrounding landscapes. ”

Profile from The Greenwich Workshop

JAMES BAMA: Gallery and Artist Profile from The Greenwich Workshop

There are so many stunning paintings in his portfolio I had a hard time choosing which ones to feature in this post, so I’ve included just a few of my favorites (click images for larger view).

“Young Plains Indian”

“Old Arapaho Storyteller”

“Little Fawn”