OUT THERE
F by AwA
OR TWO DAYS,
an old Turkana nomad in north Kenya stared into Hugh Wilson’s eyes as Hugh painted him. Most people sit slightly turned away from the painter. After the second day of posing, the man turned to the translator and said, “Tell this man I know him.” Then, he smiled at Hugh. At their core, Hugh’s paintings are about humanity and intimacy, exposing the connection between human beings no matter how different their backgrounds. With a focus on migration, marginalized cultures, class systems and loss of tradition, Hugh wonders if in a hundred years his ideas will matter much. “I liked the idea, a long time ago, of subverting portraiture away from its aristocratic beginnings and I fell in love with art-through-life drawing. The traveling began a bit by accident but once I started, the travel through portraiture felt unusual and relevant.” Destinations are chosen by themes or,—geographic locations that either feel underrepresented or that would be complemented by the painting. “When I arrive, I walk the streets, chat, look a lot, travel around, try to see what the place is beyond the obvious.” Sometimes the painting starts in a week, other times three weeks. Occasionally, he knows what he wants to paint, such as the—coal miners in West Virginia. Other times, such as a recent trip to Ethiopia, he arrives without preconceived notions. His curiosity has taken him to remote, wide-open lands, including the Sahara, where its silence, music, nomadic cultures, harshness and freedom all translate into the people Hugh paints and the worlds he creates with their stories. “In Turkana I can still remember being in the hills at dusk listening to the young herders calling out to each other across the ravines, goat bells tinkling,” said Hugh. “Magical.” As a painter, Hugh's primary experiences with his work are uncertainty and focus. “A chunk of my energy is spent on not making a bad painting. Painting is hard with thousands of small decisions. I’m not sure anyone knows when a painting is finished—even two marks on a page can have a “finished-ness” to them. I stop each day when the picture has some balance and when the sitter feels 82
Winter 2023
tired. The oddest thing about painting is that you are constantly killing some beauty off in order to arrive at something new. Some of Cezanne’s most beautiful works are his unfinished ones. Monet too. I can only see my work clearly years later—it takes time for me to disengage with it.” As he travels between worlds, living for a time in the mountains, for a time in a city to stay connected with the times, he feels the pull of the desert that holds his heart. “The craft of painting is very specific and nuanced—the brushes, paint, textures, colors, mediums, smells, preparing a surface. There are real practicalities like building a house which you can’t do with just a screwdriver and saw. A big part of painting is figuring out which tools are the best for you, and sometimes this changes as your style changes.” In Hugh’s view, he didn’t mature intellectually until he was in his mid-20s and living in New York. That’s when he began exploring art, literature and cinema, seeking out the cultural arena that isn’t taught in the standard school system. Five years later he took the plunge into being an artist. Now in his fifties, he is still not sure what will happen to the paintings. One end goal would be to have his work in a small storefront, maybe in a small town in France. A mini-museum to humanity that people could discover on their own. “Pursuing art as a ‘career’ may not be an advisable path for anyone,” said Hugh. “There are a few who seem to operate effortlessly in it—Picasso, Jeff Koons. But a lot of the best artists have struggled, not just financially. Your job becomes to mine your interior, which is raw and unflinching. And you keep running up against your limitations. Matisse apparently constantly worried that his life’s work would be worthless. That being said, art can come in many forms: as a gardener, cook, musician, parent, fisherman, mechanic, explorer. There can be art in any purity of intent, grace, action. From that perspective, I suggest everyone pursue art.” ELEVATE THE ARTS: Visit Hugh-Wilson.com to see more of Hugh’s works. When you travel, seek out the not so ordinary places, have conversations with people you might not otherwise engage with. Open yourself up to the textures and complexities of the world and find your purity of intent. AwA Art with Altitude