Paso Art Scene | Studios on the Park

PASO ROBLES STUDIOS ON THE PARK

Move On, Mr. Munch! Yours Isn’t the Only Scream On the Block!

BY ARTIST HELLIE BLYTHE

Poor Evard Munch never realized nor enjoyed the monetary lucre accrued from the auction of his painting he named “The Shriek,” which is now known as “The Scream.”

John Keats penned the oft-quoted my late History of Art professor “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” My revered professor orated emphatically and often that for a work of art to tolerate the test of time, it should be measured and evaluated first for its intrinsic beauty, then for the other qualities of praiseworthy, painterly expertise. I wonder if the present owner of Evard Munch’s painting still enjoys his purchase and is moved by its beauty?

This begs the question: does the prestige of ownership outweigh the emotional delight engendered by the beauty of the treasured possession? Perhaps there IS beauty in the facial contortions of agony expressed on that Munch’s face, posed before a backdrop of a bloody sunset! Have I mistakenly ignored that attraction? As a longtime painter of faces, I’m just now finding a need to cultivate accepting the possibility there might be some beauty to be found in others’ unusually piquant or morbid portrait paintings.

My self-imposed new painting scheme, as of tomorrow, shall nurture developing a taste for what I erstwhile and perhaps mistakenly considered grotesque, to make it all my own epiphany right now. I’ll expand my taste in paintings and, in the spirit of True Artsman/Womenship, this titanic scheme will force my output, by heroic numbers, putting to shame Mr. Munch’s output of merely ONE Glorious Scream.

The planned project will move forward with a series of portraits, landscapes, and still lifes while informing and disclosing my plan to the public for personal-back-out insurance, so the Art World may contemplate, enjoy, and aid me by offering gentle suggestions, useful advice, polite criticism, and generous donations.

For starters, My Goal is to depict the following portraits in painterly details: The Yawn The Twitch The Shrug The Itch

The Hiccough The Sneeze The Burp The Guffaw The Scorn The Burn The Stench The Slurp The Twist The Sniff The Twiddle The Sting The Tickle The Bluster The Snort The Pinch The Pain The Spasm The Twang The Stench The Taste The Wind The Giggle The Flinch The Blink The Tweak The Cough The Gargle The Shush The Tingle The Cramp The Twinge The Cringe The Snub The Draft The Lie

The Lisp Laryngitis The Small The Plunk

These notable compelling subjects will be rendering in oils, with legendary, supportive props, as well as colorful, classic, complementary backgrounds. Eventually, the paintings will be exhibited for sale a Studios on the Park before this artist becomes posthumous, after which they may turn up at auctions here and there, now and then.

An added bonus, plus a small subjective stray from the above format, will include Landscape Paintings similar to the popularly accepted backdrop in “The Scream”: sunsets and/or sunrises, which have become user-friendly territory (Terroir, en Français) for the average viewer. Inevitably, this brings us to lucrative Disaster Paintings, which reminds us of the abundant possibilities in Still Life Paintings.

Here, in the comparative silence of still life and landscape, we shall enjoy a limitless orgy of potential possibilities for making-money-plenty, as Ben Franklin might have said. The following subjects are suitably eclectic for both Still and Land Scapes: Bargain Baited Breath Try Buzz

Dust in the Air Whistling A Still Small Voice Rasp of Berries

Ring of Truth Sour Grapes Systemic Backlog Donkey’s Year Gong Mustard Plaster Sustainable Renewable Eclipse Exposure

There is nothing more loudly compelling than auction prices to succeed in goading an artist into competitive self-improvement. 