JOHN F. WILLIAMSON | AIA | LEED BD+C | Paintings : Volume One

JOHN F. WILLIAMSON

AIA

Paintings Volume One

LEED BD+C

For my family - Rebecca, Alexander and James

JOHN F. WILLIAMSON

AIA

Paintings Volume One

LEED BD+C

These paintings are nose bleeds. They are trips on the seam in the carpet or stepping on an untied shoelace. They are inding a ive dollar bill on the sidewalk. Since my efforts you see here represent a much larger less complete body of work, they seem to me now after compiling these into a book to be far more intuitive accidental process than I would have imagined. Although I had taken a couple life drawing classes in college and tried my hand at water color as a presentation medium in architecture school, I don’t consider any of my previous experience to be expressive. Also, what motivates people to pursue painting is strange to me since although it is satisfying to complete a painting, it is also terrifying to begin. The potential of failure is always there. All I knew when I started painting in earnest was that it had to be attempted.

After running into Ed Hinkley, an excellent Chicago painter and teacher, at a print house beneit several years ago, I decided to inally stop being frustrated with telling myself one day I will try painting and take steps to do something anything. I had known Ed from living in an artists residence building on North Avenue where I lived shortly after moving to Chicago in 1997. Ed taught classes out of his studio at the time but I had always been a bystander to these classes.

Maybe it was the excitement of all the art I saw at the beneit but I decided to take the step and take one of Ed’s class.

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Come to ind out Ed’s classes were a format more like a graduate class where the class is structured for students to bring ideas to class and paint for three or four hours. Most important to the class structure is the the emphasis to keep painting, not harshly judge the work but to learn and move to the next painting. Ed shares a quality with other good teachers in that he sees each students work on their own merit without interjecting too much of his own desire into the process. All that stated, I struggled with this process since class time was really the only time I would allow myself to paint. I was paying for time and progress was slow.

Since I lacked direction and any real painting experience, my mindset was to take this weekly class and produce as many pieces in three hours as I could. I produced a lot of mediocre, bad paintings and what you see in this book is what emerged out of this process. These are the best of what I could assess as successful. In these ideas I imposed certain color and tonal choices as compositional ideas without trying to discern a sense of reality. Now that I relect on it, I was in search of a graphical voice which could only be found by producing more.

This approach deinitely liberated me from the constraints of time and self relection but the result took time to take

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form. I have often thought that if the importance is placed on a certain quality only the quality will suffer. For example, if I prefer a certain painting technique and practice and attempt to replicate the idea I will never really realize the full potential of what I liked about it in the irst place. Rather, if I try to achieve photorealism because I like Chuck Close then that is all it will be - photorealistic and trying to look like Chuck Close. I guess I believe in intuition and honesty which derives out of it.

It wasn’t until I stepped back from the quick three-paintings-inthree-hours concept that I realized I might have learned enough from that effort and I should work on the idea. No more quickfrom-the-hip paintings, the paintings started to take several hours to complete. However, as a point of contradiction to this, it is my feeling that watercolor should be approached from a quick rather than from a labored approach to maintain an ‘in the moment’ feel. A labored painting is just that - labored.

felt that it was important to sum up the experience since much of it feels so accidental and worth mentioning. My irst point was about these graphical accidents. If we push our ego out of the way and let the painting exist without preconceptions then hopefully there is a feeling of liberation and honesty.

Just a thought. Onward!

-JFW Chicago, Illinois 2013

Since these painting are all studio work they are almost entirely from photographs. There was quite a treasure of Italian journalistic style photos I found in Ed’s studio. They are great photos. Not too stylized but great black and white honest shots that could easily be turned into something personal.

I hope you ind something in these works of value. It is strange to narratively describe a process which is so graphical but I iv

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DOUG Watercolor and graphite on paper 27.7 x 38.1 cm. (11 x 15 in.) 2008

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ID Watercolor and graphite on paper 38.1 x 27.7 cm. (15 x 11 in.) 2012

JOSH Watercolor and graphite on paper 38.1 x 27.7 cm. (15 x 11 in.) 2012

ID

PART DEUX

Watercolor and graphite on paper 38.1 x 27.7 cm. (15 x 11 in.) 2012

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BEACHCOMBERS Watercolor and watercolor pencil on paper 19.1 x 27.7 cm. (7.5 x 11 in.) 2010

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THE CONTRACT Watercolor and graphite on paper 27.7 x 38.1 cm. (11 x 15 in.) 2009

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GUISE Watercolor and graphite on paper 38.1 x 27.7 cm. (15 x 11 in.) 2012

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SUSAN Watercolor and graphite on paper 38.1 x 27.7 cm. (15 x 11 in.) 2009

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WAITING FOR THE CANDIDATES Watercolor and graphite on paper 27.7 x 38.1 cm. (11 x 15 in.) 2012

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SOMETHING ISN’T RIGHT Watercolor and graphite on paper 38.1 x 27.7 cm. (15 x 11 in.) 2009

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FRANCIS Watercolor and graphite on paper 27.7 x 19.1 x cm. (11 x 7.5 in.) 2010

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THE COLONEL UNLEASHED Watercolor and graphite on paper 27.7 x 19.1 x cm. (11 x 7.5 in.) 2010

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VESPERS Watercolor and graphite on paper 27.7 x 38.1 cm. (11 x 15 in.) 2009

PRETTY BOYS Watercolor and graphite on paper 25.4 x 25.4 cm. (10 x 10 in.) 2011

DUDE, MY TIE Watercolor and graphite on paper 38.1 x 27.7 cm. (15 x 11 in.) 2011

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WHAT’S YOUR PRICE FOR FLIGHT Watercolor and graphite on paper 27.7 x 38.1 cm. (11 x 15 in.) 2012

SECOND TIME’S THE CHARM Watercolor and graphite on paper 38.1 x 27.7 cm. (15 x 11 in.) 2012

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ALREADY GONE, COME AGAIN Watercolor and graphite on paper 27.7 x 38.1 cm. (11 x 15 in.) 2012

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THE FORGOTTEN ROOM Watercolor and graphite on paper 19.1 x 27.7 cm. (7.5 x 11 in.) 2012

PART 1

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THE FORGOTTEN ROOM

PART 2

Watercolor and graphite on paper 19.1 x 27.7 cm. (7.5 x 11 in.) 2012

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THE BOOKKEEPER Watercolor and graphite on paper 27.7 x 38.1 cm. (11 x 15 in.) 2011

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HANGIN’ OUT Watercolor and graphite on paper 27.7 x 38.1 cm. (11 x 15 in.) 2012

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STILL HANGIN’ OUT Watercolor and graphite on paper 27.7 x 38.1 cm. (11 x 15 in.) 2012

STILL...HANGIN’ OUT Watercolor and graphite on paper 38.1 x 27.7 cm. (15 x 11 in.) 2012

GET A JOB Watercolor and graphite on paper 38.1 x 27.7 cm. (15 x 11 in.) 2012

WIBBLETON TO WOBBLETON Watercolor and graphite on paper 19.1 x 27.7 cm. (7.5 x 11 in.) 2011

GAME ON Watercolor and graphite on paper 38.1 x 27.7 cm. (15 x 11 in.) 2009

CITY WORK Watercolor and graphite on paper 19.1 x 27.7 cm. (7.5 x 11 in.) 2011

ALL IN AND OVER Watercolor and watercolor pencil on paper 19.1 x 27.7 cm. (7.5 x 11 in.) 2011

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MATTHEW 28:19 Watercolor and graphite on paper 27.7 x 38.1 cm. (11 x 15 in.) 2011

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RIDIN’ OUT ON THE BLUEMONT LINE Watercolor and graphite on paper 30.5 x 30.5 cm. (12 x 12 in.) 2010

FIRE AND ICE Watercolor and graphite on paper 19.1 x 27.7 cm. (7.5 x 11 in.) 2010

THE ARCH AND THE TOWER Watercolor and graphite on paper 19.1 x 27.7 cm. (7.5 x 11 in.) 2010

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A GOOD LIFE Watercolor and graphite on paper 27.7 x 38.1 cm. (11 x 15 in.) 2011

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THE FURTURISTS Watercolor and graphite on paper 27.7 x 38.1 cm. (11 x 15 in.) 2012

THERE WAS NO ONE TO TALK TO...

Watercolor and graphite on paper 27.7 x 38.1 cm. (11 x 15 in.) 2011

DAWN OF ID Watercolor and graphite on paper 38.1 x 27.7 cm. (15 x 11 in.) 2011

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THEY ARE STARING AT ME MR. WYETH Watercolor and graphite on paper 27.7 x 38.1 cm. (11 x 15 in.) 2012

HUNGER AT THE END OF THE WORLD Watercolor and graphite on paper 27.7 x 38.1 cm. (11 x 15 in.) 2012

HUNGER AND THE STATUE Watercolor and graphite on paper 38.1 x 27.7 cm. (15 x 11 in.) 2012

A STUDY IN WAITING Watercolor and graphite on paper 27.7 x 38.1 cm. (11 x 15 in.) 2010

IF THIS WERE REAL FEAR Watercolor and graphite on paper 38.1 x 27.7 cm. (15 x 11 in.) 2010

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THE BET Watercolor and graphite on paper 19.1 x 27.7 cm. (7.5 x 11 in.) 2011

SOMETHING OLDE Watercolor and watercolor pencil on paper 25.4 x 25.4 cm. (10 x 10 in.) 2009

STILL LIFE WITH PEARS Watercolor and graphite on paper 19.1 x 27.7 cm. (7.5 x 11 in.) 2009

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ALBERT THE CAMEL Watercolor and graphite on paper 27.7 x 38.1 cm. (11 x 15 in.) 2012

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