Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Painting Faces
by Brandon Kralik


A new video featuring the paintings of Brandon Kralik
Painting Faces



The Human Face is the primary symbol in our visual iconography.

  Our mother's face is the first thing most of us see and from those first moments we build a symbolic dialog with the world we live in, the bodies we inhabit.  The human face is not just a portrait.  It is a symbol of ourselves.  When I stand in front of what I consider to be the best portraits ever painted, "Cornelius Van der Geest" by Van Dyke, "Agatha Bas" by Rembrandt, or "Courier" by Odd Nerdrum, my mind naturally tries to create some story from my limited understanding of the sitter's identity but paintings of this caliber stop the thought, they suspend me in time and give arise to sensations beyond words, beyond the chatter.  No doubt photons and strange quarks excited by the magnetism that radiates from such a painting, affecting me in waves.  And then, when I try to identify the sensations with my mind the waves break up and I am left grasping at particles beyond words. 
Beautiful faces radiate.



  My Mother is a painter and her sister and her sister's husband were painters and I remember my first exposure to oil painting was in their studios in Colorado.  Majestic faces of American Indians and scenes of the Rocky Mountains, washing out into the desert.   I was told that if one could paint a face then one could paint anything and it sounded good.   The thought of being able to paint anything was appealing so I dove into drawing and painting faces.  Copying from painters I admired was one way of learning to paint faces and I did a lot of copying in my student days in New York but working directly from life is more rewarding for me.  Often when I am studying at a museum I find myself sketching people just standing. Looking.  
The expressions on the faces can be so beautiful, so full of awe and wonder, jaw dropped and eyes reaching out for more!  
Isn't that why museums all over the world are packed with people curious about the power of painting?  When I see those faces I know it with my mind, when I myself turn and face a beautiful portrait, look into the face of a painter such as Ilya Repin, I feel it in my core.  We relate to it and I strive to emulate this feeling  in my work.  

  I have heard it argued that abstract painting is closer to the divine precisely because it can eliminate the human face, such as Pollock or Rothko did and so on.  I  disagree.  They interpret the human face as ego and treat it as crass, ugly, somehow stained in the mind of the pure conceptualist with all that is nasty, brutish and short.   It is along these lines that it has been a taboo to even paint the face, to paint it well I should say, throughout much of recent modern history.     

Figurative Painting is the best of both worlds. 
  At it's best the glory of creation comes shining out of the chaos of paint, of molecules, refracting light and at the same time address the seeming solidity of the our world, of ourselves. It offers a broader range of perspective by communicating not only by means of our subjective consciousness but thorough symbols we recognize as a collective.  Symbols like the Human Face.

  One thing that antiquity, the great religions and the tribal myths tell us is that the secret to connecting with God, with the universal intelligence, with the cosmos, lies within us.  They tell us that if we go inward, then everything will open up to us.  We begin our understanding of who we are, as a child, by connecting with our face.  To consider it egocentric is to say that one has not gone far enough into themselves, into the mystery and the meditation for when one does go deep enough inward one comes to a more elevated understandings.  Fresh Perspectives.  One comes to understand our relation to each other, the sociocentric and then comes a globalcentric perspective, which a lot of people are still having a hard time with, and  ultimately there is a cosmocentric which is the spiritual realm. So, it is really the human face that opens the path to self discovery and I would likely argue that it doesn't necessarily matter who's face it is, if it is painted well, it can take you there, to the spirit realm.  We're like bubbles on the surface of the ocean. We recognize the ocean in each other. 


  Going back to the idea that if one can paint a face one can paint anything.  That conversation was taking place one afternoon in Nerdrum's studio.  Odd and I were both relatively silent until the group of three or four pupils left the room and Odd asked me, "What do you think of that?"
  "The idea that if you can paint a face then you can paint anything?"  I made sure we were both speaking of the same thing.
  "Yes".
  I laughed my reply, knowing already what Odd thought, and I thought it too, "It's a good start."
His voice was excited as he was lathered paint onto a particular mountain range, building it up, tearing it down, "That's exactly what it is!  A good start!"
  "But to paint two faces..."
  "...or four hands, or six feet, and to set it in the landscape..."
  "and bath it all in the golden light of setting sun, in eternity..."
  "Yes," he smiled, " We mustn't forget that.   A face is a good start though."

For a painter on a quest to paint "everything" the face may be a good start, but from a cosmocentric perspective, it may be the everything we seek.

I find the universe reclining in the face of  my Love. 






"Awakening" by Brandon Kralik, oil on panel, 40 x 30 cm
to purchase this painting now, click HERE!

-Carl Theodor Dreyer

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  It is possible to commission portraits directly from me  or through one of the official representatives of my work.  Please contact me for details.  To see what Collectors of my work have to say please read their comments by clicking HERE.  I am happy to say that throughout my career I have only satisfied customers!

You will find currently available originals, prices and the opportunity to purchase directly and securely through PayPal at Brandon Kralik's Original Paintings and Sales Gallery:

Subscribe to the newsletter to receive relevant information about new paintings, exhibitions and events.
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Subscribe to Brandon Kralik's youtube channel to see the latest videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/BrandonKralik

For more information regarding available originals, commissioning a painting and other valuable information go to:
http://www.brandonkralik.com/Home.html

To see a selection of open edition prints currently available go to:
http://brandon-kralik.artistwebsites.com/index.html

REMEMBER to share this post with your friends!
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Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Judgement Against Nerdrum is Overturned!
by Brandon Kralik



 "There is no valid sentence against Nerdrum"  stated Bettina Banoun who was among the experts who considered disclosures to the court by the Norwegian newspaper, Dagbladet.  Dagbladet uncovered evidence that had not previously been presented in court and which shows that the amount of Nerdrum's income, as stated by the Appeals Court, had been doubled and also that Nerdrum had paid taxes on what he owed.

"There must be an admission of failure when a journalist at Dagbladet in a short time can do a more thorough job than the government to provide key evidence. Police now say they will consider the new evidence in the case Nerdrum, and it should go without saying that it ensures that no one is sentenced to a long prison sentence on false grounds", said Banoun to Dagbladet in October.

 It seems Nerdrum called it as it was all along.
Now that the 2 year and 10 month sentence against Nerdrum has been overturned, the case will be retried in the first court, called the High court in Norway, presumable sometime later this year.  It is unlikely, given the new evidence that Nerdrum will serve prison time as the case for such a long and harsh punishment is crumbling.  As it should be.  I have followed this incredible case for eleven years now and have always been critical of the investigation, and now leading tax expert Banoun agrees in an article published in Dagbladet Feb. 5, 2013. 
I translated this article from Dagbladet (feb. 5, 2013) using Google translate.
Here is the link to the article in Norwegian: http://www.dagbladet.no/2013/02/05/kultur/kunst/nerdrum-saken/skatt/odd_nerdrum/25602861/    

Here is another article announcing the Supreme Courts decision for those of you who want more details.
This link, from Dagbladet, Feb. 4, 2013 has already been Google Translated into English for you:

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=no&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dagbladet.no%2F2013%2F02%2F05%2Fkultur%2Fnerdrum-saken%2Fodd_nerdrum%2Frettssak%2Fskatt%2F25491056%2F&act=url

In a separate, civil lawsuit, Nerdrum has sued the Appeals Court for mishandling his case.  The Civil case was heard in Oct. 2012.  In the verdict it emerged that the court believes in parts of Nerdrum's testimony and that he mistakenly had to pay tax twice for the same income.  However, Nerdrum lost that case because the court ruled that Nerdrum didn't present his case clear enough.  Now we know that in fact, the appeals court did mishandle the case.  As any of you know who have followed this case, it is a VERY complicated situation to live in one country, paint in another, and sell the paintings in yet another and be able to explain all of this to the tax office.  Not to mention the ruined paintings that started it all. 
Nerdrum has appealed this case also and it will probably come up in 2014.

For now, and let us hope it remains so, Nerdrum is free to be with his family, to paint masterpieces and continue to share his knowledge with those of us who believe in Painting, in craftsmanship and the connection we feel when we see the sincere longing of a human face.  Longing for love and for acceptance.



The Nerdrum School, summer 2012

For Everything Nerdrum, including the NEW NERDRUM APP go to THEN NERDRUM MUSEUM



The NERDRUM APP

  Remember to share this with your friends!  
  Thanks for continuing to show your support for Odd Nerdrum.



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You will find currently available originals by Brandon Kralik, prices and the opportunity to purchase directly and securely through PayPal at Brandon Kralik's Original Paintings and Sales Gallery:

Subscribe to the newsletter to receive relevant information about 
new paintings, exhibitions, and events.
http://brandonkralik.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=6f23954dcfd1794e41447998a&id=79452f0c8b

Have a look at Brandon Kralik's youtube channel to see the latest videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/BrandonKralik

For more information regarding available originals, commissioning a painting and other valuable information go to:
http://www.brandonkralik.com/Home.html

____________________________________________________________________________________________________








Friday, February 1, 2013

Still Life Painting

Still Life Paintings
a video featuring Paintings by Brandon Kralik




Painting is how I get to know something, whether it is an object, a landscape or a person.  After I have taken the time to be with a basket of Pinecones for several months, years in fact, I really KNOW something that I didn't know before.  A knowing that exists on a molecular level, pulsing away behind the mind.  It is not necessarily something that I can pinpoint, more of a subconscious comprehension of the world than I had before.  Of course I understand the pinecones in a physical sense but by painting them I mean to understand in another way, that way of speaking that can be convey by form but is beyond form.  That is why I paint, to arrive at a deeper understanding, beyond words, and the Paintings stand as the record of my quest.  The Paintings are exhalations of my breath.

Still life is a meditation, a focused concentration on something to the point where everything else goes away and through observation and manipulation on the materials unexpected surprises are revealed.  I want to convey those surprises to you through the painting.  The secrets live in the light.


This short video presents to you some of my still life paintings and the opportunity for me to share with you also something of my technique, which I have developed from other painters who I have the privilege  of knowing and working with. 

Enjoy it! 
Please feel free to comment and remember to share it with your friends, like a warm cup of tea.  Sharing is what it is really all about, especially when the intention is sincere.  

  
The one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master.


 _________________________________________________________________________________________________

You will find currently available originals, prices and the opportunity to purchase directly and securely through PayPal at Brandon Kralik's Original Paintings and Sales Gallery:

Subscribe to the newsletter to receive relevant information about new paintings, exhibitions and events.
http://brandonkralik.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=6f23954dcfd1794e41447998a&id=79452f0c8b

Have a look at Brandon Kralik's youtube channel to see the latest videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/BrandonKralik

For more information regarding available originals, commissioning a painting and other valuable information go to:
http://www.brandonkralik.com/Home.html

To see a selection of open edition prints currently available go to:
http://brandon-kralik.artistwebsites.com/index.html

REMEMBER to share this post with your friends!
_________________________________________________________________________________________________