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Paul “Popi” Anderson – Interview With The Artist
.When did you first become interested in art?
I don’t know. Art has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember. I was raised with an appreciation of art by my mother who was a writer and poet. My mother encouraged my drawing by giving me “how to draw … whatever” books.
My father was a documentary film maker and he taught me the art of photography. I was born and raised in the Congo when it was still a Belgium colony. I was seven years old when he gave me an old Kodak box camera – not much more than a pin hole camera. It took 120 film which I would shoot and we (my father and I) would develop the film in our dark room and make contact prints from the black & white negatives. We did not have an enlarger until later. Nature was my favorite subject. While my father took pictures of his family and friends, I took pictures of the landscape and flowers, sometimes even close-up photos of ants coming and going in the ant hill.
I was in the 10th grade when I created my first piece of art for a student competition.
What style of art do you use most?
Abstract the most, at least for now. I’ve followed a path through many artistic expressions. Not having had formal education in theory and technique, I never settled on one kind of art. I was, and maybe am always searching and finding a different outlet for my creative drive.
Has your style changed from when you first began as an artist?
Oh yes…and no. I created both representational and abstract pieces when I drew in pencil and ink. During my years in collage I took up tempera and watercolor and worked a lot in abstract – it was the late 60’s and early 70’s and the psychedelic flower power art influence me very strongly. I was creating poster art using colored markers and water based like day glow and black light paint. I went back to representational paintings when I took up watercolor.
What medium do you use?
Right now I am working only in oil on a variety of supports – canvas and hard panels made of different material – I throw nothing away that I can recycle use again and my wood shop is full of scraps of flat panels.
What made you choose that medium?
I always knew I wanted to make oil paintings but for some reason considered that move too much a jump for an “untrained” artist. But I love the works of the masters of all genre and spend much time in art museums. I talked about wanting to do oil painting all the time, listened to local painters, studied their art and the art of masters. When I would go to a museum I spend more time 10 inches from the paintings than 10 feet from them. I was always fascinated with the oil paintings with the variety of technique, and use of color. Five years ago, my wife gave me an easel and a nice set of oil paints and told me to start doing what I always wanted to do. I’ve found more satisfaction and passion for painting in oil than any other medium.
Trapped
Do your ideas come from life or imagination?
Mostly from imagination but I am always seeing scenes in life that find their way into my paintings. When I first started using oils, I tried to paint like my favorite painters do or did. Landscapes, flowers, wildlife, still life, anything that others who I liked painted. It did not work and I could not connect to what I was doing. I love the elephant the subject of my study in life drawing and painting. I’ve made a series of elephant paintings which are deeply personal and I shared only of few of those. But that style was not meeting my need to express – it was expressing life ideas but they were not coming from within.
I was looking at some old college notebooks one day and I realized that down the side of every page I had been drawing and making abstract shapes while trying to stay awake in whatever class it was. I connected with those old drawings and woke up that day to recognized that what is in my head is not a representational paintings but abstract expressions waiting to be made into paintings. My life as an artist changed and as I created my first large canvas abstracts, people who saw them began to connect with them. I sold that first painting before I even finished it. The encouragement of three key friends and my wife brought me out of the closet – so to speak – and I began to show my work to the public. That is were I am now and I still have ideas lined up inside my mind waiting their turn.
How do you choose your images and colours?
Most of the time I choose colors first. Rarely does a painting I make start with an image or shape. It starts with a color or group of colors. When that is decided, then there are many ways to present that color. Finding a way to best present the colors is the challenge I like. I work out the idea in sketches or on my computer using a Wakom tablet but the result rarely is quite what I first imagined. The colors control what the painting will be.
Who is your favourite artist?
Declaring “favorites” is a tough thing to do on any subject but especially tough for me with art. There are very few art forms or genres that I do not find some compelling artist. If forced to speak only one, I would say Paul Cezanne. I believe he did more for the modern and abstract painting than any other of his time. I have many quotes from Cezanne that I like – “Keep good company – that is, go to the Louvre.” and “I am more a friend of art than a producer of painting”. Thornton Willis has my attention a lot these days. So does Sean Scully. There are so many other than the really well known that I spend time studying.
What is your favourite piece of work by yourself?
Sometimes I think my favorite piece that I’ve made is the latest one whatever that is. But I really like “A Virgin Wood” because it works on so many levels. I enjoy watching the connection each person makes with it. Not everyone makes a connection but not everyone appreciates or understands the art I make.
A Virgin Wood
How much time (on average) does it take to complete a work?
On average probably 6-8 hours working about 2-3 hours at a time. This really varies because some smaller pieces have taken less than two hours. I worked on “Trapped” for several weeks – not consistently but probably put 22-24 hours in it. Stimulus took me less than 90 minutes but it was all wet in wet.
How well do you take criticism?
I’d like to say I take it well, that I understand not everyone likes every painting and not every painting deserves to be liked at all. I’m very pragmatic about reactions and appreciation of my paintings. Nothing I create will be liked by everyone. Nothing I paint will be disliked by everybody. But that is only my goal. Professional art critics are critical – can I say that I mean it is critical what they say because if I want to be recognized and truly emerge in the region where I am trying to establish myself, then I need good words from them. Negative criticism from them is a bit difficult. I avoid conflict and rejection like it is the plague of death. It is partly the reason I have waited so long to put my painting up for public scrutiny.
What do you do to overcome a ‘block’?
I paint. I’m going through a minor one right now. A painting on a large canvas is stalled because I do not have the solution to resolve the painting. So for the past two days I’ve been in the studio making practice paintings and experimenting with some ideas and techniques. Over on the wall hangs the stuck painting. I know that my mind is working it out even while I do these other minor pieces. I don’t get to be in my studio every day so a full block of ideas has not been a common thing and I often pull a switch from what I thought was going to be painted to what is painted.
How do you know something is ‘finished’? Is it easy to walk away?
Sometimes I do not know if it is finished but I know I better not do anything more with it. I walk away and come back the next day and look at it in a different light. Sometimes I think it is finished and the next day I realize that it needs more work. Most of the time though I do know when it is finished and that is when it connects with me. I know this sounds really bizarre but when I hear the painting communicate with me, I know it is done. I do converse with my paintings throughout the whole creative process.
Have you had exhibits in galleries?
Not of this writing.
Stimulus
Have you any exhibits in galleries planned for the future?
I will be having my first exhibit at a public multi gallery show in my town. My work will be shown at a local graphic design gallery during an “art walk”. It is a quarterly event in our downtown. Art Walk Longview – http://www.artwalklongview.com. Another local artist and I are planning on a show together for the fall of 2009. We hope to use a local art and framing gallery as our location.
What are your plans for the future?
To press on. I hope to get a footing in the Dallas, Texas market with the help of some friends. I’ve made submission with a couple galleries in Dallas in hopes of being noticed. I also am entering every art show in the Dallas area that is reasonable – most are for emerging artists who do not have professional representation
What advice would you give new artists?
I consider myself a pretty new artist in my current medium so I’m looking for advice more than ready to give it. The one thing I learned is that if being an artist is one’s true passion, the will not be satisfied ignoring it.
Have you done any courses to help you?
Yes, I’ve taken painting classes at our Junior College that are taught by local artists. I also have taken private lessons from artists to learn specific techniques.
Sidestepped
What do you do to market your work?
Websites like Fine Art America and EBSQart.com. I have a blogger.com site and I am building an email list that I send to each time a new painting is posted. As I said before, I’m submitting to as many art shows as I can qualify for. I’d like to get my art into one or two shops in Dallas – being accepted by a gallery is a dream of course but I still have some dues to pay.
Do you use social networking in your day to day life?
I have a page on Facebook as well as member of art groups on Facebook.
Are you available for work (commissions)?
Yes. I’ve not done a full commission yet as an oil painter. I don’t do portraits or representational art as such. My canvases are generally large. As a commercial and artistic photographer I have taken commissions in the past but right now, I do so much photography for my “real job” that I do not do much art photography. Plus, then it comes to photographic art, I am old school. I use a Canon EOS Digital camera but that is not my art. I am film based and with chemicals for darkroom work so difficult to find these days, I’ve wrapped up my darkroom and put it in a barrel.
Overload
Have you got hobbies?
Yes, but they are mostly other artistic outlets. I do woodworking building small decorative boxes and children’s toys.
Where are you based?
In Longview, Texas. East of Dallas and west of Shreveport, LA on Interstate 20.
Lovely work Paul! The interview was full of fascinating information that I am sure others will love to read also 
Thank you for being such a great guest.
You can see more of Paul’s images at eaglegrafix.blogspot.com
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