A Writer's Artistic Explosion

Painting No. 55 by Michael Hooper, titled, Joe Mettenbrink Artist Poet Musician, Oil on canvas 11 by 14 in. 

By Michael Hooper

Creativity is the highest form of living. To be engaged in a creative work of art is to use multiple levels of imagination, skill, knowledge, technique and dexterity. Such creativity can be explosive in color, form and beauty. Fall in love with creativity and you will be its keeper, with a desire to create bigger and better and greater works of art.

On December 25th, 2018, I painted my first oil painting. I like the feel of oil paint going on canvas. Since that day, I have painted about 60 paintings, most of them are oil on canvas. About 15 are worthy of keeping, the rest were good practice, a way to learn from my mistakes. I committed myself to painting a painting every day just like Vincent van Gogh did. I also have watched about 100 hours of art shows, most of them instructional videos on YouTube. I  also take instruction from Rosemary Menninger, an accomplished painter and longtime art teacher in Topeka.

I paint like I write, fast and furious. I learned that most of the work goes into the drawing. Whatever the subject, it likely needs a great drawing before it can be painted.

I started painting because I could not find the art that I wanted to see. I had even asked artists to paint me portraits of people but they never did. So I began my study of portrait painting, which is a very difficult subject with many tiny details in the eyes, nose and mouth. A false line will damage or destroy a painting. The wrong line and the subject becomes somebody else.

Over the years I observed three types of painters, accident art or intentional art or a combination of accident and intentional. The accident artist lets the work speak to him and guide him where to go with the painting. I am not that kind of artist. I go with 100% intention. I draw out exactly what I want to see on the canvas. Then I begin to apply paint. Drawing is painting. And painting is drawing. I use tiny brushes to draw lines and impressions. I'm not waiting for the beautiful accident although sometimes it happens. I'm inclined to think such beautiful accidents will happen while working furiously.

It takes courage to be an artist because the risk of failure is so high. I can see why some people stare at a blank canvas and can't get anywhere, afraid the first line will be a mistake. Draw it anyway. I could not learn without doing, and most of my works are mistakes and learning lessons. Ansel Adams took thousands of photos per year with the hope that he would get at least 10 good pictures.

Color fields are nice but mostly color puffed up. I need a human form in my art, I need a body, I need some connection to humanity. I want art to be full of life, with an epic story behind the look on my subject's face. The best works of art by the Masters have a soul looking back at you.

Woman Of Many Colors, Oil on canvas, 11 by 14 in. By Michael Hooper

For years I worked as a journalist documenting people's lives. I always looked for the people impacted by a story. There is no history, only biography, Emerson said. Perhaps that is why I'm so interested in portrait painting.

Hermann Hesse, the great German author, took up painting at age 40. Initially it was a therapeutic pastime, but art helped him to see better.

I worked seven years in restaurants, 20 years in newspapers as a reporter and editor, four years in banking and Investments and five years as a freelance writer and self-employed businessman. I have kept a diary for 35 years. Now I am 100% devoted to becoming a painter. 

Inspiration comes from three  sources: my daughter Hannah Hooper, an artist using pour techniques to create works of art. Another source of inspiration was an art salon with several artists, poets, friends, who shared their works of art. One of the participants, Carrie Riordan, talked about a piece of art that meant so much to her. It was a landscape with a river. She said the piece reminded her of the drives with her husband through the country, seeing the big sky, the open spaces and quiet country roads.

For me her connection to the painting, the evocative story behind it, was just as powerful as the painting itself.

The third source of inspiration was my lifelong fascination and examination of art locally, nationally and internationally, including the NOTO Arts District in Topeka, the Cider Gallery in Lawrence, the Vincent van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. I'm in awe of Pablo Picasso's 50,000 works of art left behind, his ability to draw with a paintbrush and create a work of art in minutes. He did 800 sketches and studies for his famous work of art of prostitutes in the brothel, Les Demoiselles d'avignon, in 1907.

When preparation and hard work come together sometimes you have genius.

There is a 24-hour cycle to my painting process. I spend several hours looking for the next image to create. I do some sketches. I meditate on the idea before I go to bed with the hope that I will dream about the idea in my sleep. Sometimes I wake up and know immediately what to do. I draw the subject very carefully and won't begin painting until the drawing looks like my subject. Usually the painting process goes fast except for the tiny details around the eyes, nose and mouth.  

Knowing the end in my physical life is eminent, I asked myself, what is meaningful to me? The answer is what I love. With art I want to celebrate what I hold dear and admire, my children, my wife, my dog, myself in the Walt Whitman way, the Song of Myself. I want to see art of my artist friends whom I dearly love. I wish to have a hundred portraits of the beautiful people I know. Now the ideas are pouring out 10 times faster than I can produce. I like the idea of combining figurative art with expressionism and abstraction. A sweeping line of colors may illustrate the complexities inside the mind of the subject. The right combination of form, color and texture will produce lifelike energy.

The study of art is an endless journey of exhilaration, illumination and joy.