Representational Paintings/demonstrations
by 22bax
Christopher Harrington
Artists Statement
My second area of painting exploration has directly evolved from the courses I teach, and the nature of the Department of Fine Arts here at UMES. We do not offer a fine art degree. Instead, our classes and concentrations are focused on preparing students for careers in illustration and comics. To best prepare students in these fields I need to teach, and demonstrate, techniques in figurative painting, including still lives and portraits. Each semester I have painted one of the assignments that I gave to students. These began as simple teaching exercises, but as the years passed, I began to enter these into exhibitions, and have been accepted into nationally juried shows and even win awards. Two themes that I have been exploring are 1) images of African American heroes, like Harriet Tubman and the greats of the negro leagues. One of the ideas that I model for students is that a painting should not simply copy a photograph. Photos are there as a reference that need to be surpassed. An example is a painting I did of Hall-of-Famer Oscar Charleston. I worked from a black and white image of him in street clothes, but painted him in color, in the uniform of the team he played with in his prime, the Indianapolis ABCs.
The other recent theme in my representational paintings has been tilted, or askew still lives. This emerged from the classroom, where a student complained that they didn’t want to paint a still life because “still lives are boring.” So, I challenged the students, and myself, and asked, “what can we do to make a still life different and interesting?” My solution was to turn the canvas, making it look like it had slipped from the wall. The unusual position of the canvas presented new compositional challenges.
I strongly believe that there is no division between my research, teaching and service. Everything I do in one area contributes and strengthens the others. I know my painting has made me a better teacher, and my teaching has made me a better painter.
