Teachers: who has influenced your work?

[Julie Deane]

The intent of this question is to provide a moment of reflection on two questions:

1. Which living artists have influenced your work for the better?
2. Which deceased artists' work have influenced your work the most?

Some artists can cite a "lineage" of influence, which I think is cool (ie. your teacher, then his/her teacher etc. for several generations). If you can do this, it would be interesting to see, so please share.

[Richard Bingham]

This could be a fun discussion. As to "pedigrees", I see at least two possible threads . . . those who have studied so closely with a "powerful" painter and continue working with that instructor's visual vocabulary, as opposed to those who absorbed what an instructor had to offer and developed personal visions far removed from the work of their mentors - e.g., Ives Gammell traced his "painting pedigree" directly to Gerome, while Matisse was Bouguereau's pupil.

Personally? I learned to paint from Robert Brackman, Fred Taubes and Hayward Veal, all now deceased (and way off the popular radar). So where does that leave me? I don't feel I've ever been an "exponent" of any of their styles.

As their work resonates deeply with me, by turns I have for a long time tended to feel more "influenced" by long-dead masters whose work I perennially return to examine and study . . . especially Velasquez, Hals, Zorn, Sorolla . . . lately the Tiepolos and Mancini (in contrast) have my interest.

[Julie Deane]

Interesting, Richard. I'll have to see what I can find on those artists.

This thread can take the shape anyone wants to give it .

For me, the most influential artists I have studied under are Fiore Custode, my life drawing instructor at Ringling School of Art many moons ago, and Marvin Mattelson, whose two-week portrait painting workshop I was fortunate enough to attend a few years ago. Mr. Custode gave me the basics, and Marvin Mattelson helped me to understand how to put the bits and pieces I'd learned through the years into a cohesive whole, with an emphasis on creating the illusion of form. If he gave his "Met" lecture in Atlanta every year, I would attend it, it's that good.

I think artists tend to look for instructors with similar styles, don't you think? It would be good to take classes from artists with similar and dissimilar styles. Or subjects. I learned a lot about still life set ups and lighting, for example, by taking a short class with Rosa Santiago. And a way of working with a very limited palette under Dawn Whitelaw.

Influential artists from the past? Titian, Velasquez, Hals, Sargeant, Beaux, Paxton, Degas and many more

Influential artist authors: Juliette Aristides, Gregg Kreutz, Henry Rankin Poore, Ian Roberts, David Friend, Chris Saper

[Natalie Hunsaker]

Most influential artists (deceased):

• Caravaggio (a bit gruesome but I love his lighting)

• Carl Bloch (Christ by the Pool of Bethesda is my favorite painting on so many levels and I recently had a chance to stare at the HUGE canvas in person in the Museum of Art at Brigham Young University. Wow.)

• John WIlliam Waterhouse (Mariamne was another huge mural viewed at another exhibition at BYU and--so impressed by the brushwork, composition, technique, and use of light to emphasize the story)

• Velasquez

• Alexandre Cabanel

• Laszlo and Sargeant, of course

• Alexei Harlamoff

Most influential artists (living):

• Marvin Mattleson because although I've not been fortunate enough to take his classes (yet), his website was my very first painting teacher. He doesn't even know that finding him on the web was the reason I had the courage and inspiration to pick up art again.

• Most certainly William Whitaker--not only because he has been my only access to formal painting training, but because he's been inspirational on a personal level as well. (One of his teachers, Alvin Gittins, was remarkable too although lesser known)

• Molly Williams and Emily Gordon, fellow students of Bill who have unique but very inspirational styles. Molly has a gift for depth in her paintings and Emily's patience is astounding.

• Chris Saper and Michele Rushworth, whom I've admired from afar for their professionalism.

• Many others on this forum who so willingly share their experience with the rest of us.

I probably have a million more, but these ones definitely mark more of my turning points in my painting career so far.