Kimon Nicolaïdes, author of The Natural Way to Draw, wrote, “Learning to draw is really a matter of learning to see—to see correctly—and that means a good deal more than merely looking with the eye.”
As a teenager, Will Klemm knew that many artists stressed the need to master drawing before advancing into color. For three years he worked in pen and ink, perfecting the skill of direct observation—drawing from the object itself, translating it’s three-dimensional presence into two dimensions on a piece of paper. Cameras do that translating for us creating flat images.
Island Sunset, oil, 24 x 48 in.
His teenage practice has followed him throughout his extensive career. “I draw every morning,” he says. “Whatever’s in the room around me. It keeps my eyes sharp.”
David Hockney wrote, “I was aware that the teaching of drawing was being stopped almost 30 years ago. And I always said, ‘The teaching of drawing is the teaching of looking.’ A lot of people don’t look very hard.”
Klemm looks hard and absorbs the essence of the landscape. He says, “I’m less interested in the literal truth from these sites than a poetic interpretation…I’m not a documentarian. I want the viewer to experience what the landscape felt to me.”
Grove, oil, 36 x 36 in.
Not far from his vacation home in Taos, New Mexico, is El Salto in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains—a constant source of inspiration. “El Salto has a great physical presence with wonderful contrasts in shape and texture,” Klemm says. “My paintings of El Salto are about color and light. I want people to have a sense of light in nature. In my paintings of El Salto, I try to see how much color I can load into them and have them read as authentic. We live in a world of fake images. I want the texture of the paint to give a real physical sense to the paintings. In that way, to my eye, my work isn’t any different from abstract expressionism. It’s about forms, scale, texture and color.”
El Salto, oil, 24 x 30 in
Klemm’s most recent work will be shown in the exhibition Lightworks at Wally Workman Gallery in Austin, Texas, from November 7 through 29, with a reception on opening day from 6 to 8 p.m.
“The third rail of this show,” he explains, “has to do with working methods. I’ve always been an energetic, hard-working painter, not disposed to taking breaks while painting. But then I took up the guitar as a hobby, and every hour or two I’d stop painting to work on scales or pick out a tune. The time spent sitting and strumming was also spent watching the painting, and I could feel a new relationship emerging. Instead of directing the painting, I found myself asking ‘where do you want to go next?’ This was a new way of perceiving for me, but it turns out to be very common among artists. I’ve now heard from many artists who report that listening to the painting is a large and critical part of the process. Why did it take me 40 years to figure that out?” —
Little El Salto, oil, 8 x 10 in.
Wally Workman Gallery 1202 W. 6th Street • Austin, TX 78703 • (512) 472-7428 • wallyworkmangallery.com
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