'Artists can access a creative world where images and rhythms and ideas flow to us. It is truly a miraculous thing and I love seeing the work of others. We artists all share the same heart under our skin.'
Hugh McMunn paints from his beautiful studio in New York. His figurative artworks respond to social issues such as paradoxes of the modern world.
Where is your current Studio? What would be your Dream Studio?
I tore down my whole home and rebuilt it to accommodate the needs of my disabled daughter. When I did so I was fortunate in that I also added a third floor painting studio and designed it to match the way I had pictured it ... Cathedral ceiling, skylights, large arched window facing North, views of each compass point to see the sun rise and set, and plenty of room for my books. My dream studio would be to add a good HD screen for visual reference, a nice sound system, and a cappuccino maker and wine fridge. :)
Do you prefer to work in silence, does music inspire you?
Music definitely makes painting easy. I find that drawing and painting have many parallels to dance -feeling the abstract interplay of curves of shapes and forms and replicating that through the artist's hand onto the canvas or paper. Music definitely helps the flow of creativity and makes it so easy to paint for hours.
Studio life can Lead to Isolation. How do you address that/keep a balance?
Having a studio in my home makes it very easy to maintain a balance. I can enter the studio and art library to have solitude, focus of thought, inspiration, take a walk around the lakes and hills of a nearby park or head to the side yard to get some Sun and meditate when I need a to refresh my mind.
Describe a moment or epiphany concerning your creative life.
I grew up, as I suspect most children do: loving drawing and coloring. It is a magical moment when we first pick up a crayon and the trail of color follows the movement of our little hands, This love of drawing was knocked out of me in the school system. I remember being hit so hard in the side of the head and myself and my crayons being knocked out of my seat onto the floor in sixth grade , my art work torn up in front of me for my innocent interpretation of a landscape that my teacher took exception to. My epiphany was in college when I saw someone's painting one day that I really enjoyed and thought to myself "I had always wanted to do this..." and then thought "Well, why don't I?"
What is your Favorite and Least favorite part of the creative process?
My favorite parts of the creative process are developing a concept, and idea, making thumbnails and figuring out the details as well as getting to the point of adding highlights and shadows, subtle contrasting temperature colors, and blending which are pulling the subject into a form that you can feel. My least favorite part is the sequential adding of paint in the beginning required to build an image, I have the urge to paint everything at once and have the painting emerge.
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