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JOHN PUGH / Narrative Illusionism

8/29/2022

1 Comment

 
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"Pool of Thought"
John Pugh, Trompe L'oeil Artist,
American Muralist, Optical Illusion Painter, has created
​more than 200 murals and is considered to be
the leading proponent, authority, and practitioner of
​Narrative Illusionism.

​
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JOHN has been creating murals since the late 1970s.
He attended California State University Chico,
receiving his BA in 1983 and the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2003. He has received numerous public and private commissions in the United States, Taiwan, and New Zealand.
John lives in Santa Cruz, California.
​Visit www.illusion-art.com
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    John Pugh's murals appear in more than 30 cities throughout the country, including San Francisco, Miami, Honolulu, and Anchorage.
Pugh's work has been featured in publications worldwide, including Time magazine, Artweek, Art Business News,
the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times,
​and the San Francisco Examiner.

​

"Okay, So here is another great book for the library!":
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“The Murals of John Pugh: Beyond Trompe l'Oeil”
                by Kevin Bruce

    A full-color collection of master trompe l'oeil muralist John Pugh's art, alongside detailed analysis - from conception to unveiling - with an emphasis on how his work relates to and enhances its setting. Includes more than 40 full-color photos of the murals depicting architectural, natural, and pictorial settings.
    This full-color collection showcases Pugh's most famous pieces, discusses how he revitalized the trompe l'oeil ("trick of the eye") genre into a vital mode of artistic expression, and illuminates the artist's creative process from sketch to finished mural.
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"River of Mercy"
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      “For more than three decades, world-renowned trompe l’oeil artist John Pugh has engaged and captivated the public with large-scale mural projects in spaces across the world, including San Francisco, Miami, and New York, as well as Taiwan, Mexico, and New Zealand. His “trick of the eye” murals cleverly fool the viewer into seeing a modern facade’s broken wall revealing Greek columns or a woman reading in a cafe. But Pugh’s paintings also capture the imagination and engage the mind. Within a framework of artfully rendered illusionary space, he orchestrates layers of historical, social, and mythical commentary that challenge the viewer to find deeper levels of meaning.
     With a body of work now exceeding 200 murals, Pugh has been instrumental in revitalizing the trompe l’oeil genre, turning it into a legitimate and vital mode of artistic expression that is both aesthetically and intellectually challenging.
     In Pugh’s own words:
 ‘It can link people together, stimulate a sense of pride within the community, and introduce the viewer to new ideas and perspectives.' ”     
     -Kevin Bruce, (Author of The Murals of John Pugh: Beyond Trompe L’oeil, 2006) is a native Californian born in San Francisco in 1941. He is currently engaged as an art historian and author with a focus on chronicling the contemporary mural. He resides with his wife and fellow mural archivist, Pauline, in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Berkeley, California.
​

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'Light Walk"
1 Comment

Michael Carter / pendulum painting

8/22/2022

0 Comments

 
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‘Solstice’ 2017 48x34, Acrylic on Canvas by Michael Carter
Michael Carter, b. 1975, Cambridge, MA, lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, he received a MFA from Claremont Graduate University.
​
His work is an investigation into metaphysical theories of art and the cultural history of science, philosophy, and religion.
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Recent exhibitions include:
Seasons, Los Angeles, CA; ​Hansell Art Gallery of the Philosophical Research Society, Los Angeles, CA;
​JOAN, Los Angeles, CA; Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles, CA and Bucharest, RO; Laband Gallery at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA; the Art Gallery at Glendale Community College, Glendale, CA; Machine Project, Los Angeles, CA; Steve Turner, Los Angeles, CA; and Roberts Projects, Culver City, CA.
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‘Making Space’ -Glendale Community College, December 4, 2017
 ‘Making Space’, sited off an elevated footbridge connecting the Science and Humanities buildings on the campus of Glendale Community College, is a practical investigation into the possibility of universals today. What are the conditions that connect us in the human experience? Gravity is one such condition—an ever-present force that intimately effects our lives yet also is responsible for shaping planets, forming solar systems, and structuring our galaxy. The pendulum is a highly sensitive instrument that facilitates a personal collaboration with this cosmic-scale phenomena. The pendulum series is an encouragement to question a mechanistic understanding of reality and recall to our awareness the infinitely receding and never-crossed boundary of the unknowable.
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​​'Out of Discord Comes the Most Beautiful Harmony'
Philosophical Research Society
October 10, 2018

'Out of Discord Comes the Most Beautiful Harmony' is the simultaneous creation of a cosmic mandala by a monumental-sized 'pendulagraph' and a healing sound-bath by quartz-crystal singing bowls. Together with artist and metaphysician Michael Carter and sound-bowl practitioner Kristin Palombo, the audience will contribute their vibrational presence in seeking to harmonize the impersonal, cosmic law of gravitation and the felt experience of pure sound vibration. 'Out of Discord Comes the Most Beautiful Harmony' proposes the possibility of unifying the grand opposites of our shared reality: finite and infinite; subjectivity and objectivity; form and emptiness; masculine and feminine; cosmic and terrestrial; law and chaos. In this unified field, our consciousness can travel into altered states of being, opening the doors to new conditions of mental and spiritual experience.
Out of Discord Comes the Most Beautiful Harmony
Philosophical Research Society, October 10, 2018



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“MICHAEL CARTER: THE SPIRITUAL IN ART"
March 18, 2021
"EMS visited the studio in February 2021 and produced this
17 minute short film. I discuss the origins of my work with the pendulum, Thought-Forms and Theosophy, my performances at the Philosophical Research Society and Nicodim Gallery
, and preview new work." -
Michael Carter

Watch “MICHAEL CARTER: THE SPIRITUAL IN ART”
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UNIVERSITY AND PARK AVENUE MURAL PROJECT

8/15/2022

0 Comments

 
The Riverside Art Museum
(RAM)


Riverside’s Eastside community has a rich history of diverse residents coming together to make their neighborhoods spaces where families can gather, connect, and feel safe. The Riverside Art Museum proudly  supports an artist-in-residence program with Juan Navarro who works with residents and non-profit organizations to beautify and transform spaces throughout the Riverside Eastside.
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During October 2021’s Artswalk, Juan Navarro, the lead artist on the University and Park Avenue Mural Project, took over RAM’s Instagram, live, with all the participating artists: Adrian Boyer, John Cuevas, C. Matthew Luther, Robin Luther, and Daniel Toledo to celebrate this new community mural project located at the gateway to the Eastside, at Arci’s Candy at 2870 University Avenue.
​
​
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Take a ride with Juan Navarro through Eastside Riverside
​to see the University and Park Avenue mural!

0 Comments

Break-Through Murals!

8/8/2022

0 Comments

 
Break-Throughs are playful illusions utilizing the wall-surface as a design element to create an opening or a break-away effect, thereby revealing a hidden world or an emerging subject. Break-Throughs often incorporate linear perspective techniques, trompe l’oeil and/or faux finishes, quadrature Illusionism, and/or anamorphic effects.
I’ll do future posts on all of these Illusion techniques.
Here are a few examples:
​

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John Pugh: Taylor Hall, California State University, Chico, California
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Roberto Quintana for Carrow’s restaurant interior
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Roberto Quintana: private residence entryway
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Roberto Quintana: Oculus ceiling mural for Tourmaline Studios
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Morgan Mural Studios: Santa Clara County Fairgrounds
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Tracy Lee Stum: Raider Power
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Roberto Quintana: Grand American Fare/ Paddy Boots, Denver, Colorado
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Boss Graphics
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Roberto Quintana for Boss Graphics
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Laurence ‘Link’ Linkus: ‘An Hows Yur...?’ for Grand American Fare
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A Purple Portrait!

8/1/2022

2 Comments

 
I just put the finishing touches on this portrait
of my beloved, Susan.

It is an Oil painting on a canvas panel, about 24”x18”
​
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     Susan liked to wear and surround herself with purples, so I chose a split-primary color scheme using Ultramarine Blue (semi-transparent) and Quinacridone Red (semi-transparent), which when mixed together makes a very lively Purple, with a tad of Burnt Umber (a purple-like earth tone) and a micro-tad of Perylene Black (semi-transparent). The Perylene is a greenish-black used as a foil against the Quinacridone. I prefer using Lead-White when mixing flesh tones because it is more transparent than Titanium-White, and doesn’t make for ‘chalky’ colors.
    The difficult task was to paint a 'Purple Portrait' which didn’t look ghoulish, and to try and capture Susan’s big ‘toothy’ smile, which I love so much and which was such a joyous aspect of who she was, while not turning her beautiful grin into 'a Grin'.
     I started this during the last year that she was with us and I have been noodling with it until just recently when I added the Black and Burnt-Umber to the background behind her jaw and neck. At some point you just have to let go... and call it ‘done’.

​
Susan My Beloved,
​Farewell...

​

On a forgotten journey
to somewhere once
a long time ago
I found myself
distracted by a beautiful
wildflower,
bright and true,

growing amid the roses.
I came to you
down by the river
like a perfect Fool
as Parsifal to Blanchefleur.
Your scent filled my senses
and I became drunk with you!
And dreamed…
The Drunkards’ Dream
of hearth and home
and contentment.
My cup overflowing
as you poured your love into me.
Your love transformed me.
Transformed my World.
Transformed my Universe.
My Forever Love.
My all. 
My ally.

My Wild Iris
Mi Corazon.

...But now the banquet is over,
the courtyard stands empty
the drawbridge withdrawn.
The Grail Castle has vanished!
Now I know the treachery
of the lost precious.
The bewilderment of Parsifal
abandoned and lost
in a wilderness of pain and sorrow.
Now I know the despair of Rumi
at the murder and loss
of Shams of Tabriz.
Queen of my heart
My Forever Love.
My Perfect, Perfect Love.
I miss you so much…
Without you
I am like a speck of dust
blown away
in the breeze...



​


2 Comments
    Picture

       ...to Roberto's Blog!

      "Duit-On-Mon-Dai"
     
        Roberto has been pestering the ‘Marketing’ staff here at Art and Soul for some time now to get together with ‘Research and Development’ to come up with a fun way for him to share all the great work out there of all the many other talented muralists and artists he's been "influenced by" over the years. ‘Sales’ was totally against the idea! ("How could that possibly improve the bottom-line?!"). ‘Marketing’ remains split, as usual ("We need more data"). ‘R&D’ thought it might be a fun way to "show off a little", and to showcase all those great ideas they keep finding out there on the internet. ‘HR’ said it might be a good way to keep 'The Crew' distracted ("Since they are all so bored since Covid hit, and Roberto is spending more and more time in his studio working on all those silly little easel paintings").
    'The Crew' said: ’'Sure, We've got nothing else going on …but only if we get to share stuff about technique, materials, and equipment." ‘Receivables’ said: "It obviously won’t make more work for us, so why not!". 'Legal' said: "No Way! You are NOT going to reveal where you steal all your ideas from!" (Although Roberto values their legal advice, He rarely listen’s  to their hysterics anyway). So... here we are! Welcome to Roberto’s new blog:
     
     "Duit-On-Mon-Dai"
    ​
         "As the title implies, I will post once a week (on Monday, more or less). Feel free to leave a family friendly comment. Dialogue and praise is encouraged. Creativity, passion and wonder should be expected. Politics and personal grievances hopefully kept to private emails. And please… no Whining! and no sales pitches either (you can make your own damn blog for that).
       I expect to start becoming a little more savvy with all this social media stuff, but for now ‘Bookmark’ my website and check back every once in a while. I hope you will find it interesting. Don’t be too persnickety over my whimsical spelling and creative punctuations either, my
    Editorial Department is not what it used to be… I am seriously understaffed these days."   
     Peace and Love...
    ​     -Roberto Quintana, WFA

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