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An Interview with The Artist — Chris Pelletiere Speaks Out — by Mark
D. McKinley Interview - New York Art World |
Artist/Painter
 © Chris Pelletiere Metal Self Portrait |
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(May, 2004) -- Artist and oil painter Chris Pelletiere lives in New Jersey. I contacted
Pelletiere after viewing an online exhibit that featured his painting
on the New
York Art World Web site. Pelletiere has a remarkable eye
for composition, and his use of colors and blending is fascinating.
The artistic perspective of his works enticed me to explore his
art further.
- Mark D McKinley
The Interview
mogswebsite.com:
Tell me about your background ... where you studied art ...
Chris Pelletiere:
Ok, after high school, in my twenty's, my first school was the
Art's Students' League in NY City. From there I studied at a School
called the New York Studio School of Painting and Drawing, also of New
York City. I was born in Brooklyn, NY and studied in Manhattan.
mogswebsite.com:
I've read that you enjoy sketching people when traveling by subway
... have you had any interesting interactions with frequent subway riders?
Chris Pelletiere:
Yeah, that's interesting. I used to try to use that time
going to work. I would carry a small sketch book that I could put in
my pocket. And, one time, coming out of Brooklyn, going to work,
I was sketching this guy that was sleeping, a young black guy. I
got a pretty good drawing and I put the book in my pocket ... I was
through, you know. Then suddenly, about a month later that guy
taps me on the shoulder and says, " Could I see that drawing you
did of me." (laughter) He remembered me, it was sorta funny,
so I ... and I had the same book with me, and he liked the drawings,
he said, "that's great". (laughter)
mogswebsite.com:
So, he was kind of sleeping with one eye open, then. (laughter)
Chris Pelletiere:
I like to get people when they're sleeping, because they don't
move and I get a chance to really study them. I had one really
interesting incident that happened to me once. I was in Spain
one time with my wife, and this was all very new to me. We went
to a bull fight, you know, and we were sitting there, and so I thought
I'd sketch. I got my pad ready, the matador comes out, the bulls
, and the whole preparation, and everything started going so fast, they
were moving faster than I really could draw. So, I
had to like really speed it up, and use my eye and my hand quickly ...
I was having a lot of fun. And I heard these old guys behind me,
they were watching me, and at the end of the fight, the woman we were
with said to me, "those guys behind you, they think you're
the guy that does the posters for the bull fights." (laughter)
mogswebsite.com:
that's neat! (laughter)
Chris Pelletiere:
They were good sketches, because the quick action forced
me to go out of my own style and I got some of the best drawings I ever
did.
mogswebsite.com:
So it pushed you do what you didn't realize you could do.
Chris Pelletiere:
Yeah , It pushed me, pushed my envelope.
mogswebsite.com:
Are most of these people receptive to being sketched?
Chris Pelletiere:
Yeah, for the most part they are. They are fascinated, and
they want to know what I'm doing, and then they ignore me. One
time I had a guy, he was annoyed, and he got up and changed his seat,
but that was the extent of it. Most people are kind of interested
in it and wonder what's going on.
mogswebsite.com:
Is there anything about a scene or person that literally catches
your eyes, and you just want to make a sketch of them?
Chris Pelletiere:
That's a very interesting question, because my first one man show
was called Felons. And a funny thing was I had this big book
called THE FBI'S MOST WANTED. And it was all pictures of
people who were wanted by the FBI or captured ... wanted. There
was something in their faces, it was different, it was like a desperate
quality in a lot of these faces. They weren't all famous criminal,
like John Gotti necessarily, they were just guys, or women, and I responded
to that. Something in their face was disturbing or interesting,
or was something, you know, you could almost read the person's troubled
expression. So I wound up doing my first show, big paintings like
50 x 60 from these faces, and it was a really good show. A friend
of my came to the show and he said, "This is like being at a catacombs,
it's very disturbing" (laughter). Yeah, but there is something
about a person, even on the subway, I might see a person who, where
something is really going on in their face that really draws me. I
go for that.
mogswebsite.com:
When you find someone like that, and you have to do a sketch ...
do you ever get to a point where you want to make a painting [from the
sketch], and find that you must re-arrange the subjects or make changes
strictly for balance?
Chris Pelletiere:
Yeah, that's right. Sometimes when I was at a loss for things
to paint, I got up in the morning and buy the paper. Sometimes
there was something going on in the press photograph, which was really
interesting. It might be a disaster, it might be something about
the ... well, it was a ready made story. It was right there, so
it just allowed me to move quickly, and work from off that photograph.
Sometimes I would eliminate whole parts of the photograph that
I felt weren't necessary, you know, that didn't have to be in there
to make a much stronger composition. I don't always work that
way ... I don't work that way anymore, but for a time I found that interesting.
Because, it was like grabbing immediate life ... these photographs
from the press, well you know what they're like, you see them, they
are so immediate. Something happens and it's all over peoples
faces, and the action, it's everywhere. So it's a good thing to
try to corral and grasp.
mogswebsite.com:
So in looking back, you had to speed up your sketches, it was
like an exercise.
Chris Pelletiere:
That's exactly right. You know what it's like? It's
like your signature. You recognize your own signature. You
learn how to write, and it's hard at first. It's like getting
that under your belt. The more drawing you do, the quicker you
can arrive at what you want to capture. And sometimes, like years
ago, I used to wonder why am I sketching, what are these sketches, what
is the purpose of them. And, except for the ... my own love of
them, what are they doing? Then I realized it was like developing
a kind of shorthand, which is exciting. A lot of times, preliminary
sketches of any artist are more interesting than the finished product.
Because when you finish a painting, sometimes you "chill"
it ... you put too much detail in, or the painting loses something.
I find that sometimes the first idea, the first sketches, the
most immediate thing, is the most interesting.
mogswebsite.com:
I would say a lot of people share that feeling. I recently
had the opportunity to see some original Michael Angelo's. I got
to the exhibit, it was one of many things in the exhibit. But,
when I actually got to it ... it was four small framed panels. Each
[panel] was just a sketch, about 5"x5" and it took a while
to sink in, because I was expecting an oil painting. They were
very powerful sketches.
Chris Pelletiere:
Yeah, a lot of times it's interesting. You look in these
artist magazines that are sold, and there's some beautiful work. The
thing is, a lot of times, like the portrait painters, when they are
painting so exactly, and getting like a photograph, then something is
lost. It becomes like a dead thing. I find it's more exciting
when you just catch an impression, rather that lock it up and finish
it up.
mogswebsite.com:
Don't connect the lines completely.
Chris Pelletiere:
Do something. Do something to get some life in there.
mogswebsite.com:
I found your painting "Walking" to be just fascinating.
What did you have in mind when you painted that? What was
the symbolism?
Chris Pelletiere:
Well, first of all, it was painted at night. It was a scene
of the night. I do a lot of paintings from painting at night.
I think that lone figure walking amongst cars, that creates an
edginess, like ... it looks dangerous, it's mysterious. I think
that was my motive ... to just lock into that edgy feeling with those
dark colors. To say What does that figure do, what is he doing?
I thought it was like, I'm not telling a story that doesn't have
a beginning or and end, or anything, it's just up to the viewer to fill
in the blanks. Like, what's going on here? ... It's very strange.
mogswebsite.com:
I think you succeeded in that edge you're talking about.
Chris Pelletiere:
Yeah, I like to find that. I think that's it. I like
to look for that edge, whether it's somebody's face or it's some situation.
That's what I'm kind of on the prowl for.
mogswebsite.com:
How do you explain your use of colors? What caught my immediate
attention in many of your paintings, was just that they were very colorful,
but there was amazing blending and shading. Could you elaborate
on the techniques?
Chris Pelletiere:
Thank you. Yes, I tend to use a bright kind of primary palette.
And I do, at least when I paint at night, think about that. It
seems that it draws me. I love it ... at times I go the Coney
Island during summers in Brooklyn, and I like to mingle and blend into
the crowd at night. To see all the bright lights ... it's the
most extreme light and movement ... and it's getting lost in the crowd.
At times I might paint a Prussian blue ground to start off. Then
I'll start hitting brighter colors for light in that. Next, I'll
rub out, and change and build off that dark ground with colors. And
that is where that comes from, I think.
mogswebsite.com:
What artist or artist's have inspired you the most?
Chris Pelletiere:
I like so many artists. That's a good question ... it's a
hard question because there's so many, from all periods. I guess
the artist that always stands out for me, is the Spanish painter, Goya.
He's a very beautiful, powerful painter. Especially his
Caprichos, and those last dog paintings, were called the Black Paintings,
From The House Of The Deaf Man. Anyway, yeah, I would say the
Spanish painter Francisco Goya, If I had to pick one, that would somebody,
who I would think about. He was an incredible painter. I
think good art would transcend any time. Like you were talking
about Michael Angelo, before, It's really a feeling, that transcend
all times. No matter where you live or what time, what period
you live in, you pick up that life, you get a hold of that
life and use it, transform it and use it for yourself -- make it that
shorthand that I was talking about ... that language.
mogswebsite.com:
Like surroundings, clothing may change a little but the work itself
remains the same.
Chris Pelletiere:
You're right, the surroundings may be different, a whole different
time period, it's a whole different age, but it's really the life in
the painting, the feeling, that transcends all ages. It always
kind of rebirths itself.
mogswebsite.com:
Good work is always relevant.
Chris Pelletiere:
That's right, that's exactly right, good work is always relevant,
you said it. (laughter)
mogswebsite.com:
Is there a particular type of brush you like best?
Chris Pelletiere:
This is interesting, kind of funny. I start off with a brush,
like everybody. I'm not fussy that way, I like house painter brushes.
I like to go into a paint store and pick up a brush, and it doesn't
really matter what brush it is. The thing is I'll use it ... a
lot of times I'll put the brush down and go in with a rag, or I'll go
in with my hands, and I'll change things. I'll blend with my fingers.
I know that's not suppose to be healthy for you (chuckle), but
once I get caught up in the thing I'm doing, I think everything goes
into play ... my hands, rags, and all kinds of brushes ... artist's
brushes, house painter brushes, all kinds of brushes.
mogswebsite.com:
Do you enjoy any other forms of art in addition to painting?
Chris Pelletiere:
I like film, I like good movies. I get caught up in that.
mogswebsite.com:
Do you enjoy [film] strictly as an observer, or do you enjoy going
out and filming?
Chris Pelletiere:
I enjoy as an observer, I respond to a good story, to good action.
That's what draws me I think. I guess as a painter,
I probably look at the screen and break these images down into still
images, I probably see things that I could turn in to paintings.
mogswebsite.com:
I understand that you prefer to paint at night ... why?
Chris Pelletiere:
Yeah, that's my mood, I think. I don't think it's exclusive,
but I gravitate toward that. I like to move with people and watch
people at night. I get inspired by that.
mogswebsite.com:
Do you prefer working in solitude, or do you prefer having something
going on in the background?
Chris Pelletiere:
Yeah, I guess I work in solitude, I'd have to say. I do
like to play music in the studio, but I guess I'm better off when it's
quiet, and I can see whatever I'm doing.
mogswebsite.com:
I would like for you to think of your paintings as music ... what
genre best exemplifies your work?
Chris Pelletiere:
I guess I would say all kinds. I do like classical music,
I guess I would say I gravitate toward that, but then again, I like
all kinds of music. I like blues. I like Rock n' Roll. I
guess I'd have to say there's no one thing that important to me.
mogswebsite.com:
In the same sense, there's no one scene that catches your eye?
Chris Pelletiere:
Yeah, whatever comes my way, I'm on the lookout to grab it.
mogswebsite.com:
Do you have any upcoming shows?
Chris Pelletiere:
Not right now, I have just moved to another house with my wife
and I will need time in a new studio here, and try to put a body of
work together. That's what's happening now.
(C)
2004 Mark's Online Music Source
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