May Issue 2000
Joan Templer Featured at the Charles Street Gallery in Beaufort, SC
Joan Templer is exhibiting
her large new collection of computer aided paintings at the Charles
Street Gallery in Beaufort, SC, from May 2 - 30.
Templer has been a professional practicing artist her whole life, and an art teacher. She was a professor of art in the College of Architecture at Georgia Tech for nearly twenty years. Templer has exhibited her work widely in South Africa, and many parts of the United States including New York. She has received many awards.
Since moving to Beaufort some five years ago, she has been associated with the Beaufort Art Association, and is the chairperson of the gallery on the top floor of the Beaufort County Library called Art Among the Books.
Of her work, Templer writes, "I suppose that, like many artists, when I first heard of computer generated digital art, I thought of it as machine made images with little artistry added; this did not interest me. Then, exactly a year ago this month, my husband John gave me the greatest surprise and the best birthday present I have ever received. I had been teaching a small class at the Green Street gym, in Beaufort, and as I stepped into the house he sang happy birthday to me. I said he was crazy and that he knew it wasn't my birthday; he said come and see and there in my work space/studio was a 21 inch monitor, a 17 inch square tablet for drawing (with an electronic stylus, like a pencil for drawing with), a computer with a lot of memory, a printer, a scanner which could import slides of my own work or photographs into the computer, software programs ( Painter, and Photoshop); none of which I had ever used before."
"I was fascinated, delighted, intrigued, despondent, frustrated, frequently reduced to tears, and anger in turn during the learning process. With John's constant help I persevered. Prior to this I had absolutely no idea what was meant by digital or computer art. I am assuming that many of my viewers are in a similar position. First of all I quickly discovered that none of the images come from the computer itself, any more than they do with water color or oils. It is just another medium, another sort of pencil. However one can import images, from photos, etc., and use them as part (or all) of a composition, and I often use images from some of my earlier works. Alternatively, one can start from a blank canvas, and use various digital painting tools and techniques-simulated watercolor brushes, airbrushes, pencil, charcoal, etc."
"A computer like
any other art tool or technique has both advantages and disadvantages.
One of the advantages is that it can mimic the flowing effects
of a watercolor, the opaque layering of oil painting, the detail
of an etching or the smoothness of an airbrush but, and this is
only my opinion, it is difficult to conceive a composition and
work it to a cohesive completion because of having to zoom in
and out for detail of its separate parts- something to do with
the small-scale of a pixel."
"As I had been an art teacher for most of my life, I cannot resist giving a short explanation of the process I go through in creating these images. Starting my painting as a composition of abstract shapes and colors, I work into it until I 'find' a recognizable image and one which appeals to my personal psyche. My preference is for a balance between realism, and abstraction which retains the mystery of the image and allows the viewers to add some of their own interpretations. How I normally proceed, is to scan one of my own paintings into the computer, then to manipulate this image by either layering it over another image, changing the color, the transparency, the size, or even reversing the tonality until I like it. It ends up looking very different from the original painting. However, after printing, there are parts and details to put in by hand in crayon, watercolor or gold leaf, until I am satisfied; so each painting is a multimedia process and not mass-produced."
"We have researched the problem of the inks for printing (and I print on 140 pound Arches watercolor paper). Most printers print using a watercolor type ink. These inks do not have a long life; they fade (particularly under strong light). However, one can get so-called archival inks that have been tested to have very very long lives-however they cost something like twice as much as the standard commercial inks. I now only use these archival colors."
"My titles are mainly from Jalalud'ddin Rumi, a 13th century Persian mystic poet whom I greatly admire. I link my work to the lines of Rumi's poetry which I use as titles."
"I can honestly say I have seldom had so much fun in all my life!"
For further information check our SC Commercial Gallery listings or call the gallery at 843/521-9050.
Mailing Address: Carolina Arts, P.O. Drawer
427, Bonneau, SC 29431
Telephone, Answering Machine and FAX: 843/825-3408
E-Mail: carolinart@aol.com
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