Two Buffalo artists have created new paintings and sculptures and their work is inspired by some of the greatest artists of all time. WBFO's Focus on Education reporter Eileen Buckley says the artwork is on display at the Dolce Valvo Art Center on the Niagara College Community Campus in Sanborn and will share some artist advice with students.
"Ben Shahn, one of the great visual communicators of the 20th century, he once said that the best art school one could attend would be a school which you had to pass an art museum to get to," said Bruce Bitmead, Artist. Bitmead plans to share that advise with aspiring artists when he speaks to NCCC students.
"I think, ideally, artists would like to simply make art all the time," said Bruce Bitmead, Buffalo Artist.
Bitmead has teamed with artist Peter Fowler. They've created an exhibit titled Borrowed History.
"You can actually lift something from somebody else's work and sort of pay tribute to them, and hopefully people know where it came from -- they say 'hey I recognize that -- that's from a Degas or that's from a Rembrandt' or something like that, and other times you just sort of soak it up -- of all these wonderful paintings that have been done hundreds and hundreds of years ago," said Bitmead.
Bitmead's canvas paintings tend to be more abstract.
"Because of Michelangelo, I started looking at Greek and Roman art and the Greek and Romans were known for using the sphinx," said Bitmead. "The Egyptians, of course used the sphinx. The sphinx would guard the temples in Egypt and this was the secret knowledge within the temple and the layman was not allowed in there to know what the secret knowledge was. To me, the secret knowledge was art history."
"He really lets the paint, the physicality of the paint do the talking, he's not precisely trying to imitate reality. He's letting each glob and scraping and reworking do the talking," said Peter Fowler, artist and owner of Kepa-3 Gallery at Barker and Main Streets in Buffalo.
Fowler is also sculpture. Fowler sells some of his works, but noted as an artists he likes to explore the edgy and more artistic side.
"Well I'm a big fan of Turner, so in my landscapes I start with sort of an atmospheric color wash. But then I've got things going in my head where -- that some birds will drop in and or maybe some figures and a rubber duck shows up," said Fowler. "What I try to do, is the same thing as Bruce, where you stand back and see sort of an overall rhythm."
Bitmead who works a day job at Record Theater, but only to survive, so he can follow his passion and create his paintings. Borrowed History will be on display at NCCC's art center through April 15th.