Gwen Chasan
What are your earliest memories of being artistic? As a young child I loved to draw with pencils and whatever I could get my hands on. I was a good student but I was never happier than when in Art class, which happened once every other week.
When did art become a pursuit? I’ve always needed to have my hands in some creative pursuit… in college I was into ceramics, digging my own clay, making glazes, firing an outdoor kiln (it was the 60’s!). For so many years I just took tiny bits of time to create, promising myself that when I retired I’d focus on my inner artist… so at age 63 I began.
Are you self-taught or formally educated in visual art? I’m largely self taught, but I have benefited enormously from classes taught by Emily Passman, Marjorie Glick, David Dewey, Nan Rumpf and others.
Little Brown Jar, Acrylic
In what other ways are you involved in the local art community? I’m a member of Arlington Center for the Arts, where I served on the board for many years as treasurer and chair. Also a member of Concord Art Association and of course Cambridge Art. I’ve taught workshops in Concord, Arlington, Bedford, and Shrewsbury. And I host a weekly painting group at my home in Arlington. I also create websites for artists.
What role do you think the artist plays in society? Artists absorb and reflect back the atmosphere and emotions of their place and times. We create images that are simultaneously intensely personal and universal in representing the human condition; the love, hope, despair, rage, joy, grief that we all share. We provoke and we honor and uplift. Long before humans captured language, we created art that has endured throughout the ages. Art is the common thread that binds us to the human experience.
What medium do you currently work in and how did you choose this medium? I’m a painter, but as for paint medium I’m pretty random. I like to experiment and try new materials. So I work in watercolors, acrylics, alcohol inks, other inks, pencils. I work on a variety of papers including Yupo. I just love to drop paint on a surface and see what happens.
Desaparecido, Watercolor, Ink on Yupo
What is your creative process? Where are you finding ideas for your art these days? I tend to work in two ways. When I know what I want to paint… if something strikes me as beautiful in some way in terms of color or line or composition, I do several drawings, settle on something, spend time thinking about composition and value, and then go for it. I’m a slow thinker and a fast painter. I rarely spend more than a few hours at a time on a painting, although I might come back to it over several days. I don’t have a formal art education so most often I feel like I have no idea what I am doing, or how to do it, so I just tackle it in as organized a way as I can, always fighting my urge to be too tight.
My other process is pretty much the opposite. I lay down some paint – some color that I feel drawn to – and then I sit with it and wait for something to appear or arise in my eyes or thoughts or heart, and then I begin to develop the piece in the direction I’m drawn to. I’m influenced by what is happening around me, personally and culturally. So sometimes my paintings come from a place of joy and sometimes not so much. Recently less joyful.
How do you choose your subject matter? Is there a reoccurring theme that carries throughout your work? I am drawn to nature and the creature form. I love birds and nests and they often appear in my work. I also love flowers and their luscious colors and form. I adore the line so the tilt of the stem, the edge of a leaf, the threads of a nest, are what catch my eye.
In your opinion, what’s your best/favorite piece you’ve made? Hmmm… like asking me which is my favorite child… I can’t answer that. There are certainly pieces I abhor (paintings, not children!!), but no one is my favorite.
Tuscan Landscape, Alcohol Ink on Ceramic Tile
What is one of your artistic goals? To find a way to put more of my self, my emotions into my paintings. I can get detached from myself when I paint, because I’m trying so hard to make a “good” painting. My goal is to turn my back on my desire to make good paintings and instead to make my paintings.
What’s your favorite place to see art? Uffizi in Florence, where the art is arranged by century, so as you walk up to each level, you walk through time and feel western art progress, each age built on the shoulders of the age before.
What living artists are you inspired by? Emily Passman, Catherine Kehoe, Lorraine Sullivan, Phil Young, David Dewey, Anne Plaisance, Jeremy Durling, Nan Rumpf
Do you own any art by other artists? Yes, Emily Passman, Catherine Kehoe, Lorraine Sullivan, Phil Young, Morgan Bulkeley, Judith Prager, Natalie MacKnight, many others
Do you have any shows coming up? I have paintings in Gallery Twist “Illumination” show, CAA “RED”, and Grace Chapel “Home”
See more Gwen:
Website: www.gwenchasan.com
Instagram: gwenny_penny
Facebook: gwen.chasan