A Brief Bio of Abstract Artist Blaze
Richmond, VA- Blaze is a contemporary mixed-media artist and an abstractionist. He creates original abstract artworks in medium and large sizes for home and office collections.
Blaze's impressionistic landscapes and moody, atmospheric seascape paintings are sold framed, usually with a natural wood floating frame made by him for immediate hanging and instant enjoyment. Blaze's abstract art pieces are framed by either a black or white wood floater frame, also made by him.
A Connecticut Yankee born and raised; abstract painter Blaze has lived in Mason Dixon country (Richmond, Virginia) since late 1988.
Blaze is blessed with three thirty-something adult children, a beautiful partner, an ex-wife, five siblings, a few close friends, great genes, self-esteem, and confidence. And, he has the courage of his convictions with a quick-witted sense of humor that served him well on stage as a comedic stage hypnotist.
Blaze’s eidetic memory for visual things empowers him with near-photographic recall of scenescapes, faces, and text. These are the strong foundational blocks of the deep well from which, in mindful flow, he draws strength, ample artistic inspiration, motivation, and creative resources to paint his original artworks.
Blaze had a career in corporate relocation and real estate consulting, where his calm, clarity of mind, and decisive action amidst transferee chaos saw him advance quickly. Upon relocating to Virginia, Blaze enjoyed more success and fulfillment as the comedic stage hypnotist entertainer known as "Hypnotic BLAZE" before retiring to the many challenging pleasures of creating abstract and impressionistic art.
Blaze's interest in the poetic beauty, nuances, and power of the spoken and written English language found him earning a BA in English Literature, Magna Cum Laude, and Phi Kappa Phi from UCONN.
Statement
"Artist Blaze Art Statement"
Artist BLAZE Art Statement
I am a self-taught artist, who has forgone any formal painting or art school training. And that is a good thing because I am free from institutional biases, barriers, and having to unpack ridged rules to find my artistic voice. To be completely honest, I don't have the patience, interest, or time for that conventional and restrained path. I subscribe to what Picasso, among others, and even David Bowie said similarly: "The only art I’ll ever study is stuff that I can steal from." (Bowie).
Why (joking aside)?
Frankly, and most importantly, knowing myself, all that I've ever truly learned was realized through total, immersive, and passionate exploration of what interests me. Simply put, I learn by doing things in a focused state of deconstruction, discovery, and flow. In short, I lose myself to find myself, and thereby learn the flexible principles of making my original art... iteratively, if you will.
That said, I paint with acrylic paints for their quick drying times and, in 2022, began glazing parts of some pieces with oil paints. I use various mark-making media and textures. My preferred substrate is heavy-weight archival art paper (22 x 28 inches) and heavyweight Canson 140lb, 300 g/m2 paper for larger works. I occasionally paint on canvases, wood panels, and hardboards for a change and because I like the challenges of working on different substrates and sizes.
My painting process starts making marks and a chaotic mess. Often, from that chance-medley of mark making and layers of paint, very satisfying art creations emerge. I usually paint artwork in iterative pairs. I work on multiple related artworks or pairs of art at the same time. And when my objectivity for that first painting wanes, I’ll start another painting, and so on. This is how I produce a limited series or small collection of interesting, yet similar, abstracted paintings. Iteration and time incubate my progress through multiple art pieces. I return to each baked art piece as a curious observer to see what is emerging from the marks and paints. Seeing what happens non-judgmentally in every painting session is an iterative, rinse and repeat art making process. Working in this creative manner is a lot of fun... and it helps and improves my art.
Trance & Making Abstract Art
I was billed as "Hypnotic BLAZE", a stage hypnotist entertainer who performed nationally. I am a professional and certified master hypnotist—a linguistic mind manager of unconscious states and perceived reality. My verbal prowess manipulated the intrinsic powers of words to alter by suggestion the subjective experience of reality in the minds of the hypnotized people on stage. In other words, to cause them to see and/or feel something that isn’t there or to see and/or feel something that is there differently... entertainingly.
Similarly, my abstract art suggests an idea, an emotion, a visceral reaction, or an alternate abstraction of reality to a viewer. My landscape and seascape paintings are impressionistic and suggestive. I imagine a scene and take what I see in my mind’s eye, what appears on the painting surface, and optimize it based on what I feel, what moves me about it, and what it speaks to me.
My landscape and seascape paintings very loosely resemble reality, but it is enhanced, made more like itself, its essence, with, say, deeper, richer colors or angrier reddish clouds. Each viewer sees a real or imagined scene differently, in a way they haven’t seen before. Not that the scene is wildly different or bizarrely abstracted, although sometimes it is. Rather, I strive to reveal the elemental, atmospheric beauty and the intrinsic emotional qualities of a vast landscape or misty seascape.
My painterly approach uses the illusion of detail and depth to suggest a feeling or evoke an emotion in a scene. When in a hypnotic trance, I make art that suggests the feel of the wind, the movement of clouds in a thunderous sky, or turbulent waves on the sea; or, to convey calm stillness via composition and colors, or to simply admire a wondrous, imaginary place.
Although I grew up in southern New England (USA), outdoors and observing nature, I am a post-university anglophile attracted to expansive, picturesque English country landscapes. I find their undulating green fields, hedgerows, and dry-stone walls stunningly beautiful, more so than New England’s hilly forests. With that said, my imaginary landscapes are much more like bucolic England than New England. They are composed of fields and moors, painted in hues of a limited color palette of muted primary colors—gray, brown, blue, yellow, and green—and several layers of subtle washes and oil glazes. They convey a transcendental or spiritual quality and the physicality of the viewing experience.
Asked once-what is my "style"-what genre do I paint in, I answered that my artistic style, my aesthetic, is evolving out of three genres: Impressionism, Tonalism, and, of course, Abstract. My land and seascapes are totalistic in gray and blue, black, and white. The subject matter is simplified and subdued, painted with few colors and hues. Some pieces are black and white for contrast to evoke a sense of feeling and hazy atmospheric effects. My abstracts are often imagined or abstracted scenescapes.
I paint scenescapes of an imagined place in my mind’s eye; my impression or idea suggestive of that as a real place, not a portrait of it. Some pieces are painted with vibrant, light-valued yellow, green, and blue colors that look bright and airy, suggesting a sense of movement from broad brush strokes.
The first of three artists I admire most and whose inspiring works influence my scenescapes and abstracts is J.M.W. Turner for the light and luminosity layers and ephemeral qualities of his watercolors. The second artist whose work I am drawn to is George Inness for his dark, moody, yet powerful totalistic landscapes. I enjoy the challenge of working with acrylic paints like watercolors and oils to realize atmospheric effects. And the third is the artist Pierre Soulages, for his instinctive, intuitive, yet restrained, abstractionism and its preoccupation with black and contrast.
At a private showing, an interior designer (and art buyer) described my displayed art portfolio as "dark and contemplative." I agree. She gets it, and so do I. She sensed in the large, abstract painting she bought that my art (and why I paint) is a conversation with my subconscious. Painting is self-discovery; it’s how I explore my inner contradictions. My art is a visceral metaphor for the positive light and dark negative emotions in my life experiences and the human condition.
In short, I paint colorful expressionistic abstracts, moody impressionistic and subdued Tonalist landscapes and seascapes. To that end, my art practice shifts constantly from experimentally spirited, sometimes color-saturated, and textured, expressionistic abstracts to intimate, tonal landscapes and seascapes.
Because of an in-trance assist from autosuggestion and my self-imposed practice of starting or finishing one or more paintings every few days... or thereabouts, my art practice's output is prolific. To that end, I recall reading what the author Raymond Chandler said about writing, namely that one ought to spend at least "four hours a day at least" writing. I took that advice on board and put in "at least" that time, and often more, most days painting or working on something in my studio.
To summarize, my art-making process is simply putting in the time and following the breadcrumbs left by each work on the path to become my art style and myself as an artist. Because my practice has achieved consistency in terms of creativity and productivity, my art is ready for display and sale.
The Abstract Artist, Blaze
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2019–2024. BLAZE/JFBLAISJR/JB, Richmond, Virginia, USA. All rights reserved worldwide.
declared and asserted in perpetuity.
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Art studio music by Mark Newport and DJ Dimsa.
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Questions are answered by emailing Blaze here. Thank you, and cheers!