José Jun Martínez – Jackson’s Artwork Weblog

José Jun Martínez is a Puerto Rican-born, London-based painter whose work explores our emotional and sensory relationship with the pure world. He visits us within the Jackson’s Studio to debate how his method to portray resembles an natural course of. Very like the verdant botanical world he depicts in his work, his observe displays innate development and alter. José discusses his use of textural mark-making as a mirrored image of the atmosphere, how he works with a lowered palette to create a full spectrum of colors, and the way the size of his work can create a way of being swallowed by the work, absolutely immersed in his lush expression of nature.

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Artist Insights: José Jun Martínez

 

 

Contents

0:00 “If I don’t really feel that this portray is gonna eat me, it’s not good”

0:10 “That’s how nature is, it’s all the time greater than me”

0:40 “I’m absorbed by it as a result of I’m part of it, as a result of I’m a baby of it”

1:15 Introduction

1:37 “Artwork was my factor”

3:04 “I exploit the phrase panorama to elucidate my portray as a result of it’s the simplest, however I don’t think about myself a panorama painter”

3:27 “When I’m portray a spot, it’s not simply what I can understand by gentle, color, and texture; the place has a historical past, and portray is about that stress”

4:18 “If a portray is simply too fairly, I can’t dwell with it”

4:46 “It can’t be fully darkish and unhappy. That’s not who I’m. That’s what the Puerto Rican expertise is for me, all this pleasure of dwelling on this lovely place, that goes by all these actually heavy and exhausting experiences. It doesn’t cease being lovely ever, nevertheless it’s exhausting”

5:14 “I exploit plenty of paint”

5:40 “I exploit oil bars. They arrive first to start with, the primary levels of the portray, to type of draw – but in addition paint”

6:30 “It both takes me 3 hours or 3 months to finish a portray”

7:22 “A few of my finest professors weren’t even painters, they had been print makers, or they had been drafts folks”

9:01 “I don’t simply go there, put the canvas and simply begin portray, typically, I take an hour of simply being within the place”

10:00 “How can I assist whoever is my portray, to really feel one thing of what I’m feeling within the language that I might? That’s when the impasto got here in”

10:46 “What if I may also talk depth with a skinny layer of diluted paint or a skinny layer of an intense color”

11:27 “Puerto Rico is a really fertile place for creativity”

13:23 “Cadmium Yellow, that’s my man”

15:40 “I needed to be taught to color within the studio”

19:52 “As soon as I’ve the preliminary start line, then that’s when the opposite layer of immersion begins”

21:00 “A sequence of very white, snowy work got here from that residency”

23:00 “Typically a portray comes out as one thing fully totally different from what I used to be anticipating, and I respect that”

23:46 “I really like a portray that’s not straightforward”

23:54 “My work is rising, and I can see it’s altering”

25:24 “I want to have the ability to really feel that issues are occurring exterior of the canvas”

26:13 “By the tip of portray, I can’t see something of what I did to start with”

27:32 “I really like a brush that may maintain plenty of use, and plenty of rubbing”

28:29 “It’s not nearly placing an increasing number of – what you take away is basically essential too”

28:40 “I do just like the floor to withstand the comb or the knife”

29:32 “You need the portray to transcend the ‘wow’”

30:10 “I’ve to just accept it and dwell with it”

31:27 “A technique I do know a portray is completed is that I can sleep at evening”

32:36 “It’s a bit wild when I’m portray due to the character of what I’m evoking”

34:40 “It’s each a bodily and psychological factor you must do to prepare to color – portray is so alive”

36:44 “I’ve discovered extra from artists that I’ll by no means do something that appears like them”

37:51 “You must paint with out worry”

40:00 Credit

 

 

Extract

If I don’t really feel that this portray goes to eat me, it’s not good. I have to really feel that it’s greater than me. That’s how nature is; it’s all the time greater than me – I search for immersion on a regular basis.

 

 

All of it comes from being there and from attempting to make myself accessible to obtain the data from the timber, the soil, the birds, the bugs, the air, the temperature, and the humidity. I’m absorbed by it as a result of I’m part of it, as a result of I’m a baby of it, as a result of I’m typically similar to the little ant, or an insect, or a stray canine strolling by the bushes. It’s in regards to the land, nevertheless it’s about myself in that sense, myself as being a part of it. That’s the assertion of the portray. That is me present in nature.

 

 

Hello, my title is José Jun Martínez. I’m a Puerto Rican, London-based artist, and I’m within the Jackson’s Studio. We’re going to be speaking about portray.

My first reminiscences of constructing artwork are very, very early. I’ve this cute {photograph} of me in my grandparents’ lounge, my grandma is sitting, and I’m drawing her. I used to be a toddler, and I feel, from a really younger age, my household noticed that I loved it, they usually began placing me in artwork courses.

 

 

After I was across the age of 12, I began learning at an artwork faculty in Puerto Rico referred to as Central Excessive Faculty. And there I discovered the love of artwork. And for anybody who studied there, it was like a magical place. Alongside regular courses, there was an artwork class day-after-day. I studied for 3 years within the drawing and portray division. When it was time to go to school, I knew I wanted to proceed learning artwork, so I went to the College of Puerto Rico to review nice arts.

 

 

A few of my finest professors who taught me portray weren’t even painters; they had been printmakers or they had been draftsmen. It all the time gave me a way of artwork not being an remoted factor, however present amongst many different disciplines and methods of attending to know and research the world.

 

 

It was a really full training in that sense that helped me kind a powerful sense of the traditions of artwork and artwork historical past. Additionally, it allowed me the freedom to experiment and discover new methods of constructing my very own language and my very own observe.

 

 

Puerto Rico is a really fertile place for creativity. Not simply within the visible arts, however in all the things; the actual politics of being a small island, and never a part of the USA. It’s a complete complicated scenario, a colonial relationship, truly.

 

 

After which there are the challenges with the climate, the hurricanes, all of that. That’s the problem. How do you make one thing out of this? It would sound a bit romantic, however I feel magnificence helps us simply to see issues and discover a means of constructing all of it make sense.

 

 

After I graduated from the College of Puerto Rico, earlier than I got here to London, I spent eight years of observe going exterior and portray, immersed within the panorama. However then we had this actually unhealthy hurricane, and I couldn’t go exterior for some time. And that’s once I needed to be taught to color within the studio.

 

 

I do imagine that creativity comes out many instances from necessity. Then I began implementing pictures, and I painted exterior, and on the similar time, I took images of the place. After which I did bigger work within the studios, and I had the smaller ones that I did exterior.

 

 

Years later, I even began projecting photos within the studio, images or movies and portray on high. And that was one other means of bringing the surface into the studio – it’s one other layer of immersion.

 

 

Finding out for an MA was one thing that I wished to do because the second I graduated from the BA. I used to be researching colleges, and I noticed the Royal School of Artwork, and I assumed “Hmm, I can see myself working amongst these folks.” It didn’t disappoint. I’m nonetheless very concerned about rising extra right here and seeing how my work has modified with new influences, together with the affect of the totally different climate and the sunshine or the shortage of it.

 

 

After I was portray again residence in Puerto Rico, I might solely see what I had in entrance of me. However now new issues are coming into the work, like some abstractions, some colors that aren’t the pure colors. Some issues that appear to be a spirit, or only a race of sunshine, or creatures.

 

 

I exploit the phrase ‘panorama’ to explain my portray as a result of it’s the simplest time period, however I don’t see myself as a panorama painter; I’m portray the expertise of a relationship with the land. Even once I work from the reminiscence of a spot I’m not in, the place the place I’m now inevitably enters the work, as a result of it displays what my physique, eyes, and thoughts live within the second. The portray turns into a brand new place – neither there nor right here, however one thing uniquely created from my very own expertise.

 

 

“What’s my determination towards the topic I’m portray?” I bear in mind studying the Brazilian thinker and theologian Leonardo Boff, who wrote a e-book referred to as Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor. That’s once I began enthusiastic about the concept of shared expertise. When I’m portray a spot, it’s not simply what I can understand by gentle and color and texture. That’s the speedy first layer of feeling or notion. The place has a historical past, and issues have occurred. It doesn’t exist and not using a context, nevertheless it does on the similar time.

 

 

As a result of I discover the expertise of portray exterior such an awesome sensory expertise, it may possibly turn into actually intense. I’m receiving a lot info from the plush, full landscapes, and I’m attempting to place it into portray. Particularly as a result of I attempt to do it in a contemplative method – typically I take an hour of simply being within the place earlier than beginning to paint.

 

 

I discuss quite a bit about my portray as a contemplative motion. It’s that stress of “I’m simply right here”, receiving, and portray is my means of processing what I’m receiving. So, to speak that have, I exploit smudge textures and impasto. How can I assist whoever is my portray to really feel one thing of what I’m feeling within the language that I exploit? And that’s the place the impasto got here in. It’s tactile; you wish to contact it, however you may’t. It’s worthwhile to react to it in a means.

 

 

What I’ve labored in the direction of by the years is the way to obtain the identical with fewer supplies. To start with, the primary method was all the things in impasto. Now, I’m extra concerned about how I can obtain the identical, however utilizing much less.

 

 

What if I may also talk depth with a skinny layer of simply, skinny diluted paint, or a skinny layer of intense color? Or by leaving some areas with out paint, only a uncooked canvas. And that has given me extra alternative to say extra issues in a single portray.

 

 

I’ve heard some folks discuss my work as summary portray. What I do find out about my portray is that it resists being only one factor. I don’t suppose that that comes from a plan, from a predetermined concept of, okay, that is going to be an summary portray, or that is going to be like a extra detailed panorama.

 

 

Each time it’s totally different. Typically a portray comes out as one thing fully totally different than what I used to be anticipating. And typically folks ask me, “How lengthy do you’re taking to make a portray?” And my reply is that it both takes me three hours or three months or one thing in between.

 

 

I do suppose some choices that I make within the studio come from the earlier observe of portray exterior on a regular basis and going exterior with only some supplies. What I’ve, that’s what I seize.

 

 

I used to go along with a backpack and some tubes and never even an easel, many instances. So, typically within the studio, though I’m making a big portray, I nonetheless have the mindset of a painter who goes exterior and offers with what they’ve.

 

 

Clearly, you react in a different way, you method it in a different way together with your physique, a bigger portray in comparison with a smaller portray. As soon as, I had an exhibition with a very giant portray on one aspect of the gallery. Then the opposite wall had this actually small portray subsequent to it. It was so attention-grabbing to see how folks reacted to each of them. The massive one is that folks react to it as a result of they’re like, “Oh, that is so good.” It has its competitors with the small one, which can be calling you in a different way. It’s additionally immersive. It doesn’t should be bigger than your measurement to be immersive.

 

 

I paint with oils, and I exploit plenty of paint, so I strive totally different manufacturers and I preserve simply going to those who have a thicker consistency. I lately began utilizing impasto mediums to make the paint thicker, however for me, two issues which are actually essential are the thickness, the consistency of the paint, after which the color. I’ve a fairly lowered fundamental color palette, after which I add another colors round it. Typically I additionally use oil bars, and that provides one other aspect to it.

 

 

I’ve a fundamental palette of Cadmium Yellow, Ultramarine Blue, Alizarin Crimson, and Titanium White. After which I add Magenta, Cerulean Blue, and Cadmium Yellow Deep. I normally don’t purchase inexperienced colors within the tube; I like to combine the greens with totally different blues and yellows. After which there’s additionally the extra earthy colors like Uncooked Sienna or Burnt Sienna or Umber, that I exploit primarily within the underpainting, like within the first layers. After which the intense colors come up after that.

 

 

I feel that palette has come from years of observe and I’ve had my moments of attempting for another yellows, however now I follow Cadmium Yellow. That’s in all probability my favorite color. For the greens, I simply like to not use the identical inexperienced twice so I normally have plenty of cups within the studio with totally different shades or variations of inexperienced. That’s probably the most nuanced color, the one which clearly comes from having this relationship to observing inexperienced landscapes for a few years.

 

 

To use color, I normally begin with extra diluted layers. And typically, if I’m actually deep into the portray, there’s a second once I simply seize the tube and apply the paint instantly. The thick color turns into half utility, half scratching away. The identical goes for the comb and the palette knife – I feel the including and the subtracting are each important to the method.

 

 

I exploit Gamblin Gamsol to dissolve my paint. It’s one of many most secure mediums I’ve discovered that I can use and that works nicely for me. And I do use linseed oil later within the course of. The opposite factor is using the oil bars within the first levels of the portray; I exploit paint to type of draw. And in addition later within the portray, I exploit the oil bars to perhaps spotlight some components – it permits me to have this aspect of a sketch.

 

 

More often than not, a portray solely goes unsuitable when I’ve a set concept of what I need and it doesn’t match what seems on the canvas. When that occurs, I’ve to just accept that the portray will take longer, alter my expectations, and step into a brand new frame of mind, recognising that this portray is its personal unknown world, and I have to discover it. A technique I do know {that a} portray is completed is that I can sleep at evening. Not considering that I’ve to return to this studio tomorrow to tackle this factor.

 

 

I make work which are extra about gentle, and there are work which are extra about earth or soil, however there’s all the time each issues in them. The best way I begin a portray relies on what the intention is, whether or not I begin with extra earthy tones. I choose a tough floor, so I attempt to gesso the canvas myself. I do just like the floor to withstand the comb or the knife.

 

 

I like a really open and clear studio area. The works are on the wall or leaning on the partitions, and I’ve area to stroll and to take a look at the work from a distance. I’m not actually a really organised individual with an area, however there’s an order to it. It’s only a free area of work on the partitions, and simply, , brushes and the paint tubes are in all places. And it’s type of messy, to be trustworthy.

 

 

Pure gentle is a very powerful aspect for me. Even once I was on the RCA, I wanted to be moved from area as a result of the primary place that they assigned me, I couldn’t paint these three landscapes in a spot the place I couldn’t see the sky. So I used to be fortunate to get one other studio the place I had a window, and I might at the least look exterior. The opposite method that I’ve is to make use of the projector. However I’m positively a daylight painter – I make higher work when the solar continues to be exterior.

 

 

I’d say the method of preparing for a day on the studio begins in my flat. I’ve to prepare for the commute to the studio, though it’s brief. It’s similar to once I used to color exterior, and I wanted to spend a while within the place earlier than I began portray, then it’s the identical within the studio.

 

 

I spend a while what I did the day earlier than, perhaps studying one thing to assist my thoughts. I used to be spoiled with my studio once I was again in Puerto Rico. I had this enormous area. After I got here to London and to the RCA, I had these little corners the place I needed to make no matter I might within the area. And I feel it’s not supreme, nevertheless it did train me that I can do something with no matter assets I’ve.

 

 

I’ve a couple of sketchbooks with largely observational notes that I make exterior. Then I’ve some images that I take, and I simply have them round. I’ve a projector in my studio and I typically challenge a video on the wall. So, I dwell with these references for some time, after which the a part of portray is usually reacting to the reference or responding to the reference, however not in a good means, however simply as a way of an preliminary start line. That’s when the opposite layer of the immersion begins – what color ought to come first, what texture this portray is asking for, what components are gonna stand out, and what components are going to vanish.

 

 

The primary time I got here to London was in 2010, on a visit after I graduated from highschool. They took us to the Nationwide Gallery, and I bear in mind seeing Van Gogh’s Chair – the primary time I’d seen a portray in individual that I’d solely recognized from books. Not simply his work, however items by the Impressionists and Publish-Impressionists, who had been vastly essential to me early on. That go to was a key second that opened the world of portray for me. Since then, I’ve discovered to look extra carefully at more moderen artists corresponding to Carlos Raquel Rivera, whose work I’ve been spending plenty of time with recently.

 

 

There have been many instances once I’ve had phrases from mentors, they usually’ve simply turn into good voices that include me wherever I’m going. I bear in mind considered one of my first artwork lecturers once I was like 10 or 11 years outdated. I used to be doing this nonetheless life portray, and the tutor got here to me, grabbed the comb, and did this in my portray. She gave me again the comb and stated, “I’ve to color with out worry”. And I nonetheless hear that voice each time. I feel that’s the primary artwork recommendation I received and I nonetheless bear in mind it.

 

 

I met plenty of older artists in my early life. I bear in mind this one time when this artist, who I respect quite a bit, gave me some recommendation. He stated, “For those who can think about your self doing anything, go and try this. For those who can solely consider your self making artwork, then that is the factor for you.” And that was it for me. I can’t think about myself doing anything.

 

 

Observe José on Instagram

Go to José’s Web site

 

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Additional Studying

Suggestions for Organising an Oil Portray Palette

Making Beeswax Impasto Medium for Oil Portray

Scumbling Strategies for Portray

Cadmium Yellow: The First Fashionable Yellow Pigment

 

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