Being married to Phil has left endless artistic memories and influence. Reducing this history to a blog post seems impossible, but here are the essential things that come to mind when I think of Phil and his painting.
First is his steady, regular devotion to his studio practice. He’s worked almost every day at some aspect of artmaking. Not always painting - it could be cleaning his studio, rearranging a room he was going to paint in, sanding down old work, sketching or looking at art books. All been an important part of his process. He didn’t have to put in a full day either, sometimes only one or two hours. What was important was showing up.
Another habit of Phil’s - horrifying to me - was how he could throw away old work. It wasn’t often, but from time to time I’d see drawings, whole sketchbooks and paintings in the trash can. (And yes, I’d pull some out) People started dumpster diving near his studio in downtown Charlottesville for this reason. Eventually he would gesso a large “X” across anything he threw away, and sometimes cut drawings or panels in half. I guess he needed to let go of ideas he was no longer interested in pursuing. I struggle to let go of anything. This studio purging technique was also used at home. The first time I entered his “bachelor” house, it was so empty I thought he’d just moved in. “Where is your stuff?” I asked him, confused. We’re opposites in this way. It took me a long time to understand what he instinctively knew: Letting go of old things clears the way for new ideas. He’s always been willing to wipe out a painting and start over at any time.
Phil, although a marvelous and dedicated teacher, couldn’t be called an evangelist. He hasn’t been driven to convert anyone to painting. In fact, he almost majored in music in college. He’s talked a lot of shop with other artists, but is happy to talk about anything else, usually history, with non artists: neighbors, family members and our children. Although we had art supplies around, we never encouraged our young children to become artists. I can only recall taking Martin and Helen to museums a few times when they were little. Phil has ultimately felt his artwork was his best tool for influence. It must’ve worked, since both kids ended up going to art school.
Phil could always look at paintings for a long time. I spent many a day in museums listening to him and his friends discuss a handful of pictures for hours. Over time, this kind of focus rubbed off on me and I too became a museum junkie. All I need now is to see one good painting and it’s worth the trip. That can feed me in the studio for a long time. In fact, too many good paintings now feels like a fire hose. It’s too much to take in.
I can only recall Phil working on a painting of mine once. I was in the basement painting a still life with a light tablecloth and green apples. It was near a window since I only used natural light then. He told me numerous times my darks weren’t dark enough. As usual, I had slightly darkened a few shadows, focusing instead on the all important “color” of the objects. Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore. He grabbed a brush, dipped it into a blob of raw umber and jabbed it under one of the apples in my painting. “It’s THAT dark.” was all he said before walking away. Huh. Three words, and a whole tonal world opened up for me. I just couldn’t see the dark tones before that. Telling me didn’t help. I had to be shown.
Ultimately, Phil’s biggest artistic influence on me has been an open mindedness, probably from his training and having had great teachers himself. He’s always been able to look at any kind of painting and have something to say about it, more importantly, something to appreciate about it. Abstract, photography derived, large invented and small observational work. I’ve seen him thoughtfully critique all of these approaches. That was a great model for a young artist like me who was very sure of my opinions, my likes and especially my dislikes. Phil has never been threatened by other styles and gleaned from many sources for his own painting. This has allowed him to refresh and reinvent his process while painting the same subjects for his entire career. I can only hope to do the same.