Marsha Wooley is an artist, art teacher and an art historian, even having tought classes in Art and Mathematics (ie: Searching for the Golden Mean in Art).  In fact, Marsha has incorporated the Golden Mean very consciously in some of her paintings (and not all of Marsha Wooley’s paintings are of West, some are of famous Motifs like Mount Saint Victoire, the studies of this painting were done on location and using the Golden Mean – she even has some aids to help with this which we discussed).

                                Mount Saint Victoire – Marsha Wooley

As you might know, Paul Cezanne is my favorite artist and I painted many, many lanscapes and still lifes in his style (see further down in this post) and I read everything about Cezanne including a book  Jane Roberts wrote on Channeling Paul Cezanne which was out of print for a while and hardly anyone knows about – I had a copy when I spent a year living in Berkley, California, in the late 1970’s but since lost it – maybe I’ll order it again.  I also remember owning a “Composition According to Cezanne” book that was a classic first analysis on how Cezanne architected his paintings and the concept of flat and shallow depth.

I visited the Barnes Collection  several times (and many other museums that had Cezanne’s in their collection) and knew just about every Cezanne painting and sketch like the back of my hand.  And when I spent a summer at the Vermont Studio School/Center in 1988, I met Sidney Geist who wrote a book on Cezanne and claimed to see words in the painting compositions (French words, of course).   When someone paints Mount Saint Victorie, I know all about it as the images of Cezanne’s paintings are etched forever in my soul- even if I never visited that part of France.

Marsha Wooley leads a course in landscape painting in France every couple of years (then next one will be in May 2007, around Memorial day) – it’s given through the University she teaches at near Denver.

ART 220 PAINTING AND DRAWING IN FRANCE 3
11073 B01 ARGMT 0900A-0200P 05/30-06/25 $ STAFF
Includes 5 days in Paris, 05/30-06/25. Additional fees apply. Must register no later than 04-15-06. Orientation
meeting is 04/21 in AD 105, 0600P. For more information and details regarding the registration deadline, please
contact Marsha Wooley at 303-797-5862.

Many people take the course just to go landscape painting with her in France, around Paris and in other parts of France.  How many people know that about Marsha?  She does not talk about her art history work or traveling to France on her website or anywhere else – or promote it, yet I find it very intersting and very much something that should known about her; it’s unusual and very hip, actually.

In this context, I see myself, in relation to other artists, as a nexus, perhaps a chalice, holding, containing and connecting multiple levels of reality – I live as much in the Web Analytics and Web Promomotion world as I live in the Art World (both modern and pas), being a creature of both-  at the same moment – think in both ways and see opportunities that are often being overlooked (but no longer – she sees them now too).  I hope I’m not being full of myself here (but if I am, so what?)

Here’s an opportunity for Marsha Wooley to promote her art in a way that has almost no competition – how many American Artists take Art Classes to Paris to paint Art in Cezanne’s backyard ?  Marsha Wooley – the artist, the woman who cares about the purity of the land, who is an art historian, art lover, art teacher and all around nice person (she also rides horses and lives near a ranch where she can take care of the horses – and she knows a lot about wildlife). I was drawn to talk to her when I walked into Prince Street Gallery a couple of weeks ago – and it that which I was drawn to – the paintings only are the surface).

I ended the interview talking with Marsha’s boyfriend, a Rocket Scientist (a real Rocket Scientist) who works on Communication satellites, including launching them – he’s a mechanical engineer and I asked him about the systems he works with. 

There was also another artist I spoke with at the Gallery today – Owen Gray – and I’ll write up more about him later.

One thing we all had in common  The Vermont Studio School, me in 1988, they in the 1990’s and Owen spent some time just last year there.  Yes, I should look up the people I know in Vermont again, maybe it’s time to think about re visiting Vermont, some time in the near future – for a residency.  I can certainly use one – after all I have been through (that’s the subject of a chapter in a book but I won’t go into it here). 

I mentioned that I knew one of the founders well before the Center came into being as we studied with the same teacher, Ralph Houston, in Smithville Flats, NY; but that’s another life, almost, but I haven’t forgotton, and it’s still part of me. Even as I have gone my own way, I still retain the knowledge of what brought us all together even as I persue it in my own way.

BTW, Marsha also opened up that she used to, in the past, paint abstract (a while back) and if you get close to her works you can see the looser brushwork.  Most of her large paintings started as one or two session oil sketches, done on location – and some of these are made into larger paintings – many of which are in the show. 

I think Marsha might be realistic in her approach, but she manages to keep her brushwork fresh – not overworked – even though the paintings are often large and complex, they hold together, and in her works she maintains a consistant mood and tone. 

Marsha has also contained many things within her - art history, geology, a feeling for the land and the animals that live on it, and that’s all in the paintings – and it sets her apart from some of the other artists in her Denver Gallery, Robischon ( at least 4 others who also paint landscapes of the West). 

I am very happy for her that her first NYC show worked out, she made a profit off of the show, had some quality time in NY and furthered her career; it’s a wonderful thing when that works out.

One thing I did not see Marsha paint much of - people – hardly any reference to a person (I think I might have spotted one in the Mount Saint Victoire painting at the beginning of this post – it’s a wonderful painting that keeps growing on me)  - maybe her boyfriend hiking on a mountain – painted as a speck in the distance.  That sorta reminds me of Claude Lorraine – or other landscape artists that generally did not put people in their work.

Also, missed commenting on a large painting that had a rock that looked like a UFO…I almost can see Captain Kirk, Commander Spock and First Engineer Scotty beaming down next to the rock (something out of Star Trek 2, 3 or 4).  There’s a mystery behind the rock (don’t have a picture of that painting).

Anyway, to finish this all off, interviewing Marsha Wooley in person was a much better result than doing it via Email. She had not really seen or read my questions and what I got earlier was not the in depth interview I wanted.  I think here, I gave my readers something about Marsha Wooley they’d have to speak with her to learn about (and only if she opened up – I got her to open up for me).

Since we all spent time in Vermont, at Vermont Studio School, I was led to look at some of her paintings as being about both the landscape and herself.

 This painting was done while Marsha Wooley was in Vermont, staying at the Studio School; it was a scene from the Community College that is on a hill above Johnston, VT.  I remember it well as I used to walk up to it and paint scenes from a similar location like these works of mine (below).

       

     

Marshall Sponder’s Vermont Studies (above, all from 1988)  - these reminded me of Marsha’s painting – Marsha’s painting, in fact, is call for me to go back and pick the landscape spirit I left in Vermont.  I put part of me aside, for many years, and I wish to address it again, which drove me to paint.  The paintings below are among those I did after I returned from Vermont. Within a year or two, I lost it – lost the thread.

              

                

Yes, I know Vermont, the mystery in those hills, mountains, the magnetic energy, the particular color of the sky, and the subject of trees.  Some of the thoughts that came into my mind felt as if the landscape spoke to me and suggested things – and when I spoke to Marsha Wooley, it turned out she has some of the same thoughts; Not unusual, we’re both artists.

The trees are both the lanscape and different aspects of ourselves and people we know.  Marsha’s trees represent some the people in her life – the motifs relate to people she cared about – and the painting are as much about that as the landscape of Vermont – much as it was for me, when I was painting and living there.  I was working out an idea of what comes first, what comes second, etc.

I think I need to go back to Vermont, someday soon, so I can pick up the landscape theme again – and maybe (if I can) taking part of that painting course in Paris – next time it happens – that would be really great as painting is in my soul – just as it’s in Marsha’s.

For the first part of Marsha Wooley’s interview go here.

End of Interview