Today we’d like to introduce you to Sharon Knettell.
Sharon, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
My father was an original Mad Man, he was a vice president of a Hartford advertising agency in Connecticut and was responsible for the red umbrella Traveler’s insurance logo. He showed me the beautiful art they commissioned from top illustrators like Coby Whitmore, I thought that they were perfection. My father was a New Yorker, my mother studied nursing there, so I was trooped around museums in both New York and Connecticut as soon as I could walk. The house, thanks to my mother was filled with art books.
I was fortunate to attend the Loomis-Chaffee School in Windsor Connecticut, where my art instructor was Sanford Low, the first director of the New Britain Museum of American Art. He would give me and my mother guided tours. I saw painters like Andrew Wyeth, John Singleton Copley and Martin Johnson Heade and American impressionists like Carl Frieseke and Childe Hassam. I always thought that was what art should be – still do. Many of the paintings were bought for the museum under the auspices of William H. Hart president of Stanley Tools of New Britain Connecticut from the Vose Galleries in Boston. Mr Low was Mr Harts son in law.
I did go to art school, The Boston Museum School in particular, at the tender age of 17- just. It was not a good match as I was interested in the figurative and they were not. They were in the throes of the current “express yourself” method of teaching- which meant little or no instruction except in the technical classes and a critique at the end of the semester. The school decided that since I preferred to go to movies instead of attending “classes’ they would like to see me gone.
Well this was not a good outcome. Not at all. I had no clue what to do so I made up a portfolio of fashion illustration and was able to land a job at 19 in the Sage-Allen department store in Hartford. Best thing that ever happened to me. I drew everything, shoes, babies, jewelry, fashions and learned how to design advertising pages. I continued in illustration. learning to airbrush and landing a New York agent. I did work for all the major advertising agencies and magazines. A lot of people remember me for the Hasbro Jem rock doll package illustrations of the 80’S. My first husband had a gallery in Providence where I had a few exhibits.
As illustration faded, I took a job teaching fashion illustration at The Rhode Island School of Design, I tried portraiture- though I really did not enjoy it. Today you are almost obliged to work from photographs, so I did very few and kept on painting- hiring a model when I could afford one. I was fortunate that with the money I earned from the Jem packages, a small inheritance, and a supportive husband I was able finally in late middle age to concentrate on work that I love- painting from live models.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
My work is figurative. I work in oils and pastel- they are fairly large- close to life-sized. I work entirely from life, from models. In this Instagram age we are riveted to the tiny screen of our cell-phones. So much is squeezed through them- they have become our reality. I want to portray the human being, in full natural light with all its exquisite nuances. I am as you can see, not afraid of the frivolous.
As I paint from life- each work is done from a lot of studies, I work very slowly and it takes months- sometimes as much as 9 months on one painting. I have costumes and wigs made to order and sometimes have fabric custom printed. My materials are the finest I can buy and my stretchers are custom-made by Twin Brooks Stretchers in Maine. I use a lot of handmade paper- a dwindling resource and have commissioned paper from TwinRocker.com paper in Indiana in a sublime celadon.
My paintings are manifestly apolitical- I feel that art should transcend politics and not rant- there are few artists that have managed in the past to combine the human condition and art- one rare one is Kathe Kollwitz. Often the painting is left to live on with its underlying political message forgotten. When I see Monet’s waterlilies or Manet’s Olympia- do they come with the written manifestos? How many Twin Tower paintings are moldering away in garages, attics and basements. This does not mean art should not have power- millions flock to see sites like the Sistine Chapel, -threatening its very existence.
It is a setting sun age. I am aware of that, our very planet our home is at risk. Do we present the world with beauty or our neuroses on canvas? Paint what you love.
In your view, what is the biggest issue artists have to deal with?
I don’t know about many artists- but I find the state of our planet depressing- we make work to last, perhaps into the future- our tiny legacy and realize that our world will be desperately altered and unsustainable in perhaps as few as 50 years.
There are so many of us- and only a small percentage are able to make a living at it- the big stars that we read about are only 1% of the market. The vast majority sell only $4000 to $50000 per year- the bulk in the $4000 range. To be honest, many of us should not be artists- so many overestimates their talent and staying power. Many must take a vow of poverty and somewhat enjoy rejection.
Art school debt! Art school debt is the highest of all college debt- don’t do it! – go to community colleges or state schools. Rhode Island College shares the same adjunct professors in their art department as The Rhode Island School of Design and the tuition is slightly over 7K Alex and Ani, a local jewelry company just spent millions on a new arts complex. Vulture Magazine released a study suggesting that the difference of the earning power of an artist with degrees and a self-taught one is minimal the new ateliers spring up all over and they are much, much cheaper, and focus on contemporary realism. they were not readily available when I was in school. You have the wonderful Academy of Realist Art Boston. Thanks to my parents- I had no debt and could flop in any direction I wanted to.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
Online mainly on my website, blog and on Instagram. www.sharonknettell.com Instagram: @sharonknettell and I fulminate on my blog: “Painting from Life” Contact me directly
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sharonknettell.com
- Phone: 401 765-4226
- Email: knetart@yahoo.com
- Instagram: @sharonknettell
- Twitter: @sharonknettell
Image Credit:
www.sharonknettell.com
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