Francis Livingston - Southwest Art - January 2002
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Transcript of Francis Livingston - Southwest Art - January 2002
Francis Livingstont uftan and southwestern scenes
hold open a dool to an era that has passed I By Gussie Fauntleroy
T WAS A BrT OF A BLOIV, FhlDrNG OUT HE
didn't have u{rat it takes to be a comic-book
artist. There he \\ras, young Francis
Livingston, in his first year at the Rocky
Mountain School of Art in Denver. All through
boyhood he'd collected comic books and
copied-u'ith good likeness, he thought-thedrawings of super-heroes, western heroes, and
even animal characters. At his Edmond, OKhigh school he'd been singled out by an art
teacher as "most artistic." And even though
regular kid stuff like fishing and playng tennis
occupied his time as much as drawing,Livingston knew he had some talent. His parents
supported his interest in art school, and finally,
there he was, enrolled in a course being taught
by * artist well known in the comic-book world.
But Livingston remembers
the instructor telling him,"You're not good at thesequential stuff." I{e coulddraw a character just fine thefirst time, but in the nextsequence, the same character ina different pose with a differentexpression needs to look likethe same character. Livingston's
84 Sormmesr ARr . IANUARY 2002
didn't-they came out differenteach time.
That appraisal cast a pall onLivingston's goal of becominga comic-book artist. But his
instructor asked to see someof his other drawings andpaintings. He nodded withapproval at the talent he saw
in them and suggested that
ffi
Livingston sign r-rp fbr cor-rrses iniinc ar-t.
Todar', more than a quarterof a cenfl:n- letcr. the artist stilllor-es comic-book art ;rnr,-l t,rkes
l-iis son to a major cornic-bookconlention in San Diego, CA,each vear. But l-re is rnore than1-raPP1. t,ith his orvn p;rth,dir-ergent though it has beentrom his original plan. Studies at
thc Sar-r Francisco Acadenn. oiArt, 10 r"ears ol teaching there,.rrtd rtt.rnr \ cJl's ot illLrstrationu'ork hr-ive led to his presentsuccessfr-rl career in fine-artpairrting lrrd reprcsentation in
galleries across dte countrv.Livingston nor,r, lives near Sun
Valle1,, ID, wid-r his u,ifb, artist Sue
Rother, and their t\vo sons.Inspired b,v N.C. \Yyed1r" ..odto
it "' a
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IANUARY 2002 . Sor-nrrrsr,\ar 85
in Chadds Ford, PA" Livingstonbuilt his own work space to have
enorrnous windows that flood the
high-ceilinged room with cool,consistent nordr light. OuBide, a
cloak of cottonwoods and aspens
lies between the studio and the
Big Wood River, home to riverotter and trout. Eagles and osprey
soar above the trees, and for the
past ser.eral summers a mothermoose and her calves have
munched their way across thepropcq'. In the valley's clear lightand mountain-bordered beauty,
Lir.ingston is just a little bitremoved from the high-techfrequencv ofmodem life.
E5 Sa, ;1q5sr -{rr . I-r,r-r--ur- 20O2
he artist's paintings, as
well, invite the viewer tostep away from the urgent
pace of contemporary life.Although some of his workinvohes urban imagery, the scenes
are quieg often almost devoid ofpeople. Camivals and boardwalks
seem nearly deserted. Theaters and
other buildings are shut down and
gendy decrepit, their architectural
grandeur faded but still visible. Ina style that suggests rather thanillustrates, Livingston's paintings
hold open a door to earlier times.
Similarly, his southwesternimagery offers immense) openlandscapes and Indian pueblo
scenes as they could have existed
a century or more ago. As withthe urban imagery, there are fewhistorical details in these paintings
that would pin them to a specific
point in time. Yet they, too, speak
ofan era that has passed.
"I think I have an affinity forscenes from the past. I always go
back to certain periods that had,for example, better fashion, bettercars, when everything was won-derfirlly designed and crafted," he
reflects. "If I paint an old Ferris
wheel with a few litde figures todenote scale, or if I paint an oldadobe building or pueblo with a
few figures in it, to me these are
very compatible. Both draw on asense of a different time, whereyou can lose yourself in what itmight have been like back then."
It comes as no surprise tolearn that Livingston's work has
been influenced by painters JohnSloan II87I-r951] and EdwardHopper 11882-19671. Like Liv-ingston, they painted both urban
and southwestern imagery. Andboth spent time in Taos, NM, a
place to which Livingston has
long been drawn. Among thefirst works of original art he
experienced as a boy werepaintings by the early 20th-century Taos artists at theNational Cowboy Hall of Fame
in Oklahoma City, OI(Even Livingston's urban
scenes pass through a filter ofsouthwestern sensibility, as hegravitates to areas of saturated
color, moments of clear light,strong shadows, contrasts) andpattern. "Cities are often hazyand gray, so urban imagery can
tend to get grim. But I neverliked painting grim things," he
says. "Even if I paint unkept,run-down buildings, I neverwant to make it downbeat."
LoNE RrDE& orl-, 12 x9.
Livingston's irbilifl' to flncl
the r,isu;rllv con-ipelling sicle of-
durgs is one he accprirecl d-rrough
vears of commercial illustratirl-r
u.orh. rviren he u'as :rsked tcr
Portra\r evervthing fion.r thegrancl to thc ordir-r:rn'. "Aftcr a
u,hile \,on gct the sclrse that.urvthinEl e .ttt bc r\ ot-1ll p,1i111i11:'
and anythirtg c.ttl be p.rir-rrc.1.
Nou' I u,or-rlcl teel cortlne.l ii Ipaintcc'l orLlv o11e kirt.-1 L,I
imagen'," he s;l's.
"I looli tt .r ;r:s11fi11g .rli:,,.:in .rn .rl.rt'-,r. f ,' .11 . L. r: --.continues. "I: c;Lr --c ,'. L',-,.. :
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J,\NLrARI 2002 . SouHtvF,sr Aru' 87
Agnew, A1................
Ahrendt, William.....Albrechtsen, Micae1 ......................
Aldrich, Edward.......Aldridge. Brad..........
Altermann Ga11eries.......................
American Indian College Fund.......
lVled ici ne l!|an Gal 1ery..........................
lVerrill Johnson Ga11ery...................... ...................
lvleyer Direct............
LrwNcstoN(comxuro FRoM PAGE 87)
a sense of balance, with things likecolor, texture) composition. "
While Livingston's brush strokesmay appear spontaneous and quick, his
work in fact involves the time-consuming processes of adding and
scraping off paint and layering thinglazes. The result is a style thatcombines sharp-edged detail with a
soft-focus feeling.
Livingston's painting methoddoesn't lend itself to working onlocation. Instead, the artist carries acarnera on road rips and rail journeys,
heading for places where remnants ofthe past reveal themselves in the midstof the modern world. He returns oftento such settings as the boardwalks and
amusement parks of coastal Californiaand the high-desert mesas and pueblos
of New Mexico. And he finds, as he
visits his favorite spots, that histhinking about art has shifted in an
important way since his days inillustration work.
"As an illustrator you're always
moving on to the next subject; younever do tfie same thing twice. So Iused to have the feeling that each fine-
art painting needed to be completelyunique, too," he says, "Now I see thatto go back-not to copy a painting butto revisit the same imagery-can be
real satisfying. You see it in a differentway, from a different angle, withdifferent light on it. You always see
new things." tr
Gussie Fauntleroy wrote about Beth
Inftin in the December issue.
LrvrNcsroN IS REPRESENTED BY
MsorcrNn MaN Gaur,RY, SANTA FE,
NM, aNo TucsoN, AZ; TrronasRsnvoros Fnu Anr, SaN FnaNcrsco,
CA; DraNr NsrsoN FINE Anr,Lncr,xa BmcH, CA; DNFA GAnnnv,PAsAonNA, CA; aNo Ancaora FrNn
Anrs, NrwYoRK, NY.
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