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| Artist Carl Samson |
By Nanette Crist, Florida Weekly Correspondent
In the life of every artist, there comes that moment when
the world of art reaches out and takes hold. For Carl Samson, that moment came
when he was a 14 year old wandering down a street in Sandusky, Ohio. The young
Mr. Samson glanced over his shoulder and was captivated by two paintings in a
gallery window. He still remembers their subject matter vividly: a ballerina and a bearded young man.
At the time, Mr. Samson was a budding, but untrained, artist.
He went into the gallery to find out more about the paintings, which he thought
must have been painted by a long dead master. He was astonished to learn not
only that the artist was alive and well, but that he lived in the community and
was accepting students. In that moment, Mr. Samson began his journey as a professional
artist. And it was that moment that, nearly 30 years later, brings Mr. Samson
to the Visual Arts Center in Punta Gorda to judge the Ninth Biennial National
Art Exhibition.
Artistic connection
The artist whose work caught Mr. Samson’s attention was Allan
Banks, an internationally known painter of plein air portraits, landscapes, and
gardens. Mr. Banks was the juror in the 2013 National Faces and Figures show at
the Visual Arts Center. When asked for
suggestions for jurors for future shows, Mr. Samson was at the top of his list.
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| Samson's Padme Amidala |
The committee responsible for mounting the National Art
Exhibition began to research Samson, and was immediately enthused by the
results. Ingrid Carroll, co-chair of the
show, says, “Mr. Samson’s work is exciting and invites the viewer to engage.
And his credentials are impeccable.” He has won both the Grand Prize and the
Distinguished Achievement Award at the National Portrait Competition. He is the
former Chairman of the Advisory Board to the American Society of Portrait
Artists. His painting of Natalie Portman as Padme Amidala is featured in George
Lucas’ book “Star Wars Art: Vision” and
hangs in Mr. Lucas’ personal collection. The list goes on and on. The question
was whether Mr. Samson could be persuaded to judge the show.
In one of those small world coincidences, Mr. Samson and his
family, who live in Ohio, have spent time in Charlotte County. His in-laws used
to own a place here, and he has fond memories of family vacations with his now 16-year old twin daughters. Even
without the nostalgia, spending a few days in Florida in February didn’t sound
like hardship duty to him.
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| Samson's The Collector |
Artist in action
Mr. Samson isn’t going to have much time during his visit to
kick back at the Tiki Bar, though. In
addition to selecting the winners of the show, Mr. Samson will speak with the
VAC volunteers who will greet the more than 2000 visitors to the exhibit during
its five week run. He will also give a three hour demonstration on his approach
to portrait painting. The event will be held at Edison College in Punta Gorda
from 1-4 on Wednesday, Jan. 29.
This will not be the first time that Mr. Samson has given a
public demonstration of his craft. In
2000, Mr. Samson was the first artist in history to be recorded painting a live
portrait demonstration at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. (This
honor was bestowed upon him as the Distinguished Guest of Honor of the American
Society of Portrait Artists.)
Mr. Samson tells a funny—if nerve wracking-- story about
this experience. He had been instructed that he would be given two hours for
the demonstration. This was a full hour short of the time typically allotted
for his demos. So, in the months leading up to the event, Mr. Samson assiduously
practiced painting head studies with this timeframe in mind. Once the demo was
underway, he looked up and saw a guy offstage holding a sign that said, “10
minutes to go.” Mr. Samson looked at his watch, and a mere 47 minutes had
elapsed since the demo stated. Unbeknownst to him, the time had been halved to
a short hour. His paintbrush was a blur
as he finished his work.
Mr. Samson’s takeaway from this experience was that the
purpose of a demonstration is to provide as much information to the viewers as
possible rather than to end up with a highly polished work. He says, with a bit
of irony, “Audience members don’t have to worry that the demo will be like
watching paint dry. I definitely err on the side of talking too much during
these sessions. It’s a fantastic opportunity for artists to open the door to
what goes on in the head of a portrait artist at work.”
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| Samson's Triumph of Truth |
Art in an age of technology
Mr. Samson says that he has always been “attracted to the
beauty and poetry of visual phenomena.” As a student, he would sketch the head
of the kid sitting in front of him in class rather than draw pictures from his
imagination. As a young adult, he spent three weeks painting in Monet’s gardens
in Giverny, France. (He received special permission to paint at times when the
gardens were closed to the public.) As a mature artist, he continues to be
unapologetically realistic in his approach to painting despite the pressure he
has often felt to work in a more “modern” way.
This tension between realism and post-modernism led him to
undertake a series of paintings entitled “Battle at the Twilight of Painting.” The
works are portraits at their base, but the subjects are surrounded by the work
of Picasso and other modern masters.
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| Samson's At the Mirror |
Mr. Samson considers these works a personification of his
struggle to stay true to his love of painting what he sees in the real world. He
believes that visual art based on the beauty of real people and real
surroundings is more important than ever in a world in which rampant technology
makes it easy to disconnect from what’s around us. As they say, sometimes you need to stop and
smell the roses.
National Art Exhibition
With his mindset, one might wonder how Mr. Samson can judge
an exhibition with works in styles ranging from abstract to impressionistic to
realistic. His statement to artists participating in the show said, in part, “I
subscribe to the increasingly antiquated notion that a juror for an exhibition
need not factor into the decision one’s personal likes and dislikes. Turn of
the century jurors had it right: what is
of utmost importance is how well an individual artist achieved his or her
objective.”
Mr. Samson was impressed when he viewed the more than 450
works that were submitted to the show. He was surprised at the depth and
breadth of styles and approaches taken by the artists. Works in all types of media were submitted,
from watercolor to collage to colored pencil. From these works, Mr. Samson has
selected 130 to include in the exhibit. This process was done online, and he is
eager to see the works that he has chosen “in person.”
And the winner is…
The winners of the show will be announced at a champagne
reception at 7.p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 6, at the VAC. The prizes include a
$2,000 award for the work selected by Mr. Samson as “Best of Show.”
Visitors will have their own chance to vote for the work they
believe deserves recognition. In the history of the National Art Exhibition,
the same work has never won both Best of Show and the aptly named People’s
Choice Award.
The Visual Arts Center is well-known as a destination in
Southwest Florida for artists and art lovers alike. The National Art Exhibition
is just one more example of why the VAC’s reputation is well-deserved.
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