ED MEANLEY

ed meanley
FEATURE ARTIST february 2017

A geoscientist by profession, Ed’s lifelong love of sketching and photography turned his retirement into works of art. His graphic presentations of geoscience investigations became a helpful foundation for his paintings. He paints in all media, and finds that his world travels and his local settings give him a abundance of subject matter. Ed’s style is mostly representative, with occasional abstract realism, always seeking strong light and form. He is a member of PSST, the Brenham Fine Art League, the Art League of Fort Bend, ARTS in Fayetteville, and is sole Proprietor of Aberlemno Arts in Bellville. 

View Ed's Work on Facebook

PSST:  Ed, you live in Bellville, a long drive to Houston. Yet you attend most PSST meetings and take the workshops. You are also a member of other art groups, exhibit in many shows, and support individual artists’ events. Why is the participation and support important to you?
 
Ed:  I have learned a tremendous amount about painting by observing and listening to other artists. The shows give me feedback about my progress and I learn a great deal by paying close attention to the critique of my own and other’s paintings by the judges. When I support other artists’ events I gain further insights in painting styles and presentation of art.

in the studio

PSST:  Everyone’s favorite question, what is your painting setup? 
 
Ed:  I have no elegant studio, rather a work table in a spare bedroom that also serves as an office and horse tack room. The photo shows that I paint mostly seated and work either on a flat surface or at table easel. In my Dakota Art Pastel Box I have columns of pastels that grade vertically by color (but with blue in the middle) and horizontally by value and greyed colors to the extreme left. My box has a mixture of pastels by Sennelier, Rembrandt, Schminke, Terry Ludwig and Great American. I will add pastels with more “power” ranges in this array but hard (NuPastels) and medium pastels (Giraults) are still separate.
 
Note that I have also shown my plein air set up – an heterogeneous mix of parts from various brands – Sienna Tripod, Heilman Easel, En Plein Air Pro Tripod Shelf and Guerrilla 4 Tray Pastel Carrier (affixed with velcro). This also serves as a watercolor set-up. For lighter travel painting I sometimes use a Guerrilla Painter LapTop Painting Box, 9 by 12-Inch. It can hold two Guerrilla Pastel Trays or watercolor kit or oils. It can also mount be on a tripod.

Ed Meanley pastel set-up for studio and plein air

ed's signature style

Painting by Ed Meanley

PSST:  You paint in several mediums. How does this help in your pursuit of pastel and its many techniques?
 
Ed:  Each medium has its special effects. Yet they all draw on the same principals of composition, focus, value expression and color use. Still, the special effects and styles of other mediums suggest new approaches in pastel. The happy accidents of juicy applications of watercolor paints can be approximated by some pastel under-painting methods (liquids applied to pastels, old partially scrubbed pastel paintings, etc). The transparency of watercolors and thin oil washes can be imitated by light crosshatching of hard pastels. The opaque passages of oils and acrylics can be realized with soft pastel finishing touches (up to a point). Thus each medium informs the others. Pastels are hard to beat in some ways – their brilliance, their scumbling effects, and their fine line applications.

Painting by Ed Meanley. Even Ed can see the red bridge in the sea of green.

PSST:  You use different techniques, Ed. How do you describe your painting style and your color choices?
 
Ed:  I love to explore new ways of artistic expression. Some new techniques give me exciting new insights - others are more subliminal in their influence. Despite those explorations outside my comfort zone, I often return to my love of realism and (selected) detail. My colors are usually subdued (low chroma) except where I want to make a statement – a focal point or a trail around the painting. I love to finish off with accents of light and more subtle application of “jewel” colors such as orange, pink, turquoise, lavender (especially in shadows) and even white. I try to use complements where contrast is needed or in selected under-painting passages. I suffer from a degree of red/green color blindness, so I have to be very careful there and seek feedback from others who are not so afflicted.

PSST:  You recently joined the FaceBook community. In what way has it helped you gain exposure for your art and in your marketing? Why did you choose Facebook over creating a website?
 
Ed:  I point to my FaceBook album of favorite paintings when someone makes an inquiry about my art. I do not consider it a marketing tool. In fact, I put little effort in marketing, as painting is a hobby for me. I started painting at 62 and I am 75 now, so a career in art is not my focus. I still sell some art in galleries and shows, but a great deal is given away (or hoarded). The short answer is that I consider maintaining a website to be too much work. I would rather paint.

Painting by Ed Meanley, his excursion to the “wild side”

the value of workshops

PSST:  You’ve taken a number of workshops. How have they helped you improve or expand your painting skills?
 
Ed:  I have extolled the virtues of interaction with other artists. Workshops offer the same advantages and do so with well-regarded painters who offer new insights. I have experienced this with teachers in all art media, but I will just comment on recent pastel workshops. Sometimes the lessons reinforced and clarified my past exposure, but frequently I acquired new ideas and learned to put them to use. If one picks up just a couple of new things in a workshop, the workshop was well worthwhile. Here are a few examples I experienced.
 
Alan Flattmann convinced me of the worth of starting a pastel painting with vine charcoal drawings and value sketches, which he then sets with workable fixative.

Barbara Jaenicke stressed simplifying a scene and laying in scumbled color with the sides of pastel sticks. She showed how to make every stroke count by challenging us to do a painting in 75 strokes. She said such small paintings could also be the next step after notan drawings to explore color possibilities.

Scottish Heather, Ed’s painting from Barbara Jeanicke Workshop

Christine Swann introduced me to the concept of diagonal grids to locate focal points and feature placement. I was inspired by her concept of grading and using pastels by their “power” (hard pastels leave faint traces of color and softer pastels deposit more pigment with greater impact). I also appreciated her treatment of lighting on models for portraits.
 
Linda Dellandre improved my painting of trees by showing design and color choices.
 
Rita Kirkman impressed me with her homemade pastel surfaces that create a warm tone and that evolve as grisaille underpaintings in acrylic laced with pumice. Her animal paintings almost always are backlit, allowing colorful shadow side paintings with bright rim lighting.

Portrait of Milena Valdes, with Swann's diagonal grid method