Biography of Jon Bandish

 

This is where I start from with my art.  In a way my intent is to paint the total experience of a moment.  I get to live in that moment throughout the process of making the painting.  That process is a combination of ideas and techniques that come from the admiration and appreciation of those older artists.  I firmly believe in the drawing being the foundation of the painting and working through compositional ideas in the drawing before any painting is done. After transferring the drawing, I start with an underpainting, working out basic lights and shadows.  I slowly work in my interpretation of local color and eventual details.  I am crazy about the details because Nature offers us so many amazing, tiny moments that it’s a crime to omit them.  I’ve taken to heart an old phrase that I think bears worth noting because it’s true; the money is in the details.  For a more traditionally focused visual artist I think those details make the painting come alive.  Take for example all of the minutiae of water droplets in a crashing wave.  Painstakingly painting in each one has a powerful effect on the image and the viewer.  Although a large part of my process is very traditional based there is an exception and that’s my color pallet.  I like to use a high key pallet that although it is based on true local color it’s more about my feelings of what I’m painting.   I can’t say that I cognitively set out to use more prismatic colors I just always have.  I guess it’s the Jimmy Buffett in me that comes out.