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Portrait & Sitter by Alan Ammann |
Introducing New Sanctuary Arts Instructor, Alan Ammann
I am pleased to introduce Alan Ammann to add to our Fall roster of excellent artist teachers. Alan has agreed to teach a ten week PORTRAIT PAINTING (SA 3) class on Monday evenings, beginning October 1st.
Alan’s interest in art goes back to his childhood. Noticing an early drawing talent, Alan's father, himself an enthusiastic amateur artist, took him to a figure drawing class at Penn State when Alan was in second grade. Arriving with charcoal and pad in hand, he drew his first nude, beginning his path as an artist, a path of many twists and turns.
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Me Painting Robert |
Initially Alan attended the Eastman School of Music as a classical tenor but found performing too stressful. He transferred to UNH, graduating as an English major. And what do you do as an English major? Feeling the need to earn a stable living, Alan attended Emory University School of Law in Atlanta. Upon earning his law degree, he practiced in Boston and Atlanta and continued to sing as an amateur along the way. But law wasn't the right fit either.
Throughout his twenties he was interested in avant-garde art. Inspired by the Art Guys, he and an art partner began experimenting with odd performance art, strange assemblages, painting, and the creation of conceptual artifacts. As he hit his thirties, he found it all fun and exciting, but realized that if he was going to be a serious artist, he needed to develop skills so he could operate from a position of knowledge. Taking a basic drawing class at UNH reconnected his circuits. Then he heard about Dennis Perrin's portrait class and interviewed with his drawings to get into a painting class that was already underway. From there it was sink or swim. Dennis taught Alan how to hold a brush, put the paint on a palette, organize a canvas by value structure, and work with a strong sense of light, painting monochromatically in the beginning. As well as undertaking a traditional master/apprentice relationship with Dennis -- painting his house, trimming his hedges and painting with him in the afternoons -- Alan began a path of self instruction.
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Stereo |
Taking a basic drawing class at UNH reconnected his circuits. Then he heard about Dennis Perrin's portrait class and interviewed with his drawings to get into a painting class that was already underway. From there it was sink or swim. Dennis taught Alan how to hold a brush, put the paint on a palette, organize a canvas by value structure, and work with a strong sense of light, painting monochromatically in the beginning. As well as undertaking a traditional master/apprentice relationship with Dennis -- painting his house, trimming his hedges and painting with him in the afternoons -- Alan began a path of self instruction.
Alan had carried around a book by artist David Leffel, “Oil Painting Secrets from a Master”, for about ten years before he even picked up a paint brush. Studying two schools of thought -- that of David Leffel, himself a devotee of Rembrandt's, and that of John Singer Sargent's -- Alan diligently studied and painted. Faces have always resonated with Alan, drawing caricatures of his teachers, observing specific quirks that make a likeness. He caught fire while studying with Dennis and kept on going, getting his own portrait clients, continuing to learn. He designed and built his own natural-light, European style studio, focused on live 6 hour single session portrait sittings, striving to capture natural, relaxed poses. In 2009 his stereographic painting of Andrew Liebs was a semifinalist entry for the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and appeared on the Smithsonian Channel. This award signaled real possibility. He moved his studio to Rollinsford and makes art full time.
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Girl |
Asked about his career path, Alan say his path was less one of jumping, than of returning to the path he was meant to be on. An artist is solely responsible for generating his own work path. When Alan doesn't have a portrait sitting, he works on his own visual vocabulary -- his gallery work has been mostly traditional floral still lives, but he is currently developing an abstract visual language, all the while keeping his hand in more conceptual work with an occasional installation. He admires Picasso's ability to lead an exploratory artistic life. He knew how to draw, but wasn't bound by having to produce a unified body of work. Alan tries to balance creating solid, evocative portraits with being crazy enough to try weird stuff- staying alive experimentally and creatively.
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