Painting what surrounds him
Edward Kellogg, 70, began painting as a child
Painting what surrounds him Edward Kellogg, 70, began painting as a child Check out this story on jacksonsun.com: http://www.jacksonsun.com/story/life/style/jackson-life/2014/09/27/painting-surrounds/16292065/
JTN Published 5:40 p.m. CT Sept. 27, 2014 | Updated 5:45 p.m. CT Sept. 27, 2014
This work is called "River Passing." (Photo: Jesse Hillman/The Jackson Sun)Buy Photo
Edward Kellogg, 70, thinks about his journey as a painter and no doubt remembers himself as a youngster who painted the outdoor scenes that surrounded him – the beach, surfers, the sea.
A lifetime later the snowy-haired artist continues to paint what surrounds him. His "Interludes" show is open to the public at Union University weekdays through Nov. 13 at the Penick Academic Complex art gallery. The art in his show depicts Tennessee outdoor scenes in eye-popping color. And the young man caught up in California beach life around San Diego, Calif., is still present in his voice.
"It's really wild how I got started," Kellogg said. "I drew constantly when I was a kid. I grew up in Southern California. I loved surfing, and I still do. I don't do it so much anymore because it's a long way to the beach. So I did a lot of paintings of surfers. I would sell many of my paintings to classmates for 10 dollars or so."
When he was in high school, his father gave him permission to paint rather than work in construction as he had in previous summers. Kellogg took advantage of the opportunity and expanded his marketing: "I would take the paintings, put them under my arm and sell them door-to-door."
He kept painting through high school, including summer. "I did that until I went off to college," he said.
"College" was Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill.
"So I went to college and declared a history major. That went on for a while, and I asked myself what was I doing. So then I declared an art major," he said.
His interest in history translated easily, since he taught art history to his students for many years. "I have always loved history and still do," he said.
After three years at Wheaton, he went back to California, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1966 and his master's degree in 1968 from San Diego State University. His master's degree is in painting and print making. His resume also lists the Patmos Workshop in Toronto, Canada, where he studied under Dutch artist Henk Krijger in 1971-73.
Corporate clients started accumulating in the 1980s.
"A lot of those were hospitals," he said. "I was contacted by a dealer in Houston who worked a lot with hospitals. They saw my work as being appropriate for hospitals. My wife counted them, and I believe she said there were 40 of them who have my work. I'm not sure. In some of them I have multiple paintings, like M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. And Northwestern Memorial in Chicago has about 13 of them.
"I have been so thankful these opportunities arose when they did. And there was interest in my work for a corporate setting. I was teaching full time in the '70s at Covenant College here in Chattanooga, and I dropped back to half-time so I could pursue my work."
About four years ago, Kellogg retired completely from teaching after being an art professor for 37 years.
Kellogg and his wife will sometimes visit his work.
"There have been a few times when we have been traveling cross country, and I'll say, 'Well, I have some paintings at a company or hospital here. Why don't we just drop in and see it in place?' Sometimes the setting, the placement of a work, affects how you see it. It's fun to see it in place – to see what they have done with it," he said.
"I think that all art reflects a certain spirituality by virtue of our having been created in God's image," he said. "Over the years, I have been drawn to paint images of the creation. The outdoors has been a big draw for me since my childhood. In painting nature I am imaging God's handiwork, which speaks of his wisdom, power and glory. His fingerprints are all over what he has made."
"Representational art helps people to see things in terms of the subject that is represented," he said.
"I don't try to generate associations with a person's past experiences. That's not what motivates me. People will see what they know and what they remember in a piece of art."
Kellogg's early paintings were mostly oil. Years ago, however, he started experimenting with thin layers of acrylic with layers of oil paint on top, which gives a certain vividness to the colors he chooses to use.
"You can put oil on top of acrylics if it is very thin, but you can't put acrylics on top of oil — it wouldn't bond," he said.
Lee Benson, art professor and chairman of the art department at Union University, believes "it is very significant for Union to host artist Ed Kellogg for the second time in the last 15 years. His reputation and work are at the forefront of southern landscape painters.
"His focus of our beloved woods and mountains of East Tennessee continues to ground his legacy as one of those few artists able to translate the power and beauty of landscape onto a two dimensional surface."
Benson said he first saw Kellogg's work in the early 2000s when his subjects were dark, wooded mountain streams.
"His work had a sense of sacredness that I have often felt hiking those same mountains," Benson said. "I was taken aback that a painting had the power to do what I had long felt was the exclusive quality of the place itself. That is what great artists are capable of -- they can transport us to places art was unable to do so before. Ed employed two elements to accomplish that.
One was a dark color palette that truly reflects the colors of the woods, and secondly, he worked on a scale that was able to encompass the power of the mountain landscape.
"Today, Ed continues to use scale to produce great landscapes but has had a dramatic change in his color palette. He is now using a much lighter color base. The brooding colors of deep woods have been replaced by bright-saturated colors reflecting the fall colors and the waning days of vibrant sunlight that is now more able to filter through the falling canopy. These paintings are much more meaningful on a personal level, exchanging soul searching sacredness for personal beauty.
"Ed has a quality rarely found in an artist. He is able to see what few others can or even acknowledge is there. He is able to see the very hand of the divine, that spiritual quality of all things. To see beyond the image and into the image maker. His landscapes, while acknowledging the groanings of the fall, does so in a way that reflects the 'Edenness' of all nature, that dim mirror that still reflects the heart and purpose of God saying to man, 'I AM That I AM.'"
The Kelloggs own 21/2 city lots in Chattanooga, and he designed and built a studio for himself and his wife, Doreen, who is also an artist. They have four children and nine grandchildren.
"It's a great place to work," he said. "I try to put in a good day of work every time I work. I don't feel good if I don't."
Kellogg describes his show at Union as "between the layers" works that celebrate creation.
"It's enough for me for people to delight in my work. I want people to see and enjoy my art," he said.
One thing that may surprise people who see his work for the first time at Union is its scale.
He is bringing seven major paintings to the exhibit.
"I'm not bringing a lot of paintings, but they will fill the area," he said. "Most of these paintings have not been shown, and all the big paintings are new. This will be the first time they have been shown together."
All of it is large work. "The subject matter will suggest the scale to me," he said.
He said there is more than one theme in the work he is bringing to the show. His major goal is simple, however.
"I would like for people to relish in the beauty of creation," he said. "In all the paintings, there are other things going on that some people will pick up on when they view the work. Some people may miss it. There are ideas there that have to do with the subjects that are represented.
So much art today is about the artist, or it is about the creative process. I think when the work of art is finished, and it is put up there and experienced by other people, the experience adds to their lives."
"It's not alone for the artist to explore their own subjectivity," Kellogg said. "I want to deal with a shared reality that other people can enter, and recognize. I want to cross the divide between the artist and the public."
What: Art exhibit by Edward Kellogg
Where: Union University Penick Academic Complex, Art Gallery.
When: Weekdays through Nov.13.
Cost: The exhibit is free to the public.
Art Gallery, (731) 661-5075
The essential Edward Kellogg:
Born: May 3, 1944, Harrisburg, Pa.
Education: Wheaton College, Wheaton, Ill., 1962-65
San Diego State University, San Diego, Calif., BA, 1966; MA 1968
Patmos Workshop, Toronto, Canada, 1971-73 (studied under Dutch artist Henk Kruger)
Hanford Union High School, Hanford, Calif., 1968-69
Covenant College, Lookout Mountain, Ga., Professor of Art, 1973-2010
Kellogg has had numerous solo and group exhibitions
in venues throughout the United States and abroad.
Also, his work has been found in the collections of more than 70 corporate, private and non-profit organizations.
He is represented by galleries whose web pages are listed elsewhere on these pages.
theartstorewv.com
alanaveryartcompany.com
uu.edu
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