Words to Live By. {} “Be regular and orderly in your life
like a bourgeois, so that you may be violent and original in your work.” –Gustave Flaubert
(1821-1880)
Our cover artist, Robert Phelps. In His Own Words:
My grandfather was an artist and he’d let me play around with his paints. I was fortunate to spend every summer in the mountains of West Virginia with my grandparents. My obsession with painting began then, watching my grandfather at his drawing table. We were surrounded by nature and vast expanses of quiet and solitude. At the time, I probably wished things were more exciting, but my imagination muscles grew early while staring at the clouds and deep into the tangled woods. Painting animals has been a lifelong obsession for me. My childhood artwork is filled with tigers, birds, and an entire menagerie of creatures. At some point, around age six, I began drawing and painting wizards and robots.
Ben was a stray black Labrador we adopted while growing up in rural Virginia. I remember him being so loyal following along the coast line as my brother and I rowed our little boat in the lake. Ben would swim out to us to make sure we were okay. I distinctly remember our cats being much less interested in our well-being.
Ripley is our current little monster. He’s a Chihuahua and Boston Terrier mix and he’s impossibly cute. His little derpy tongue is always hanging out. We also have four cats and Ripley is the boss of them all.
The cats hang out in the studio the most, and are endlessly destructive. They knock over my brushes, try to drink the paint water, get hair in my paint and stomp through my palette. Ripley, our puppy, only visits when he wants to play or when I’m having lunch. I’m the absolute worst at maintaining food discipline. All the animals know that if they beg, I’ll give them a treat.
Sold drawings of Rambo and werewolves to classmates as a child. I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit and it was fun making money with art. I continued painting portraits and murals all through high school.
44 THE NEW BARKER
My studio faces east, beautifully streaming in the morning light. We live at the bottom of a hill in the mountains and are surrounded by trees and singing birds. Rituals keep things cohesive for me. I burn the same Tibetan incense every day. All of my brushes are organized by size. All of my paints are separated by color. Very similar to the mise en place of the culinary world. Perhaps the most unique part of my studio is the bird feeder I’ve attached to my window. It has invited a steady stream of wild birds knocking at my window all day.
www.TheNewBarker.com
The background music is ritualized into the work process as well. Baroque music, audiobooks or podcasts for detailed work, like sketching or preparing canvases. When I’m painting, I like to get into an emotional groove to keep the brushstrokes fresh. Sometimes I will put on an album and force myself to paint only for the duration of the music. Currently, I paint almost exclusively to Led Zeppelin albums and I count how many albums a painting takes to finish. I never get tired of them and I’m so familiar with the flow of the songs that I can effectively ride the wave and be expressive but also organized. It’s become a system for me and it gives the paintings great energy and life.
Dog by Seawall at Sunset. North Shore Beach, St. Petersburg, Florida. –by Robert Phelps
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