Keeping the Quality in Fine Art:

Okay, I do rag on fine artist a bit, maybe too much but only the fine con artist, the soup can sellers, the posers and the comic copiers. I have the highest respect for all true artists both fine and commercial.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon at Laguna College of Art & Design with a fine artist of the first water. Catherine Hill and Mark Kausler were in for the day. Mark was doing a screening of killer 30s sound cartoons. (more on that later) I want to talk about the artwork of Ms. Hill.

Cathy is a fine artist turned cartoonist (Mad Raccoons) turned Plein Air painter. I have seen a lot of her Plein Air landscapes and they are top nock but my training is comic books and animation and therefore as a general rule I look for more story than a landscape can offer. (I know it is a failing on my part. Landscapes really aren`t just backgrounds for animations, I know that)



(just think of the animation you could do in front . . . okay)



Yesterday Cathy showed me copies of a series character study paintings she is doing and they knocked my socks off. Amazing! Why is it that the non-sell-out, non-gimmick fine artist don`t make the big bucks? Why is it all the hacks, posers and sell outs score big? I don`t know the answer but I do know where you can find some of Cathy`s artwork on the web http://home.earthlink.net/~c.hillart/

  ¶ 10:53 AM