Harry Carmean's art studio

Harry has two wonderful art studios, one large one that he designed and built himself in the high desert town of Acton, California, and a smaller sized studio in the beach community of Santa Barbara. The Acton studio shown here, was begun in the middle 1980's and completed by 1990. He divides his time between the two studios and does all his larger sized paintings in Acton which, as can be seen from the photos, is a quite a large space.

Harry Carmean Anaprox advertizement

Few people know that Harry Carmean has done some commercial work over the span of his career. He did the back cover of the rock group Black Sabbath's Heaven and Hell album in the late 1970's. Here is a job he did for Anaprox, a well known pain reliever, completed sometime in the late 1980’s. Its one of the classier medical ads I have seen in a long time. The drawings were done specifically for the advertisement and depict various areas of pain which Anaprox treats. One of Carmean's regular models, Joe Miller, can be seen in the large drawing.

Harry Carmean's teacher Lorser Feitelson

The drawings above are by Lorser Feitelson, a well known abstract and figurative Los Angeles artist. It was no wonder that after walking in on Feitelson life drawing class at Art Center, that Harry Carmean's life was forever changed. The above examples show Feitelson's incredible skills in drawing the figure and in them we can see the root of Carmean's development as an artist. For my mind, these drawings show a complete understanding of the techniques of the European old masters but they are unique because they were done by an American artist in modern times. Feitelson had a large collection of old master drawings which was published in a catalogue and is available online.

Paintings from the model

Harry Carmean’s figure paintings are just about always created from his imagination but there are a few exceptions in which he painted from a live model. Carmean prefers to work from his imagination, often using multiple preparatory drawings rather than setting up models.  Models seen in Carmean’s paintings included the well known artist's model Lala Lezlie (there is an earlier blog on her), Jack Albee (a mime),  Lila Livingston, - a dark haired ballerina whose features are in some of Carmean’s acrobat paintings of the 1980's, and Maureen Tilyou, the woman seen here seated in the red chair. 

Harry Carmean pastels

Few people knew that Harry Carmean completed a spectacular series of pastels in the 1960’s which were worthy of Degas in concept and technique. Many of the pastels were stolen, so they are, for the moment, competely lost to the public eye. Carmean's pastels were nothing less than stunning. 

Harry Carmean's palette

This is a photo of one of Harry Carmean’s palettes which was used to create a number of spectacular paintings over the course of his career. It recently sold on ebay for a goodly sum to a collector. It was originally hand made by Carmean out of wood in the early 1980’s and its shape is Carmean’s own design. It has been structurally balanced so that the weight is distributed evenly throughout the palette making it easier to hold it for long amounts of time. Also shown are some paintings with Carmean’s palette in them.

French Impressionism and the work of Harry Carmean

The influence of French Impressionism can be seen Harry Carmean’s paintings throughout the span of his entire career. The bottom painting (inspired by Renoir) was done in the 1950's and the top painting (with more of a Degas influence) in the 1980's. He continues to paint impressionistic paintings to this day, most recently concentrating a series of luminous ballet paintings.  Other Impressionistic artist that Carmean admired include the French painters Daumier, Gaugin, Lautrec, Vuillard, Bonnard and Cezanne. 

Harry Carmean portraits

Few people realize that Harry Carmean excelled at portraiture, creating some compelling and insightful portraits of his family and friends. In the 1990's he was commissioned by the royal family to paint a large portrait of the current King of Arabia seen in the bottom photo. (The painting is currently hanging in the royal palace in Arabia). The group portrait above it was done in the 1960's and features artists Helen Lundeburg, Nick Brigante (far right) and Lorser Feitelson, (far left) as well as writer Steven Longstreet (upper left with cigar). Unfortunately this painting was destroyed at a later date.

Harry Carmean and Mannerism

Harry Carmean is one of the few authentic interpreters of Mannerism today which can especially be seen in his monumental figurative paintings with complex compositions. Mannerism, which evolved out of the Renaissance, started as a reaction against the harmonious ideas of classicism (that were the hallmark of the Renaissance) and sought to introduce new visual approaches to painting. The Mannerists of that time explored more discordant and distorted compositions and introduced the idea of making "art for its own sake", a concept relevant to modern times. As a way of pushing away from the traditional harmonious way of working, the Mannerists would exaggerate the perspective in their paintings. They put the horizon at the bottom of the painting, used two different perspectives or employed extreme foreshortening. The figures were more distorted, that is, they were often unnaturally elongated, the heads were too small in comparison to the rest of the figure, and there was an unnatural fluidity to the figures. The forms were distorted and "played with" by the artists, to create interesting new effects. The Mannerist colors were more garish and unnatural which helped provide visual excitement. Size change within a painting was used with dramatic effect - the very large would be placed next to the very small to create a feeling of monumentality. The ideas mentioned above are what help to make the Mannerists inspirational to the centuries of artists that followed them. In a sense, they were "modern" in the way that they played with form, focused on the aesthetic over the reality, and pushed their audiences' perceptions to the limit.

Harry Carmean remains one of the best interpreters of the Mannerist school of thought because he fully understands Mannerist concepts used and also has the technique necessary to execute these ideas. The unworldly color schemes, elongated and distorted figures, unusual perspectives and/or extreme foreshortening make many of Carmean's paintings excellent interpretations of concepts seen within Italian Mannerism of the 16 century.