Alan Flattmann is one of those pastel artists whose work I’ve known since the days I really started to get into soft pastels. I included one of his evocative New Orleans paintings in one of my early roundup blogs. He always appeared to be a humble and unassuming artist despite being a highly accomplished one. When at the International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS) I finally sat down with this well-respected and award-winning artist to interview him for my short videos series, I was delighted to find he’s exactly that. So it’s with great pleasure that I share Alan’s words and artwork in this post.
Don’t know his work? Here’s a teaser…
Before I had the blog over to Alan Flattmann, here’s a wee bit about him.
Alan Flattmann Bio
Alan Flattmann is a Pastel Society of America’s Hall of Fame Honoree and Eminent Pastelist of the International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS). His work is the subject of four books: An Artist’s Vision of New Orleans (2014), The Art of Pastel Painting (1987 & 2007), Alan Flattmann’s French Quarter Impressions (2002) and The Poetic Realism of Alan Flattmann (1981). For more information about Alan and his work, visit his website.
And now, here’s master pastellist, Alan Flattmann!
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Early in my career, a newspaper columnist wrote in a review of my work, “the artist seems to have more gumbo in his blood than paint.” I think it was meant as a gentle jab, but I took it as a compliment. After all who doesn’t love gumbo? Putting humor aside, this was at a time when abstract expressionism and non-objective art were dominant in the art world and as a realist, I was an outlier.
I grew up in New Orleans. The city was my “place.” I went to art school in the French Quarter and my first paintings centered around, then as now, the rich cultural heritage of New Orleans with its backdrop of the meandering Mississippi River and its architecture of old French shutters, wrought-iron balconies and rustic brick walls.
To this day, the city remains a primary focus of my work. I take a lot of joy in rendering its intricate details. I also see the city scenes as atmospheric landscapes. The semitropical climate of the coastal Deep South laden with year-round humidity lends itself to creating theatrical settings with filtered light and changing weather conditions.
In addition, the people, the music, and the customs of the city have always played an important role in my paintings. Sadly, some of its colorful history, like the bustling French Market with its fish, fruit and vegetable stands, is mostly gone. I think I have lived long enough now to see my early paintings serve as historical accounts of what once was.
Considering all these factors, one could rightly conclude that New Orleans is my primary “sense of place.” However, there is no reason not to have more than one place as inspiration. Sense of place can be any place you feel a close connection to or understanding of.
In 1973, I was fortunate to be awarded a Greenshields Memorial Foundation year-long grant to pursue my artistic career. Most artists who win this award choose to study somewhere in Europe. I choose to go to the Caribbean Island of Barbados to paint. I was a long time fan of Winslow Homer’s paintings of the Caribbean. That was part of my motive to choose Barbados, but I also saw Barbados with its predominately black population, fishing villages, markets and farms, as a source of similar subject matter to my paintings of New Orleans and Southern Louisiana. To my delight, it was also a little bit like going back in time. Almost everything was done by hand with very little modern mechanization. It was truly an artist’s paradise.
Coincidently, it was in Barbados that I first became serious about pastel painting. I was primarily an oil painter and watercolorist up until then. In the process of painting some large watercolors, I began to experiment with small accents of pastel over the watercolors. It didn’t take long for me to become so fascinated with the pastel effects that I turned to pastel as my major medium of choice.
I continued to work on Barbados paintings for about a year after my wife and I returned home. After living in the Caribbean, New Orleans seemed too congested and hectic for our newfound life style. We decided to move to the small town of Laurel, Mississippi. I found a wealth of new material to paint in the countryside surrounding Laurel. My new subjects were dairies, farms, and country people.
I discovered a lot of the old traditions of country life were fading away and I tried to record them in my paintings before they were gone. Probably my favorite paintings of that time were my portraits of “Aunt Essie,” a wonderful elderly lady who made beautiful patch quilts. She lived with her bachelor son Ray on a small farm. Ray still plowed the field with a mule, and he raised chickens, pigs, and cows in the same way his father had for decades before.
I also was introduced to Reverend Robinson, the pastor of a small black Baptist Church in Macon, Mississippi. I photographed him while he preached and performed baptisms in a pond behind his church. He and many of the parishioners in his congregation became subjects for my paintings. During the five years from 1975 to 1979, rural Mississippi was my “place.”
My wife and I moved back to Louisiana in early 1980. I was getting itchy to paint New Orleans again. But a dramatic opportunity occurred. I was commissioned to go to Israel and Egypt in order to produce a series of paintings on these countries that had recently signed a peace treaty.
So in late 1980, my wife and I spent four weeks in Israel and two weeks in Egypt traveling around the countries while I sketched and photographed. Both places were incredibly fascinating. I can’t say I spent enough time in either country to portray the people intimately, but for the two years I worked on the paintings from my sketches and photographs, they truly occupied a sense of place in my mind.
I’ve also had experiences with other places that have given me great inspiration. In 1985, I spent six weeks painting, sketching, and photographing on the Greek island of Crete. There again, I was enthralled by the feeling of going back in time. Crete had an authentic old European culture with beautiful scenery and people with a deep devotion to their land and traditions. I was so taken with the island that I’ve been back six times to teach workshops and paint on my own.
In 1991, I became interested in the Central American country of Guatemala. It intrigued me that only about 1100 miles from New Orleans, there was a country with a culture so different from ours. The indigenous Mayan women and some of the men still wore traditional hand woven clothing decorated with brilliant colors and designs.
The people mainly lived in small villages and subsisted on farming and selling their weavings and handicrafts. The mountainous landscapes, colonial towns, and old Spanish culture added to the appeal of this country. I spent a month in Guatemala and went on to produce a large body of work from my sketches and photographs.
In recent years, I’ve focused mainly on painting New Orleans and landscapes near my home in Covington. However, I’ve also made many trips to southern France and Paris to teach workshops and sketch on my own.
I’m presently painting a series of Paris and French countryside scenes to show alongside my paintings of New Orleans and southern Louisiana for a future show. I feel a real kinship between France and Louisiana because of Louisiana’s French heritage.
During my workshop trips over the years, I’ve been fortunate enough to paint other wonderful places like Italy, Croatia, Scotland, Ireland, China, Mexico, Australia, Bermuda and also great places in the United States. However, I didn’t delve into painting these places enough to consider them one of “my places.”
I continue to work in oil and watercolor, but I consider pastel to be my primary medium of choice. I tend to like the very soft pastels like Great American, Terry Ludwig, Schmincke, Sennelier, and Richeson best. Great American is my favorite and I have two sets I personally selected; a Great American 91 half-stick assortment called Alan Flattmann’s Master Palette and a 78 full-stick assortment called Cityscapes. I also have an 80 stick All-Purpose assortment of Richeson Pastels. All these sets are light weight and ideal for plein air or studio painting.
I work on a variety of pastel papers and sanded surfaces for plein air work, but all my studio pieces are done granular grounds that I apply to rag papers or Gator Foam Boards. The rough texture of the granular ground allows me to build up the painting in multiple layers without losing the tooth of the surface. The ground is a mix of 1/3rd FF pumice powder, 1/3rd acrylic gesso and 1/3rd water. I add a little acrylic color to tint the mixture and then apply it to the papers or boards with a foam rubber brush. For complete details, please go to my book, The Art of Pastel Painting.
In conclusion, a “sense of place” may have a different meaning for every artist, but it is always associated with a place we know and feel comfortable with. As a realist, my “sense of place” is also based on a fascination and fondness for a specific place that inspires me to capture and record it for posterity.
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I don’t know about you but I’m just sighing with contented pleasure. I love seeing the evolution of Alan Flattmann’s work through the theme of place. I had no idea that he was soooo well-travelled, taking the opportunity to capture the sense of place in each locale.
And now we want to hear from YOU! Did you know Alan’s work before this guest post? If you did, were you surprised by anything? Do you have any favourite paintings? If so tell us which ones and why you’re taken with them. And please, if you have questions for Alan, do post them as a comment as I know he’ll be happy to answer them.
Oh, and that interview I mentioned above? You can find it here. (You’ll need to scroll almost to the bottom of the post.)
Until next time!
~ Gail
45 thoughts on “Alan Flattmann – A Sense of Place”
So impressive! He does a fabulous job with people, buildings and scenery. So versatile!! I’m curious as to how he gets his building so exacting. Does he use a ruler?
Thanks.
Impressive indeed!! Glad you enjoyed the post Tami! And I’ll give your question to Alan.
Yes Tami, I do use a ruler of sorts-actually a T square. I start every pastel with a vine charcoal line drawing. I loosely block in everything freehand, then use a T-square to straighten the lines and make sure they are level. Once the drawing is finished, I mostly work freehand with the pastels.
Thanks, Alan
Amazing and most interesting work, so beautiful ! Thank you for sharing Gail
Went straight to Amazon to try and find book mentioned but they wont post to NZ : (
Adrianne I’m delighted that you appreciate Alan’s work enough to want to order one of his books! Is there another Amazon global station that would send you the book? Or is there a local store where you can order it?
To Alan Flattman, I too grew up in New Orleans. I went to the N. O. Academy of Art in the French Quarter. I have always admired your work for its skill and artistry, but also because of the memories of New Orleans it evokes. Thank you for the beautiful work that you do.
Carol I’m sure Alan will enjoy your comment. His work certainly does evoke time place and this is especially true of his New Orleans paintings. I think it’s in his bones!
Thank you for an interesting article, Alan! (& Gail 🙂 ). I’m fascinated with how beautifully you capture a place that you’ve lived or visited for an extended time. Great storytelling with paint.
Glad you liked it Gina. And yes, storytelling is definitely what these pieces do!
What a treat to study Alans pastel paintings, at first a bit too detailed for me, but looking closer they are so full of inspiration for me: his way with the greens in the French country Church and the Farm pond, my favourite is Gabriels horn…look at the colours in his shirt, waw, and the windows in the background. A real master of pastel.
Susana I say Yes, yes, and YES to everything you’ve said. I too was especially taken with the colours in the shirt! Glad to know there’s a lot of inspiration here for you!!
I wasn’t very familiar with Alan’s work, but BOY!!! I’m a fan now! I love the cityscapes, both daytime and nighttime. All the paintings are stunning. I think my favorite is Paris in the Rain. I love the detail, the depth, the scurrying figures, the different perspectives… Fabulous!!! Thanks, Alan, for sharing your insights. I thoroughly enjoyed viewing your paintings, and thanks Gail for featuring Alan here.
Well YAY!!! I know that some of the subjects you mention are favourites if yours Ruth so I can see why they especially resonate with you. Lots to learn from this master when it comes to painting the city!
And shhh, truth be told,that painting is my favourite too. 🤫😬😁
Alan Flattmann’s Richeson’s 80 stick all purpose assortment
What a fascinating read! I haven’t heard of Alan before but I’m glad you’ve brought his work to my attention. Firstly the scale of these pieces are huge, what bravery to take on working that large. Second – wow what a well travelled career, I must say I’m a little bit envious of that, particularly the Greek Islands part!!
Thirdly the detail that Alan works to, I love a bit of detail and here we have it in spades.
I will be looking Alan’s work up and probably buying a book or two of his.
I particularly loved Quiet moments (Aunt Essie), I can feel the weight of the quilt on her and the warmth of the sun on her hands. I also really enjoyed the limited palette but blazing red sky of Camel market.
Thank you Gail for introducing me to this wonderful pastellist.
Michele
Ohhhhh Michele, thank you for your expressive and detailed comment!! I’m delighted to know that Alan’s work is unknown to you and that he is a new discovery for you. How cool is that?!
And thank you for bringing the scale of the work to our attention. And yes, you’re right about the bravery needed!!
And oh my gosh, I relate to your envy!! I felt envy when I first read Alan’s text about his stays in all these places!! I love to travel and what’s even nicer is to have the opportunity and time to stay in a place for an extensive time. And Alan seems to have worked that very nicely 😁
Thanks again Michele!
What a treat! Thanks, Alan, for sharing your sense of place. Your artwork is not only beautiful but so very interesting.
Gail, what a great choice…thank you!
Glad it was a treat Wendy! It certainly is a treat for me to have Alan Flattmann as a guest and to be able share his words and art with you!!
Alan’s book, The Art of Pastel Painting, was my first book on pastels. I remember that painting of Aunt Essie, and l liked “Struttin”, among many others. There was a quit intimacy about much of his work. More recently, since l have been visiting France a lot, l recognise places he has painted in the Lot valley and elsewhere. Alan remains an inspiration, always recognisable, among my top ten pastellists worldwide.
Ohhhhh Niall, thanks for sharing your experience with Alan’s work and your early encounters with it via his book. And yes, “quiet intimacy” is a perfect description of Alan’s pieces. Thank you for that. As you say, Alan’s work is always recognisable!!!
Thank you for introducing me to this amazing artist. Can so appreciate his “sense of place”. Favorites here are the Camels Market for its limited palette and exotic culture, Reverend Robinson again like his limited palette but I feel a beautiful soul under the expertly rendered robe, and lastly Myan Women Bathing in Lake Atitlan for the pastural feeling and similar vibe to Gauguin’s work! Of Barbados “everything was done by hand with very little mechanization” sigh I just love that! Again thank you Gail!!!!
Brenda your enthusiasm for this new discovery comes through loud and clear. Thank you for that!!! Love that you listed your favs and why. (Love the Gauguin connection!) I’m so happy to have introduced you to this master’s work!!
I have been smitten with Alan’s work for a long time and had the opportunity to take a workshop with him in California last spring. He is fascinating and shared his knowledge with such generosity of spirit, even giving us each several pieces of his handmade pastel paper and sharing photo print outs from his travels for us to us in class. His handmade paper is a unique surface that works very well with his techniques. I came away with great respect for Alan’s unique artistic voice, his many travels, his generosity and his gentleness. Thank you Gail for sharing his words and works! I have his book and recommend it. I’ve studied the paintings on his website (it’s a treasure trove) and find it hard to pick a favorite but of the ones posted here, I love Gabriel’s Horn and French Country Church.
Smitten – love that description Jean. Thanks for sharing your experience in one of Alan’s workshops. I’m sure Alan will be happy to hear it. How interesting to hear about his handmade pastel paper. I’m definitely curious now.
Oh and I love those two paintings too!!
A Sense of Place,love it. Beautiful details,lovely reds,and the four white aprons,just jump out!
Night Patrol, great details and vert realistic!
Paris in the Rain,great perspective! Lovely details!
French Country Church,so calm and peaceful.
Gabriel’s Horn,lovely light and shadows. Bits of detail and lovely reflections!
Thank you Gail and Alan for sharing theses lovely Artworks. 😁😁😁
Whoo hoo! Ed your delight in Alan’s paintings is palpable. 😁 Thank you for such an enthusiastic listing of your favs and why!
“Gabriel’s Horn” resides at my house. I also paint in pastel, and benefit daily from having this painting to both enjoy and to learn from. I especially love the way Alan kept the window pane views and the area to the left of Gabriel a more abstract set of shapes, allowing Gabriel to be an unfettered center of interest. But then, exploring the abstracted areas becomes its own fun once Gabriel sucks you in!
Having taken several workshops with Alan, I can echo others in saying he is just as approachable as he seems, and is a font of artistic knowledge. He has great patience with beginning artists and those new to the medium, and generously shares his methods. Thanks for sharing him with your followers!
Ohhhhhhhhhh Dawn, aren’t you the lucky one to one one of the favourite pieces of a number of readers!! It’s a beaut. Thank you for sharing that you are the person who gets to learn and be inspired by this piece every day.
Thank you also for reaffirming Alan’s talent as a teacher as well as an artist. I’m sure many people will want to sign up for an in-person workshop as soon as that becomes possible!
I had the pleasure of attending the art school in the French Quarter of New Orleans in the early 70’s when Alan was just a young man. I truly enjoyed his classes and they still remain among my most favorite memories. I learned a lot from him and his co worker, Joyce.
Lee Ridgeway was my name then.. I think he still remembers me… I still paint and teach art to senior ladies where I live in Mesa AZ.
Ohhh Alicia, thank you for this story of your encounter with Alan in the 70s! How wonderful that those classes still remain such a strong memory and influence on you. 😀
I loved hearing about all the “Places” that Alan found exciting to paint. I have traveled with Alan to Tasmania and Crete for Art Workshops and loved every minute of these trips. French Country Church is my favorite of this grouping; however, I am partial to his paintings around New Orleans. Love his city scenes especially when the streets are wet. Thanks for giving others a chance to know Alan – one of my favorite teachers!
Ohhhh Suzanne, I know a lot of people will be envious of you taking painting holiday workshops with Alan and in places off the beaten path. How fabulous!!
And thanks for sharing your fav paintings. 🙂
Thank you Gail for taking the time and inclination to interview and share Alan Flattmann with us! I love his sense of place as well and his realistic yet impressionistic paintings he’s gifted us, himself and those places with! Wow! I feel with him on his journey into “reality” – honouring each stop with presence and beauty. You picked a venerable artist, Gail! Thanks again to you and to Alan!
Warmly,
Julia
Julia I’m so happy that you enjoyed this guest post by Alan Flattmann. As you say, it’s such a gift to us!
I love to travel, and envy his luck with staying in place for protracted periods of time. The thing that I love most about travel is culture, music, drink and food.
I would love to be able to do pieces like “Gabriel’s Horn”, “Women Bathing at Lake Atitlan”, or “Quiet Moments”. I can’t shake the feeling that I am intruding if I try to catch a photo of people working or playing. I’m wondering what Alan’s approach to his subject is.
I loved seeing the progression of his styles over the years.
I am intrigued by his use of a watercolor painting as his underwork for his pastels. I’m wondering if he finishes the watercolor painting, then goes in with the pastels, or if he uses the watercolors as an underpainting.
Thanks Liz!
Great questions regarding capturing people with photographs and how to do that without intrusion, and also Alan’s use of watercolour. I’ll hand them over to Alan 😀
Thanks to everyone for the flattering comments. I appreciate you taking the time to read the post about my life’s work and passion. Being an artist isn’t always the easiest way to make a living, but it’s definitely one of the most fulfilling.
Best wishes, Alan
Thank you so much for this wonderful article about Alan Flattmann, Gail!
I grew up in New Orleans and share his strong sense of place there, and was also drawn to his experiences traveling, being present with, and capturing the essence of people as well as landscapes in those places. Being a student of art later in life and being new to pastel, I found his variety of paintings so inspiring, and I would love to take one of his workshops at some point in the future…Will get his book for now.
As for my favorites, Gabriel’s Horn is one; Henry Sciambra’s Produce Company and River Traffic in New Orleans brought me back to earlier times there that I hold dear. I can almost experience the sights, sounds, and smells again! Thank you for this lovely article and for this gift of time with Alan Flattmann.
Oh my gosh you are so welcome Diane! I love that you can relate to Alan’s paintings, particularly those of New Orleans having grown up there. Glad you were inspired and hope one of these days you’ll be able to take one of his workshops. In the meantime, his books will do the trick. 😀
I’m blown away by these! My favourites are ‘Coming ashore’ and ‘quiet moments’. They are like faded photographs of a time gone by. Thank you so much for introducing this master to me.
Whoo hoo!! I love “blown away” reactions. How wonderful for you to have discovered a new artist Shyla!
Thanks to everyone for the very nice and flattering comments. I appreciate you all taking the time to read about my life’s work and passion. Being an artist all these years hasn’t always been easy, but it has definitely been very fulfilling.
Cheers & best wishes,
Alan
nice paintings really. Just awesome
So glad you enjoyed them Debasree!
Thanks so much, Gail. What an eye-opener this article is. And the comments and his responses as well. I appreciated hearing about his formula for making a pastel surface and about his use of a ruler for starting drawing for his cityscapes. But mostly I enjoyed seeing all these wonderful paintings. Aunt Essie stood out, but it wasn’t the only one. Some of the scenes in France, where I’ve traveled at lot , seemed familiar – Paris in the Rain which looked a lot like coming off one side of Montmartre; and French Country Church which reminded me of the area around Montcabrier where we stayed for 6 weeks. And places I’ve never been. Sights like the magnificent Antiqua Weaver – WOW. You’ve often mentioned his work in the past and how much you love it. Now I know why.
Ohhhhhh glad this was an eye-opening article Jean. Always LOVE hearing that!
And I’m glad you can appreciate why I enjoy the wonderful work Alan does.