What is Push/Pull? Artists Respond

Alana Barrett 

I paint to experiment, play, and discover. My studio practice is process driven - in that I am more concerned with the process of discovering something new on the canvas than the end result. Teaching about the principles of push pull has helped me develop a sort of consciousness to the typically innate or intuitive decisions I make as I paint, thus empowering me to dive deeper, play harder, and take bolder risks as I work. 

www.alanacbarrett.com

Ana Silbert

This series of classes turned my quarantine into the most intensive creative period of my artistic career. Learning about the concept of push pull added a dynamic element to my work, and the ongoing challenges and group support inspired me to run to the studio after each class. My work tends to be representational, rich in pattern and the play of colors, shapes, and lines.

Anne Doolitte

In these works I played with overlapping lines and shapes to make the boundaries and shapes within the figure push and pull the picture plane. I learned that white, often used for highlights, can also recede into the background. I pushed myself to break out of solid, static color shapes by giving the color nuance and opening the edges.

www.annedoolittle.com

Anne Mai

As an artistic novice, I am delighted to be introduced in this course to the concepts of Push/Pull that illuminate how the eye is attracted and moved by interactions of form, color and luminosity.  Because Push/Pull is about effects and not about rules, I am looking forward to having enough experience in painting to have a more visceral knowledge of how to achieve the transformational results of the application of its principles.  In the meantime, I bumble along and feel grateful when I see I have achieved it in some small way. I am overwhelmingly grateful for the incomparable community of artists who have supported me in my fledgling efforts to make art - and for Laura, our ever-enthusiastic and generous teacher along with Alana as her gifted assistant.

Anne Webb-Johnson

Space, form and color have been central to my work for many years. Thanks to the “Push Pull” workshops my work has progressed from classical proportion and representation to Abstraction. I am enjoying the freedom to be intuitive and to express energy and emotion.

Carol Krieger

During this time of Covid, while experiencing a disabling period of vertigo and headaches, my world was supported and expanded by joining the wonderful group of artists and teachers in Laura Shabott's class.  Though I have known for years about Push/Pull (I was a graphic artist), it was a great learning experience to consciously challenge myself to make paintings with Push/Pull as the focus for making art. 

Gretchen Durst Jacobs

My work has always stemmed from a deep reverence and connection with the natural world. By working both outside, (en plein air) and in the studio from memory, I respond to the feeling and experience of a landscape, particularly forests, thickets, rivers and streams. Re-focusing on Push/Pull painting purposely, has informed my work in new and exciting ways.

www.gretchendurstjacobsart.com

Joanne Barrett

The opportunity to remotely study painting at Castle Hill from my home in Miami was the upside of the pandemic lock down.  PushPull Painting means (to me) to paint and collage freely with mindful consideration of form, line, pallet and hue.  My fellow women artists act as a push-all as they challenge/critique me to create betterment in each canvas I approach.

Karen Wolf Fagelman

For me, the Art of Push Pull is all about the color relationships, marks, and forms created on the canvas.  Depth is achieved by juxtaposing color and form rather than traditional representation with linear perspective.   I make art for the love of the process, and the denouement is secondary.  It is in the process of artmaking that I can express emotions, decipher feelings and convey a perspective for the viewer’s interpretation. 

KatAlene Masella

Studying Hoffman’s push/pull theory provided me with another tool for obscuring reality. I love the feeling of oscillation when two shapes of color and/or value are juxtaposed to sometimes enhancing a feeling of ambiguity as to what is pushing back versus pulling forward.  The weekly homework prompts were excellent exercises in provoking deeper thought on the concepts.  I always felt free to experiment fearlessly within a supportive and friendly community of whom kindly spoke of my work as being expressive, evocative and emotional. 

www.katmasella.com

Laura Shabott

“In [the painting] Window, white oil pastel lines suggest dimensionality, but the perspective feels alien. The figure thrusts forward, as if part of a diorama, and the window is surrounded by a halo of light. A plug socket on the wall reminds the viewer of how the painting came about [on Zoom].” Saskia Maxwell Keller
From: Maxwell Keller, Saskia “Laura Shabott finds virtual inspiration for her paintings.” Provincetown Independent, July 23, 2020 

https://provincetownindependent.org/arts-minds/2020/07/23/laura-shabott-finds-virtual-inspiration-for-her-paintings/
Laura Shabott on Artsy: https://www.artsy.net/berta-walker-gallery

Maeve O’Donovan

What is Push Pull?  According to Aristotle, form cannot be separated from matter except as an act of intellect, and in push pull we see this most clearly. Color is not applied to form; form and color co-constitute each other, shifting and mutating as paint and canvas interact. Through weekly critiques, exercises, and presentations, Shabott and Barrett have brought these principles to life for me, and our community of artists has kept me grounded in my most personal of material forms, myself, during a time when everything else seems to be falling apart.

Mary Ann O’Loughlin

Covid, Creativity and Community: this confluence, articulated and exemplified in our class over the last few months, has rekindled my old but buried interest in painting. I had not painted for many years. I am grateful to have this opportunity to grow,  experiment and make real art in such a safe and supportive environment. 

Roseanne Williams

Why Do I Paint? Hans Hofmann’s “Push Pull” technique has strongly influenced me since I began painting. I paint for the challenge it brings, the chance to work in several different mediums, the emotional stimulation. The opportunity to interpret something in a profoundly aesthetic way. To observe, visualize and use my imagination to engage the viewer.

www.poeticinterpretations.com