The Art of Still Life
Todd M. Casey grew up in Lowell, Massachusetts, home to James McNeill Whistler, Willard Metcalf and… Jack Kerouac. He followed the path of his townsmen as has become a renowned artist. He has also been on the road. After graduating from art school, he went to New York to work in animation for Ralph Lauren, studied animation in California and returned to New York to study at what is now Grand Central Atelier. Along the way he gathered mentors and friends, among them Warren Chang, Carlos Madrid, Max Ginsburg and Jacob Collins.
This winter he published a book and is having an exhibition at Rehs Contemporary Galleries in New York. The Art of Still Life: A Contemporary Guide to Classical Techniques, Composition, and Painting in Oil contains not only his insights on painting and drawing but also the work of over 50 past and present masters of the still life. The Art of Still Life exhibition continues through March 27.
In his book, he addresses the concepts
an artist has to tackle. He writes, “I’m not going to tell you how to paint. You figure out what to paint or how to paint.”
The objects in Casey’s still lifes are reminders of the history he experienced in Lowell and the seashore of New England. Nostalgic boat models and plans are arranged as if in a Ralph Lauren tableaux in Boat with Blueprint. Country Lemons is an over the top take on the traditional still life. “I like things that have life to them that have stood the test of time,” he comments.
His work melds the narrative tradition of Chang, the painterly commentary of Ginsburg and the academic tradition of the Collins and the atelier. He aims for “that sweet spot between Sargent and the academy.”
The vocabulary of brushstrokes varies from his loose, painterly studies to his highly rendered finished still lifes. “I hate to be static,” he says, citing Nietzsche’s quote, “The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind.”