Interview
Frank "Chip" Mayes
Franks is a native of Pensacola, Florida. He was influenced early in his childhood by the National Geographic magazine and the pictures he saw. Classical Greek art fascinated the youngster and then the Roman Art and then the great masters and art history. He found the Renaissance and Baroque periods of art most exciting and entertaining because of the stories the paintings told. His parents allowed a Sears salesman to come present the Sears “Learn To Draw” kit. They didn’t buy the kit, but the salesman did show young Frank how to shade with the side of his pencil. At the age of nine, he painted his first oil painting. It wasn’t much but it was a start. Next came pastels, and for several years he learned how pastels worked. He began serious oil painting with a local art teacher while in Junior High, now called “Middle School.” High School provided a better opportunity for experimenting in various media. In college, he was an Art Major. His real education as an artist began after college, when he went off to Europe to explore and see what it meant to be an artist.
He was fortunate to be able to study art at the National Gallery as well as the Tate Gallery in London, and the Louvre in Paris and the Uffizi in Florence. Many hours were spent in the MET in New York. His concentration was the works of Vermeer, Rembrant, Van Gogh, Monet, Cezanne, Caillebotte, Turner, and the American Romantics including Bingham. He paid particular attention to who he considered to be the contemporary Amer- ican Masters, Whistler, Parrish, Homer, Wyeth, and Rockwell. And the of course and always Raphael, Da Vinci, And Michelangelo. He won his first award in the fifth grade from the Pan American Art Contest. There have been other awards, Last year he place in the Chelsea International Art Contest, and First Place in the Cheyenne River Art Festival. Frank Mayes is a painter of realism.
What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?
“I showed signs of an interest in art as a 4-year old child. My parents had a Sears sales man come to our house to sell them a art package. He even showed me how to shade with the side of my pencil. It ran away from there. I took art in school. I was an art major in college. After graduation, I left for Europe to start my real education in art. I have traveled the world, and experienced many different cultures and ways of life and living. I have become a visual storyteller; an observer of people , places, and things.”
What inspires you?
“Watching the hummingbirds from my front porch, the sun set over the Serengeti, horses, Monument valley, the Sioux Nation, my friends, science, cathedral pipe organs, playing music with friends, a mountain stream, books, my wife and other artists.”
What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?
“My themes are seen in the different genres I work in. They are western, landscapes, figure studies, my African series, and what I call ‘deviant art.’ The underlying message is what the viewer sees in the painting. It could be the love of mother earth, or the strange things one sees when one actually looks. There are some underlying meanings possibly seen in my western work, focusing on the Lakota Sioux. Meanings are made up by the viewer.”
How would you describe your work?
“I am not a realist painter. I do do photo renderings, in fact if you get real close to one of my paintings, the brush strokes and the pain bits are rather loose. But when you step back five or six feet the painting becomes alive, think of zooming in on a photo so far you can see and manipulate the pixels. When you zoom out, it becomes a photo image of something. I like strong contrast and the use of light on the subject. I paint what I see; what I experience and what the little man in my head shows me.”
Which artists influence you most?
“Artists like Vermeer, Rockwell, Rembrandt, Parrish, Sargent, Homer, Delacroix, Wyeth, and others.”
“I am a realist painter. I do do photo renderings, in fact if you get real close to one of my paintings, the brush strokes and the pain bits are rather loose.”
What is your creative process like?
“My creative process is a form of meditation. Get out of bed early, get my large mug of coffee - watch a bit of news while drinking my coffee. Then, I go into my studio and open the turps jar, put out some fresh liquid and Neo Megilp; maybe some Galkyd. I select a hand full of brushes and put them on the side shelf of my easel and look at the canvas to take up where I left off the day before. I'll work until I get hungry, stop and eat something for lunch - like Ramen noodles. Then, I go back to work. Sometimes, I will painted for an eight hour stretch, occasionally nine or ten hours. It just depends if I am excited by the painting or just trying to get the thing finished.”
What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?
“There isn't a specific roll for an artist. In college, we were all liberal; we wanted to save the world with our statements in art. As one grows, the range of art grows and matures. In some cases, art is entertainment; in contemporary popular art, it's color over the living room couch. Is the human race evolving - we hope so, and as a side bar the ‘art’ will evolve with the people on the edge or in control.”
Have you had any noteworthy exhibitions you'd like to share?
“I showcased my work at Art Tours International 60 Masters, The Ridge Gallery, The Mobile Art Center, The Cheyenne River Art Festival, The Artel Vault Gallery, The Ft. Worth Art Center and others exhibitions.”
Website: acmeaestheticsfrankmayesart.com
Instagram: @ArtistChip
