Light is Everything: An Interview with Seth Haverkamp
Using a limited palette, oil painter Seth Haverkamp conjures up glowing portraits that glow with magic and mystery. We interviewed the portrait artist about his latest exhibition of light infused paintings at Bender Gallery in North Carolina.
Light seems to be a central focus in your work, whether as a reflection of the cosmos in a lake or as a ball of glowing thread. What fascinates you about it?
Light is everything. It’s the essential component in describing life. And happily, light is color. Light is an excuse to paint intense colors and colorful transitions from one plane to another. Combining two different light sources of different colors is not only fun for me to do, but also a way to create drama and atmosphere that could be lacking otherwise. Complimentary colors look good together, to my eye, and have the ability to take paintings to the otherworldly or fantastical. I enjoy taking the mundane or everyday and making it less so by simply adding another light source. Basically, I love color and multiple light sources allows me to use more color. The play and options of multiple light sources hitting an object are endless.
Is the light itself a projection of the subjects’ emotions or is the figure responding to it?
I like the question because it implies I may have deeper meaning to the reason I do things. Mostly, the subjects responding to the light. Although that does raise an interesting point in that, I hope, we as viewers have our own emotional reactions in response. And if one of those thoughts is, is the subject saying things, then the viewer is interacting with the subject. And that’s part of my goal, to have an interaction between the viewer and the subject in the painting
You use a limited a limited palette of red, blue, yellow, purple, cadmium orange, and white. Did you always use so few colors or did this specific approach evolve?
I had lots of colors on my palette earlier in my career, like 20 something. Through trial and error I learned that these few colors work best for me. The colors I use now are all bright and I know what they make when I mix them together. Being color blind, I have had to develop a technique to assure I never get unwanted colors. For example, I don’t use earth tones and yellow ochres and what-not because I can’t see what they become when mixed. I also had to develop a style where the warms and cools were seperate color pools and stayed in there own color family, basically. When it comes to painting people, I rarely mix blue with other colors. I lay the blues and greens down as purely as I can and then through painting layers, work the blues in to where they are hopefully “fleshy”.
I like the idea of blue being next to yellow to make green, etc. So if that falls into a category like Impressionism or something else then that’s cool.
Does the restrictive palette force you to approach your painting in a way that you wouldn’t otherwise?
See above. Lol. I’m not sure though. I don’t think so, really. I could have four different versions of each color and make them work probably. It’s the earth tones and the greens specifically I have to be careful with and can’t use. I do use one brown, but it’s alway pure. I don’t use white with it or use it in mixtures. I don’t think I would pick up the variations of colors if I were to try to mix a lot of different colors from a lot of different colors. It’s being color blind that forces me to paint how I paint.
In some of your works, it’s almost as if the painting techniques that you use could be described as Impressionism, perhaps with some of the backgrounds even Pointillism…
I love details and faces and hands and trying my best to be as detailed and colorful and perfect as I can. My backgrounds and other areas have developed a much more abstract feel and the paintings that are set in reality also have an abstract element. I stumbled upon this watercolor technique years ago when I couldn’t finish any paintings. The portrait would be done but the backgrounds weren’t. Happily I realized that sometimes you can just let some things go, and lo and behold, my splattered backgrounds were born. I lay the paintings down and glaze in thin glaze down and splash another color or 3 into that. Through many layers you can achieve some interesting results. What I am trying to do now, is keep the splatter and apply it to real world elements. Cloth, clouds, ground, whatever it may be. I just really like the idea of using a tiny brush to paint an iris and a face and then a big brush to throw paint around and make them work together.
I don’t think in terms of Impressionism or anything. I do what I want and hopefully what works well for the painting. If it holds the viewers interest then that’s of course great. I do like bright colors, I like the idea of blue being next to yellow to make green, etc. So if that falls into a category like Impressionism or something else then that’s cool.
I do like how, since Impressionism and other movements, we have permission to express whatever we want however we want. To take a bright palette that is similar to brightly painted haystacks for example and use that to paint a portrait is rather pleasing to think about…
The backgrounds on many of these newest works are a kind of character of their own it seems. I can get lost looking at them…
That’s lovely. Thank you. It’s been a joy developing and using this technique to complement the subject and have its own personality. I’m after adding weight to the painting, to add drama to the subject, and an overall interesting feel of realism that isn’t too classic in its final look. I have strong opinions about how I want my brush work to look, and it’s not chaotically or un finished looking or painterly. Oddly, though it is painterly, the splattering doesn’t fall into that category for me. Im after resolved and finished and controlled and, for me, my backgrounds tick those boxes. If a person can get lost back there for awhile that’s a big win in my book, especially the newer ones with more landscape.
Your paintings remind me of the Carl Sagan quote: “The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.” In a similar way, it appears that your figures and the background are made of the same “stuff”. Does that quote resonate with you?
I like that. Definitely. I am nothing if not a product of our universe and like to think as such. The world and space are overwhelmingly amazing and it brings to mind the soul and power of life beyond life, not in a religious way, just a: Wow. We are woven of the fabric of this incredible landscape and marvel that is all the stuff. That all sits very comfortably with me.
How do you choose your models for your portraits? Do you provide any specific direction for them?
I do most of my paintings in my head and have a specific person in mind. During the photo shoots, the ideas will often morph as the sitters own personality and ideas come out. But mostly, we start with a specific idea.
I’m always interested in the environment in which an artist works. I’m sometimes surprised at how the environ can be a complete contrast to the work that is being completed. I paint while listening to fast paced music, somehow that calms me. My wife listens to audio books .. And my studio is a towering mess at times. Do you prefer a tidy space with ambient music?
I’m a neat painter. The environment doesn’t really affect me. It’s not neat, but it’s not un-neat either. As for listening, anything and everything. From classic rock to modern music to podcasts and books. Whatever I’m in the mood for. Ideally, a good chess tournament is going on so oddly enough that holds my attention as well, lol.
“Spirt of Myth”, a
Solo Exhibition for Seth Haverkamp is on view at Bender Gallery from November 9 – November 30, 2024
I am nothing if not a product of our universe and like to think as such.
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