From his secluded studio in Sister Bay, Wisconsin, Craig Blietz finds an hour in one of his precious mornings to chat about what inspires him---farm animals, and especially the cow. Acrylic, gouache, oil and watercolor images line the studio's walls and display his works in progress, studies for larger paintings. Last September, Blietz was invited to exhibit at the 2010 Contemporary Realism Biennial in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to which he commented about the experience, “This was a great honor to be included in that group of painters. The quality and range of realism was phenomenal.” Realism preoccupies the artist on his very recent visit to Milwaukee where Blietz attended the Wisconsin State Fair. Where did he go first? Certainly the diary building to buy a cream puff eluded the artist even if his bovines produce the milk that helps concoct this superior confection. However, Blietz headed straight for the Dairy barn for an up close and personal look at his beloved and Renaissance painted cows.
What fascinates you about being in the Dairy barn at the fair?
There's nothing like that opportunity you have at the State Fair. No cages and you can go right up front. I do drawings and sketches right there in the barns, they [the cows] are pleasant and docile. Not one piece of fur is out of place, these cows are shampooed and blown dry, they even use bluing to whiten their hides. Even though I do use photographs at some time, even after 15 years [of painting cows], I feel I still need to reference them [in real life]. I visited all the barns, even the swine barns. It's an experience.
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How does painting cows fulfill your artistic vision?
I use the cow the way a landscape painter uses a landscape as a platform for his painting. This is a platform for my formalist, academic painting and cows also have sacred connotations, symbolism. There's the geometry of the animal, that abstract quality in their coloring. I can use that abstract formalist thinking from a visceral standpoint, with their [the animal's] shapes and gestures. With time, I've taken them more out of the natural context [the animals placed in more abstract rather than real backgrounds].
Door County then appears to be an idyllic place for your work?
Door County provides a great reference point, and I go out and draw and paint in the fields. Here they are in the fields. It used to be that you could see cows in the fields all the time. Now they often don't leave the buildings at the mechanized farms. Family farms are disappearing, and each farm would feed 150 people. The disappearance of agricultural land for suburban sprawl is a significant issue.
How much time do you spend on your painting each day?
I spend at least eight hours every day drawing, painting and sketching in some form, here [in the studio] or outside. Sometimes I spend ten hours in my studio. And the smaller works, sketches or watercolors, and paintings help build a momentum for then attempting my larger paintings. I've been working with acrylics more lately, because I used these in smaller paintings, instead of oils, and trying to find the more formalist relationship of shapes to one another and the space [on the canvas]. I see no difference from my painting farm animals than someone who paints the figure, landscapes, portraits or still life. And lately, I solve my problems [in painting] through reductiveness, or elimination [removing extra elements or objects in the painting]. The painting, it's my passion.
View contemporary realist Craig Blietz's paintings at Door County's Edgewood Orchard Gallery or Milwaukee's Tory Folliard Gallery or at his website: www.blietzstudio.com.
