East West Visions Gallery Guide

In 1995, he returned to Vietnam and got to visit his father who East/West Visions:had survived. His father hosted a feast for 125 people andQuang captured the scene in his painting, 27 Year Feast. Scott Christensen and Quang HoHe reads philosophy and religion extensively, giving hima greater context to consider the importance of art. “Myunderstanding about painting has been directly affected andilluminated by my search to understand life, science, music,literature and so on. There is no doubt that there is a beautifulcorresponding thread that unites all disciplines of life.”When asked, why should an artist develop understanding?Quang replied, “As an artist, you are both the composer andthe musician. I was a highly skilled artist, but I didn’t become agood painter until I developed an understanding of what art isreally about. To learn a bunch of rules about what to do and notto do in painting doesn’t necessarily bring artists to understand © Quang Ho, 27 Year Feast, 1995, oil on linen, 30 x 24”the how and why of what they’re painting—in fact, holding ontorules will certainly restrict one’s ability to be free. Understanding will always set you free. If you don’t feel free as apainter or as a person, then there is something missing.”East/West Visions: Scott Christensen & Quang Ho is on view at the Booth Western Art Museum October 25,2018 through January 20, 2019.Front Cover, clockwise from top left:© Quang Ho, Grand Canyon in the Spring, not dated, oil on panel, 48 x 48”© Quang Ho, By Mountain Stream, not dated, oil on panel, 60 x 60”© Scott Christensen, Heading Home, 2017, oil on canvas, 30 x 32”, Collection of Mr. & Mrs. Thibaut© Scott Christensen, Reflective Light, 2017, oil on canvas, 30 x 32”501 Museum Drive, Cartersville, GA 30120 770-387-1300 | www.boothmuseum.org

Scott Christensen and Quang Ho are two of America’s most admired living artists. They are highly sought after by In 1994 on a trip to Sweden, Scott was influenced by Impressionist Anders Zorn, who used a palette limited toboth collectors and art students, and their work is appreciated well beyond the perceived boundaries of Western red, yellow, black and white. Scott began to paint with a limited primaries palette and used this approach forArt. many years. After 2005, he changed his approach and now uses many different palettes in his paintings. Today, rather than being driven by technique, he is emotionally driven and his goal is to paint pieces that carry soul andScott is primarily known as a plein air artist who paints beautiful landscapes that make the viewer feel as though feeling.they could step right into the scene. Quang is also revered for his landscapes, but has also earned recognition forhis interiors, dancers, figurative works, and still-lifes. The largest Christensen painting in the exhibit is 80” x 120”. When asked, why do you create large works? Scott said, “They help me grow because I can’t do them in one shot. To me it’s a bunch of problems that just got larger,Scott and Quang are similar in that they both suffered adversity in their younger years and rose above those and I like to see if I can handle them. I like the difficulty and the challenge. It’s a competition between me anddifficulties to pursue careers in art. Both are very serious about their art, believing that painting isn’t some the canvas to say what I want. And I like the fact that in larger works, you feel as though you can walk into them.”random act, it is a process involving a continuous series of decision making. Learning to make good decisionshas taken years of practice and perseverance. Both men credit mentors who helped them along the way and are Quang Ho was born and raised in Vietnam until hedetermined to give back by teaching others. was four years old. He, his mother, and four younger brothers and a sister escaped from Saigon in 1975,Scott Christensen was planning to be a teacher and a football coach when, in a twist of fate, his life changed the day before it fell. Their father was left behind asimmediately. Groomed to be an athlete, excelling in football, he played on his college team. Following an on- a prisoner of war and they were not sure if he wouldfield incident that left him with a crushed C7 vertebrae, the doctor asked if he wanted to continue playing and survive.risk becoming a quadriplegic. After careful evaluation of his long term goals, he decided to pursue an art careerinstead. Then, after starting completely over in the United States, his mother died in a tragic automobileAs a boy, he loved physical activity and the great outdoors. He also remembers visiting his grandfather, who, accident in 1982, and he, at age nineteen, was lefthaving been injured in a farming accident, was confined to a wheelchair and took up painting. “What I remember to raise his brothers and sister.best is the smell of paint in that house,” Scott says. He noticed that his grandfather was content when painting orshowing off his work to his grandson. His artistic interest began at age three and continued through grade school, high school, and art schoolAround 1988, Christensen moved to Jackson, © Quang Ho, Deep Autumn, WV, not dated, oil on panel, 48 x 48” and led him to a successful painting career. In 1980,WY where he sought out the advice of plein air at the age of sixteen, he held his first one-man-artists whose work he admired. Clyde Aspevig, show at Tomorrows Masters Gallery in Denver, CO.Bob Barlow, and William Reese were his The exhibit was a huge success for the high schoolmentors. This trio of contemporary landscape sophomore.painters from the Rockies were bringing criticalrespect to natural interpretations of the West, In 1982, he garnered a National Scholastics Art Awards Scholarship and attended the Colorado Institute of Art.along with Skip Whitcomb, Len Chmiel, Tucker At CIA he studied painting with Rene Bruhin, whom he credits with developing the foundation for his artisticSmith, T. Allen Lawson, and Geoff Parker. understanding.As a plein air artist, Scott spends much of Quang says, “Rene was my saving grace. He was a crusty, hard driving professor who’d come up and say, ‘Whathis time outdoors painting studies or small the hell are you doing?’ He could solve a problem with just a few strokes and taught me not only how to paint, butsketches of the landscape to gather the overall how a painting works: things like color notes and melody. Rhythm and the underlying structure of a painting werefeel of the scene. Then he brings the studies important to Bruhin, and he stressed that the real master of art expresses feeling rather than technique, which isback to his studio to re-create scenes in larger achieved through intuition rather than education.”and more detailed form. © Scott Christensen, Yellowstone Hot Pot, 2017, oil on canvas, 30 x 32”, Ho graduated from CIA in 1985 with the Best Portfolio Award for the graduating class. Mikkel Saks, an art dealer Collection of Dr. & Mrs. Murphy in Denver, discovered his talent and promoted him in his gallery, which led to even more success.