Katie Hogan put the finishing touches on an oil painting depicting her mother one morning as she described for Carnelian Art Gallery her process as an artist who creates portraits and figurative pieces.
“She was visiting from out of town and agreed to sit for us, which is always special … somebody taking the time so sit for three hours while a bunch of people paint you,” Hogan said inside her workspace at Atwood Atelier, a Madison art studio and school. “I start with a loose sketch … trying to figure out where I want the either the figure or the portrait to be within the canvas. Recently, I have been working with a lot of color first. You can probably see the remnants of the underpainting here … a lot of really vibrant color and then using some other pigments and colors and brushwork to bring that color down to a more natural appearance.
“(Having a live model) is a good practice in not thinking too hard. You can’t really fuss with too many things while you’re working (on your painting) because the model is only going to be there for a short amount of time. You have to prioritize. How do I capture the likeness of this person? The essence of this person?”
Hogan during the gallery’s visit used a photograph of her mother to further refine her painting. She also used what’s called a mahl stick to prop her hand on while painting to not only give her more control, but to avoid the risk putting her hand on wet paint, Hogan said.
The Madison artist is one of five exhibiting in Carnelian Art Gallery’s “Figure,” show, which focuses on representations of the human figure, hence the title. The exhibition lasts until Dec. 28. A holiday reception for Figure is set for 5 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 6. Please join us to see several of Hogan’s pieces on display, as well as the works of four other talented Wisconsin artists. We are located at 221 King St. in Suite 102.
Hogan’s Carnelian Art Gallery-displayed pieces in particular bare a resemblance to her mother’s portrait in style (realistic but almost impressionistic due to Hogan’s use of radiant colors), but the models in the paintings are nude. Each work is a distinct depiction of a figure, many of them feminine. An onlooker of Hogan’s works at the gallery might grow to appreciate the human body for exactly what it is, rather than what we aspire it to be.
“How can a human being be fit within a flat square?,” she writes in her artist statement. “That is the fascination I have with painting people and portraits of everyday Madisonians: musicians, teachers, mothers, fellow artists, neighbors, students, adventurers, brave souls who allow us to stare at them for hours and attempt to capture them. What began as a mechanical desire to get the likeness ‘right’ has turned into capturing the moment, the emotion, their personality ‘right’.”
Art as a second career
A Virginia Beach, Virginia, native, Hogan has “done art my whole life.” Growing up, her mother always had a craft table set up, Hogan said, adding that she took art classes throughout middle and high school. She loved to draw. But pursuing a career as a full-time artist was no intention of Hogan’s until fairly recently.
Hogan graduated from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 2018 with a degree in economics and a minor in studio art. In 2017, she said she studied abroad in Florence, Italy, where she worked with a live nude model to paint for the first time. Hogan found the work hard, but satisfying and “a little bit like a puzzle.”
When Hogan moved to Madison after college, she started working as a volunteer coordinator for a nonprofit, and did so for about five years. After experiencing intense burnout, and recalling her time in Florence, Hogan set out to pursue her true passion.
She now takes commissions and sells originals as a full-time artist, teaches classes at Atwood Atelier, and is the gallery manager at the Art Hub, an art center in the Village of Cambridge.
Of her hopes for her art in Carnelian Art Gallery’s Figure exhibition, Hogan said she’s excited to reach a new audience. Figurative art is “not something that can be shown everywhere,” she said.
