Artist of the Month

September 2009

John Sidman

Simi Valley, CA

John Sidman was born in 1971 in Sherman Oaks, California. Since childhood he made art, but didn’t pursue it as a career until his late teens. He continued his formal education in art at U.C. Santa Cruz under the mentorship of professors Patrick Aherne and Fred Hunnicut with a concentration in both painting and ceramic sculpture, graduating with a B.A. in art in March of 1995. By the late 1990s, John had lived all over the state of California, and continued self-educating by experimenting with style and media and collaborating with several other artists on group projects. Resisting the urge to show work that was immature or too close to student work, John took a job as an elementary art teacher and continued to refine his painting style, finally relocating himself in Ventura County, CA. John has always made a living by working with tropical fish and aquariums, in both the retail and service aspects of the industry.

In 2002 he finally used his life-long experience in this field to inform his artwork. The result has been his "Aquarium" series of paintings that he continues to work on until present. This work is personal and original while also satisfying his intellectual pursuits as an artist. John Sidman currently lives in Simi Valley, California with his wife Samantha and his two sons, Jack and Benjamin.

TAL: How and when did you start creating art?

JS : I was influenced and encouraged by my mother at an early age to enjoy making art. An amateur painter herself, she enrolled me in my first art classes and ensured that I had many creative outlets as a child. I took some classes in high school, but didn’t pursue a career in art seriously until my second year in community college.

TAL: What media and genres do you work in?

JS : I mostly use acrylics on canvas and focus on a series of paintings that are highly abstract, inspired by coral reef aquariums. I feel comfortable using most mediums especially soft pastel and gouache, and I enjoy drawing landscapes when I need to refresh my connection to nature. I also work in clay and mixed media.

TAL: Who or what are your influences?

JS : My greatest influence is Cézanne. I am focused on creating a balanced composition; on getting all parts of the painting to relate to all other parts; I rarely blend colors on the canvas, preferring to mix them on my palette and apply them in bold strokes; I try to use color to define space and depth rather than focusing on perspective and line; and I strive to be original despite often being misunderstood. I cannot forget the rest of modern art, however, and I am also influenced by: Kandinsky, De Kooning, Picasso, Eva Hesse, Andrew Goldsworthy, Comic books, and much more…

TAL: What was your inspiration for ""?

JS : (Aquarium #19) I made a sale. It wasn’t my first sale, but is was an extremely satisfying one due to the fact that it was a week after a show and the sale came as a surprise. I was also energized by the fact that the work sold itself and I was out of the equation. The buyer thought the piece he bought belonged to a different artist from the show he had come to see. I painted on #19 every day, all day for two weeks. It was the quickest I’ve ever finished an “Aquarium” piece, and I made several innovations to my style with the work. Several images that appeared for the first time in #19 have been re-used in other pieces; and it is the first work in the series that successfully captures space in a way that I’m happy with.

TAL: Describe your creative process.

JS : I face each blank canvas in a similar way. I’ve developed my painting style to specifically allow me to begin without preconceptions of a direction or goal so I can avoid any creative anxiety. I start by choosing a color. My preference is for a cool palette; blues, greens, purple, however I will sometimes begin with a hot color like red or yellow to challenge my sense of relationships and force me to think and see things differently. Sometimes I choose a subdued palette; sometimes it is wide and varied. I work abstractly, painting with gesture and drips, changing colors and rotating the canvas until it is saturated with my marks. At this point, I choose a few parts of the painting that through randomness have the characteristics of corals or fish. My biggest challenge is to develop imagery while keeping the painterly qualities of the abstract foundations. I anchor my composition with these initial images, and then use color to define space and depth. I work to balance the composition while retaining a sense of movement. Some imagery is developed in an obvious way, while some is left for the viewer to identify within the abstract gestures; and is meant to help them make the connection between the movement of my paintbrush and the action on the reef.

TAL: What are you working on currently?

JS : I am now working on 3 paintings, 2 small and 1 somewhat larger one. They are Aquarium #53, #54, and #55. I also am copying a late Cezanne landscape of Mt. St. Victoire in pastel.

TAL: What are your near/long term goals as an artist?

JS : I am currently looking for gallery representation in other cities. I hope to work on some larger pieces, and hope to expand my studio space. I have a goal of producing a group of paintings that cover all four walls of a gallery space so the viewer can be surrounded by the reef, giving them the sense of being “in” the aquarium.

TAL: Where can people view/purchase your work?

JS : My work can be seen at www.johnsidman.com . I am also currently hanging at the Red Brick Gallery in Ventura, CA; and at Jonathon’s Restaurant and Tapas Bar, also in Ventura, CA.

Aquarium #19

Aquarium #7

Aquarium #26

Aquarium #47