Pastel painter brings culture to canvas

Acclaimed pastel painter and New Orleans native Alan Flattmann brings his work to the Barnwell Garden and Art Center in a "25 Year Retrospective," as well as imparts knowledge of the craft in a three-day workshop.

The "25 Year Retrospective" exhibit is up through June 27.

"It's a nice representation and sampling of the kind of paintings I've done over the past 25 years," Flattmann said.

"He is a nationally known and very sought after painter," said Jillene Faulk, artist liaison for Barnwell. "He is a Louisiana boy, but his reputation is well outside the scope of Louisiana."

Flattmann is greatly influenced by his hometown and also by attending the John McCrady School of Art in the French Quarter, where he later taught.

"The main part of it are paintings based on New Orleans, a New Orleans theme, ranging from cityscapes or street scenes of New Orleans — the French Quarter primarily — to paintings of musicians, a jazz funeral, Preservation Hall," Flattmann said. "All things that are really major traditions in New Orleans, sort of iconic samplings of what New Orleans is all about."

He points out that while his love affair with the character of New Orleans is ever enduring, he has found a place in his heart for other countries such as Guatemala, Italy, France, Croatia, Ireland and Greece, which he frequently visits for inspiration and to teach.

"So New Orleans is the mainstay but in addition to New Orleans, over the years, I've enjoyed traveling, particularly doing theme shows on particular places and countries whose cultures have interested me. So in the show there are some samples of some of those paintings," Flattmann said.

In 2006 Flattmann was honored with an induction into New York City's Pastel Society Hall of Fame. He also is a Master's Circle member of the International Association of Pastel Societies.

In addition to his exhibit he will be teaching a seminar for Shreveport-Bossier City residents.

"I get a lot of satisfaction from teaching and seeing the development of the students and showing them how I work and giving them ideas on how to develop their own work," Flattmann said.

"One thing I try to do in all my workshops, regardless of the style that the painter wants to work in, is to teach them the fundamental methods of how to develop a painting from start to finish," Flattmann said.

"So part of what I do is try and explain the process of how to develop a painting from start to finish and how it goes through a logical process that can be applied to working in any style from a more realistic way to a more loose or abstract way."

This exhibit is an expansion of one that was shown in Lake Charles.

"At the Lake Charles art center, I took everything I had and added additional paintings to it (for the Shreveport showing)," Flattmann said.

Flattmann said the prevalent and evocative emotions present in the New Orleans culture has fueled the fire for his subject matters and resonates in his artwork of other areas of the globe he's studied.

"Each period of art, if you study history, is a little representation of that time. Studying the paintings of those times tells you a lot about the culture of those times," Flattmann said.

"Every movement has some relationship to the culture of the time and the mentality of the time, and I think right now people are open to many different things."

It is this love of culture along with the proper use of pastel, regardless of style, that the artist hopes to impart on his students at the Shreveport painting workshop.

"I think anyone attending his workshop will come away with a new enlightenment as to the possibilities of pastels," Faulk said.

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"Most people think of pastels as being a fairly simplistic art form, but in his hands pastel becomes a thing of depth, beauty and intricacy that is just unmatched."