Sp Reid

“I guess the best way to say it is to become acquainted with your own methods of interpreting your own ideas, visions, pics, etc. Most artists will give a realistic reflection of what they see, but nothing more. You are striving for that which you feel, the precise sensation of an hour and place, the mood of a season; your work is qualified by a power of suggestiveness rarely seen in regular art. Usually the regular artist renders minute detail; he satisfies the imagination he evokes. But you either suppress or idealize detail, steep your distances in mist, band your landscape with cloud, make of your experience a memory in which only the strange and the beautiful survive-with their sensations. You surpass imagination, excite it and leave it hungry with the hunger of charm perceived in glimpses only. Nevertheless, in such glimpses you are able to convey the feeling of a time, the character of a place, after a fashion that seem magical. You are a painter of recollections and sensations, rather than of clear-cut realities; and in this lies the secret of your amazing power, a power that is not to be appreciated by those who have never witnessed the scene of your inspiration. You are above all things impersonal. Your human figures are ...

My education includes having studied millions of images, scenes, photos, paintings, people, places, and things; and what is behind them, what is before them and what they are moved by, inspired by and caused by. I have produced several hundred drawings and paintings before entering high school at the age of 14; during all 4 years of High School I was encouraged to pursue a career as artist or writer, I received A grades in art and my work was constantly held up as an example of what the teacher was looking for. Directly after high school, I attended one semester of college and then decided to pursue survival in the real world and moved to the San Francisco bay area to pursue employment and practice being an artist. After several years of this route, I discovered Ning Hou and then asked to study under him, had to show a portfolio, was accepted by Ning, and then spent 8 years in private, intensive study with Ning Hou, and also served as his assistant in public demonstrations and sales, and traveled with him on road trips for material gathering missions for painting subjects.
Who is Ning Hou and why does spending 8 years in private, intensive study mean something?
Ning Hou was born in 1957 in Shanghai, China. He received his BA degr...

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