Francis Livingstont uftan and southwestern scenes

hold open a dool to an era that has passed I By Gussie Fauntleroy

T WAS A BrT OF A BLOIV, FhlDrNG OUT HE

didn't have u{rat it takes to be a comic-book

artist. There he \\ras, young Francis

Livingston, in his first year at the Rocky

Mountain School of Art in Denver. All through

boyhood he'd collected comic books and

copied-u'ith good likeness, he thought-thedrawings of super-heroes, western heroes, and

even animal characters. At his Edmond, OKhigh school he'd been singled out by an art

teacher as "most artistic." And even though

regular kid stuff like fishing and playng tennis

occupied his time as much as drawing,Livingston knew he had some talent. His parents

supported his interest in art school, and finally,

there he was, enrolled in a course being taught

by * artist well known in the comic-book world.

But Livingston remembers

the instructor telling him,"You're not good at thesequential stuff." I{e coulddraw a character just fine thefirst time, but in the nextsequence, the same character ina different pose with a differentexpression needs to look likethe same character. Livingston's

84 Sormmesr ARr . IANUARY 2002

didn't-they came out differenteach time.

That appraisal cast a pall onLivingston's goal of becominga comic-book artist. But his

instructor asked to see someof his other drawings andpaintings. He nodded withapproval at the talent he saw

in them and suggested that

ffi

Livingston sign r-rp fbr cor-rrses iniinc ar-t.

Todar', more than a quarterof a cenfl:n- letcr. the artist stilllor-es comic-book art ;rnr,-l t,rkes

l-iis son to a major cornic-bookconlention in San Diego, CA,each vear. But l-re is rnore than1-raPP1. t,ith his orvn p;rth,dir-ergent though it has beentrom his original plan. Studies at

thc Sar-r Francisco Acadenn. oiArt, 10 r"ears ol teaching there,.rrtd rtt.rnr \ cJl's ot illLrstrationu'ork hr-ive led to his presentsuccessfr-rl career in fine-artpairrting lrrd reprcsentation in

galleries across dte countrv.Livingston nor,r, lives near Sun

Valle1,, ID, wid-r his u,ifb, artist Sue

Rother, and their t\vo sons.Inspired b,v N.C. \Yyed1r" ..odto

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IANUARY 2002 . Sor-nrrrsr,\ar 85

in Chadds Ford, PA" Livingstonbuilt his own work space to have

enorrnous windows that flood the

high-ceilinged room with cool,consistent nordr light. OuBide, a

cloak of cottonwoods and aspens

lies between the studio and the

Big Wood River, home to riverotter and trout. Eagles and osprey

soar above the trees, and for the

past ser.eral summers a mothermoose and her calves have

munched their way across thepropcq'. In the valley's clear lightand mountain-bordered beauty,

Lir.ingston is just a little bitremoved from the high-techfrequencv ofmodem life.

E5 Sa, ;1q5sr -{rr . I-r,r-r--ur- 20O2

he artist's paintings, as

well, invite the viewer tostep away from the urgent

pace of contemporary life.Although some of his workinvohes urban imagery, the scenes

are quieg often almost devoid ofpeople. Camivals and boardwalks

seem nearly deserted. Theaters and

other buildings are shut down and

gendy decrepit, their architectural

grandeur faded but still visible. Ina style that suggests rather thanillustrates, Livingston's paintings

hold open a door to earlier times.

Similarly, his southwesternimagery offers immense) openlandscapes and Indian pueblo

scenes as they could have existed

a century or more ago. As withthe urban imagery, there are fewhistorical details in these paintings

that would pin them to a specific

point in time. Yet they, too, speak

ofan era that has passed.

"I think I have an affinity forscenes from the past. I always go

back to certain periods that had,for example, better fashion, bettercars, when everything was won-derfirlly designed and crafted," he

reflects. "If I paint an old Ferris

wheel with a few litde figures todenote scale, or if I paint an oldadobe building or pueblo with a

few figures in it, to me these are

very compatible. Both draw on asense of a different time, whereyou can lose yourself in what itmight have been like back then."

It comes as no surprise tolearn that Livingston's work has

been influenced by painters JohnSloan II87I-r951] and EdwardHopper 11882-19671. Like Liv-ingston, they painted both urban

and southwestern imagery. Andboth spent time in Taos, NM, a

place to which Livingston has

long been drawn. Among thefirst works of original art he

experienced as a boy werepaintings by the early 20th-century Taos artists at theNational Cowboy Hall of Fame

in Oklahoma City, OI(Even Livingston's urban

scenes pass through a filter ofsouthwestern sensibility, as hegravitates to areas of saturated

color, moments of clear light,strong shadows, contrasts) andpattern. "Cities are often hazyand gray, so urban imagery can

tend to get grim. But I neverliked painting grim things," he

says. "Even if I paint unkept,run-down buildings, I neverwant to make it downbeat."

LoNE RrDE& orl-, 12 x9.

Livingston's irbilifl' to flncl

the r,isu;rllv con-ipelling sicle of-

durgs is one he accprirecl d-rrough

vears of commercial illustratirl-r

u.orh. rviren he u'as :rsked tcr

Portra\r evervthing fion.r thegrancl to thc ordir-r:rn'. "Aftcr a

u,hile \,on gct the sclrse that.urvthinEl e .ttt bc r\ ot-1ll p,1i111i11:'

and anythirtg c.ttl be p.rir-rrc.1.

Nou' I u,or-rlcl teel cortlne.l ii Ipaintcc'l orLlv o11e kirt.-1 L,I

imagen'," he s;l's.

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Agnew, A1................

Ahrendt, William.....Albrechtsen, Micae1 ......................

Aldrich, Edward.......Aldridge. Brad..........

Altermann Ga11eries.......................

American Indian College Fund.......

lVled ici ne l!|an Gal 1ery..........................

lVerrill Johnson Ga11ery...................... ...................

lvleyer Direct............

LrwNcstoN(comxuro FRoM PAGE 87)

a sense of balance, with things likecolor, texture) composition. "

While Livingston's brush strokesmay appear spontaneous and quick, his

work in fact involves the time-consuming processes of adding and

scraping off paint and layering thinglazes. The result is a style thatcombines sharp-edged detail with a

soft-focus feeling.

Livingston's painting methoddoesn't lend itself to working onlocation. Instead, the artist carries acarnera on road rips and rail journeys,

heading for places where remnants ofthe past reveal themselves in the midstof the modern world. He returns oftento such settings as the boardwalks and

amusement parks of coastal Californiaand the high-desert mesas and pueblos

of New Mexico. And he finds, as he

visits his favorite spots, that histhinking about art has shifted in an

important way since his days inillustration work.

"As an illustrator you're always

moving on to the next subject; younever do tfie same thing twice. So Iused to have the feeling that each fine-

art painting needed to be completelyunique, too," he says, "Now I see thatto go back-not to copy a painting butto revisit the same imagery-can be

real satisfying. You see it in a differentway, from a different angle, withdifferent light on it. You always see

new things." tr

Gussie Fauntleroy wrote about Beth

Inftin in the December issue.

LrvrNcsroN IS REPRESENTED BY

MsorcrNn MaN Gaur,RY, SANTA FE,

NM, aNo TucsoN, AZ; TrronasRsnvoros Fnu Anr, SaN FnaNcrsco,

CA; DraNr NsrsoN FINE Anr,Lncr,xa BmcH, CA; DNFA GAnnnv,PAsAonNA, CA; aNo Ancaora FrNn

Anrs, NrwYoRK, NY.

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