6 QUESTIONS WITH ARTIST/PAINTER JOHNNY BEE BADANJEK!

A Small Utopia (Portrait Of Mary Cobra.

In the top 2 of my favorite legendary rock drummers, Johnny Bee Badanjek (Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, Edgar Winter, The Rockets, Alice Cooper, Dr. John, Albert King, Nils Lofgren, The Romantics) is also a very accomplished artist/painter.

"The Pipe Smokers Go Stark Raving Mad." 

Bee's work has been featured at Art Prize in Grand Rapids and many other galleries. I really enjoy his work and am excited that Detroiters will get an opportunity to see Bee and his art on display this coming August 2-31 at the Detroit Artist Market. 

Was thinking the other night that I really don't know much about Bee's art process and this new 6 question Q&A was the result. Thanks, BEE!!

RK: Who are some of your personal art heroes?

BEE: Art is a long history! There may be hundreds of painters I like, but I'll just name a few. Caravaggio, Eugene Delacroix, Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Arshile Gorky, Jackson Pollack,
Willem De Kooning, Joan Mitchell.

Chaålis Abbey

RK: What are your top 5 favorite tools to work with?

BEE: I work in Oil and Acrylic Paint. Prismacolor Pencils, Black Ink, and Pastels.

"The Boy With The Moon Rock Eyes." 

RK: What motivates you to paint?

BEE: I always liked drawing as a kid. And I thought that I would be an artist. But I started playing the drums and got sidetracked for fifty years before I came back to art. I think it's (art) just something you have to do. In order to be a real artist, you have to close the door and throw your bank book away. And become an Isolated stranger to the rest of the world. " Painters are like magicians of Insecurity."

"Erasing A Cobra With Moon On A String."

RK: Do you sketch first or paint straight to canvas?

BEE: I do both. Sketching helps the mind loosen up and start ideas flowing. And other times you just start painting and see what comes out. Most of the time you end up in a different place from where you started.

"The Artist And His Mother."

RK: What artist/genre do you most identify with?

RK: I like artists from the Mid-century who came from the New York School. Abstract Expressionists! I would say my painting is like an Abstract-Figuration with squiggles and scumbling!

Transcendental

RK: What’s your favorite of your artwork

BEE: I have a few favorites. (1.) "The Boy With The Moon Rock Eyes." (2.) "A Small Utopia (Portrait Of Mary Cobra." (3.) "The Pipe Smokers Go Stark Raving Mad." (4.) "Erasing A Cobra With Moon On A String." (5.) "The Artist And His Mother."

Event information is HERE

Johnny Bee Badanjek Official Website

VAN GOGH PAINTINGS FINALLY SHOWN MARCH 17 1901

Vincent van Gogh self portrait

On March 17, 1901, paintings by the late Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh are shown at the Bernheim-Jeune gallery in Paris. The 71 paintings, which captured their subjects in bold brushstrokes and expressive colors, caused a sensation across the art world.

The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh on Canvas

Eleven years before, while living in Auvers-sur-Oise outside Paris, van Gogh had committed suicide without any notion that his work was destined to win acclaim beyond his wildest dreams. In his lifetime, he had sold only one painting. One of his paintings–the Yasuda Sunflowers–sold for just under $40 million at a Christie’s auction in 1987.

Born in Zundert in the Netherlands in 1853, van Gogh worked as a salesman in an art gallery, a language teacher, a bookseller, and an evangelist among Belgium miners before settling on his true vocation as an artist.

Vincent van Gogh's Portrait of Dr. Gachet:

What is known as the “productive decade” began in 1880, and for the first few years he confined himself almost entirely to drawings and watercolors while acquiring technical proficiency.

He studied drawing at the Brussels Academy and in 1881 went to the Netherlands to work from nature. The most famous work from the Dutch period was the dark and earthy The Potato Eaters (1885), which showed the influence of Jean-Francois Millet, a French painter famous for his peasant subjects. Read More

Vincent van Gogh | Colossal

In 1888, van Gogh, mentally exhausted and feeling he was becoming a burden on Theo, left Paris and took a house at Arles in southeastern France. The next 12 months marked his first great period, and working with great speed and intensity he produced such masterful works as his sunflower series and The Night Cafe (1888).

Vincent van Gogh - Self-portrait with bandaged ear (1889, Courtauld

He hoped to form a community of like-minded artists at Arles and was joined by Gauguin for a tense two months that culminated when van Gogh threatened Gauguin with a razor blade and then cut a piece of his own ear off. It was his first bout with mental illness, diagnosed as dementia.

In late July 1890, feeling that he was a burden on Theo and others, he shot himself. He died two days later, on July 29, in the arms of his brother.

VINCENT VAN GOGH'S PAINTINGS FIRST EXHIBIT MAR 17 1901

Starry Night 1888

On this day, March 17, 1901, paintings by the late Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh were shown at the Bernheim-Jeune gallery in Paris.

The 71 paintings, which captured their subjects in bold brushstrokes and expressive colors, caused a sensation across the art world. Eleven years before, while living in Auvers-sur-Oise outside Paris, van Gogh had committed suicide without any notion that his work was destined to win acclaim beyond his wildest dreams.

Van Gogh: Complete Works

In his lifetime, he had sold only one painting. One of his paintings–the Yasuda Sunflowers–sold for just under $40 million at a Christie’s auction in 1987. Read More

Vincent van Gogh The Complete Gallery Video