Bareiss Gallery | 15 State Rd 150 | PO Box 3366 Taos NM 87571 | 575-776-2284
Ted Keller
“Fundamental things apply”
Opening Reception
August 3, 2024 • 4:00-6:00 pm
Featuring paintings of Taos, Santa Fe, New York City and more
Showing August 3-August 31, 2024
Open most days 9:00-4:00 or by appointment.
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TED KELLER ARTIST STATEMENT
Fundamental things apply
“The fundamental things apply … as time goes by.”
These are lyrics from the song “As Time Goes By” written by Herman Hupfeld in 1931. I use them today in my artist statement to describe the foundation of my work as a painter.
Creating a realistic painting has always involved the mastery of a set of fundamental skills. One wishing to paint a recognizable image needs to know how to draw. It is important to understand value, or how light works, and perspective, which is how to create the illusion of a three dimensional world on a two dimensional flat surface. A painter must understand color, and how to work with the paints themselves. These skills can be taught. As a university art professor, this is what I taught my students.
Using these skills will produce recognizable images. For me however, that is not the end. There is another, deeper fundamental understanding I draw on, which is that the body possesses an ageless intelligence. I work with the energy and rhythm that comes from the body and ends in my hand. I have learned to trust it. It is what generates the life, the love and any ART that is present in the paintings.
There are two things that are going on in a painting,— the image and how the paint is applied. Look at the marks and the paint itself in my paintings. You may feel the textures there in your bloodstream, in your body. The paint application is the heartbeat of I my work.
Artists are inevitably looking for fresh ways of expression, but, at the end of the day, the fundamentals abide. I use these fundamentals along with, as best as possible, the bodies ageless understandings, to make paintings. My goal is to make beautiful paintings that have Life in them….
As time goes by
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Ted Keller is an accomplished painter, using both watercolors and oils, as well as a master teacher of art. As a boy, Ted loved to paint and draw and was enchanted by the smell of oil paints. After earning his BFA degree from Syracuse University in Ceramics and Painting, Ted attended the University of Montana at Missoula where he graduated with an MFA in Ceramics.
To begin his career, Ted accepted a job as a professor of art at Oregon State University, where he taught for two years. Although his classes were always popular, he felt that he was too young to teach, so he made the decision to quit teaching and move to the coast of Maine. Once in Maine, he began a 30-year career in ceramics, supporting himself and his family by making and selling over 100,000 pieces of colorful stoneware and porcelain, pottery and sculpture. In his early 40's, Ted restarted his teaching career at the University of Maine, while continuing his work in ceramics. He taught a large variety of art classes for over 20 years. His classes were legendary in their popularity, and many students chose to take classes from him over and over again.
At age 53, with the family grown, Ted decided to stop making pottery and begin painting. He works in both watercolors and oils. Ted continued to teach and to develop his skills. After creating over 300 paintings, he then began to show and sell his work in Maine galleries.
Attracted by the sun, the mountains, and the incredible light of Taos, New Mexico, Ted moved there with his wife in 2009. At this point Ted has created well over a thousand paintings and his work can be seen in galleries in the Taos and Santa Fe area, as well as the Carver Hill Gallery in Camden, Maine. where he has shown for 20 plus years.