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Roy De Forest was born in North Platte, Nebraska in 1930 to a farming family during the Great Depression. When they lost their farm, his family was forced to move. Throughout his career, De Forest continually drew inspiration from that cherished time by painting open fields and farm animals. His interest in art and art history first began at Yakima Junior College when he was introduced to painting techniques in a visual arts course. After deciding to pursue a career as an artist, De Forest moved to San Francisco in 1950 to study at the California School of Fine Arts. When the Korean War started De Forest was stationed in Fort Lewis, Washington from 1950 to 1952. When he returned to San Francisco he would finish his degrees as well as become interested in experimenting with abstract patterns. In 1965, De Forest was hired to teach at the University of California in Davis. During this time, Davis became an artistic hub for the Funk art movement, a reaction against Abstract Expressionism. This movement embraced a mixture of materials, narrative figuration, and abstraction. The Funk art movement rejected the rigidity of Minimalism and favoured a more West Coast-oriented, cartoonish, funny, and outrageously whimsical form of Pop art. Likewise, De Forest broke away from abstract expressionism and turned to making narrative paintings with animals, nature, and magical creatures. His work would be presented alongside other artists from UC Davis faculty in the Funk exhibition at the Berkeley Art Museum in 1967. Then in the 1970s, De Forest would coin the term, “Nut art” to describe his strong interest in embracing humour, fantasy, and illusion in his artworks. De Forest described art as “one of the last strongholds of magic” and interpreted his colourful, dreamlike paintings as “unknowable [though] hauntingly familiar.”[1] His new artworks became a major attraction in galleries in San Francisco and New York, as well as his mid-career travelling retrospective show at the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1974. He was the recipient of several major grants and awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1972 and an honorary doctorate from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1983. After passing away in 2007, the Oakland Museum of California organized another retrospective of his art in 2017. His work can be found in major public collections internationally. Roy De forest was prominently known as a painter, but he also explored a variety of medium over his career including sculpture, fabric, and printmaking. He became most well known for his whimsical paintings of cartoon dogs, farm animals, people and nature, and is considered on of the founding members of the Funk Art and Nut Art movements of the 60’s and 70s. Early in his career, Roy De Forest works were predominantly landscapes painted in oil. As he began to explore and push away from traditional painting and away from Abstract Expressionism, the popular art movement at the time, he began to use a variety of water-based paints, which gave different effect than the oil paints he had been using. After pushing away from abstract expressionism, he focused on creating whimsical and bright fantasy worlds. As he continues to develop this style the works become more representational adding motifs that resembled people, landscapes and most often animals and magical creatures. He would eventually come to use the term “Nut Art” to describe his practice. De Forest did not shy away from portraying humour and playfulness throughout his works, and would eventually come to use the term “Nut Art” to describe his practice He also believed that having variety in his works was important, no two figures or objects should be alike or the same size. He preferred his works to be truly random in nature. |
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GET INSPIRED
Get Inspired by Funky Art
Try this creative activity based on the artwork!
Roy De Forest was a painter well known for his whimsical paintings of cartoon dogs, farm animals, people, and nature. Try your hand out at creating Funk Art pet portraits in the style of Roy De Forest!
SUPPLIES
- Pens, markers or pencil crayons in bright colours
- Paper
INSTRUCTIONS
- First, you will need some inspiration! Find a picture of your pet(s) or favourite animal to draw.
- Think about what kind of setting you want to draw your pet in! It could be anywhere in the world, or it doesn’t have to be a real place at all, you could come up with a fantasy world from your imagination. If you’re not sure what to do use Roy’s works Birdland and Moe Travels, shown above, as inspiration.
- One of the important things to remember before you get started is that much of Roy De Forest’s work is fantasy and very whimsical, he’s not trying to be too realistic or detailed. So have fun with your creations, use bright, bold colours and funky lines!
- Start by using a dark colour to draw the outlines of your work, try to experiment with different types of lines, you can use hard zig-zag lines or soft curly lines or anything else you can come up with. The more different types of lines you have in your work the funkier it’ll turn out.
- If your nervous or don’t know where to start drawing, try sketching a couple of your ideas out on separate pieces of paper first. You can try drawing your animal, plants, or whatever you plan on adding a couple of different ways with different lines until you feel comfortable drawing it for your final work.
- Once your outlines are finished, you can start to add colour to your image. When you colour in your drawing you can choose to fully colour in sections or you can use patterns and lines to fill in parts of your drawing, try and mix these two together to create some really fun and bright finished drawings!
- Remember you don’t have to use the colours that things are supposed to be, pick your boldest colours, have fun, and don’t be afraid to experiment.
Don’t forget, there are no mistakes in art! Be bold and have fun!
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Share your inspired work with us!
Send us an e-mail with your name, photo of your work and the activity it was inspired by and it could be posted on our website!
Please be aware that whatever is posted is widely accessible. The AGA is not responsible for the copyright and has no control of what people will do with the posts.
Please send you submission to: [email protected]
Please be aware that whatever is posted is widely accessible. The AGA is not responsible for the copyright and has no control of what people will do with the posts.
Please send you submission to: [email protected]