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Art and Wine Festival Poster Contest Winner |
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By William Jeske Staff Writer
Throughout his life, San Jose artist Bob Magneson has distorted reality to amplify feeling. He's gotten so proficient at it that he's been successfully freelancing since 1980. His skill in reality distortion has made him this year's winner of the Santa Clara Art & Wine Festival Poster Contest. Magneson's entry, depicting a pair of ducks standing before Central Park's pond with a grandmother and her grandson feeding other ducks at the pond's far side. A large willow tree dominates the background, flanked by the park's three geysers and the pavilion further back. Like most of Magneson's works, it is painted with acrylics. |
"With water colors, you go from light to dark," Magneson said. "With oils you go from dark to light. But with acrylics you can go both ways and mix your applications." The 55-year-old home-based artist was born in Oakland and raised in Hayward. It was in elementary school Magneson realized his affinity for art. "I was always the best in art class," Magneson said. Later, Magneson would adhere to the supposed reality that art can't provide a good living. Upon enrolling in College of San Diego, his classmates showed him that majoring in art would not be an exercise in futility. Magneson went on to receive a bachelor of arts in art from San Jose State University. |
Magneson said he intentionally paints without extreme detail so as to portray a scene's feeling. His favorite places to paint are Yosemite National Park and Point Lobos. His dream project is to take a month off and spend it at Yosemite to do nothing but paint. Magneson said that an average painting will take about six hours from blank canvas to a finished work. For a Yosemite painting, he'll find a suitable spot in the morning and paint for three hours. He'll take a break and then find a different spot in the afternoon to paint for three hours on another painting. He would return the next morning and afternoon spots respectively to dedicate each painting's second set of three-hour touch-ups. |
He's developed a keen sense of where and when to set up. Shadows on the south side of the valley are terrible until about mid-afternoon," Magneson said. Magneson's winning entry for the poster contest is a scene that he painted in late winter when the willow tree had no leaves, a scene that Magneson said took three hours. The next three were at home where he painted in the tree's leaves. The ducks were modified after what Magneson found in photographs. Though Magneson has worked with art for more than 30 years, he said, "I'm at the beginning of my fine art career. I haven't reached my pinnacle..."
Santa Clara Vision, 1997 |