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| Lazure for Westside Waldorf School, California |
From
a young age I always had a fascination with color. I amusingly like
to think that destiny played a hand in this because the cross street by my childhood home was called Goethe. There
it was, a beacon of light, color and darkness, teasing my biography even back
then.
In
elementary school a friend and I drew cartoons for the school newsletter. That
led to our working collaboratively on comic book characters we made up - giving
vent and vision to our imagination, figuring out the plot and the evil villain
our hero would battle. I became the colorist for our shared comics and thus
began my adventures into a systematic approach to working with color.
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| Fantasy mural for private residence, Maryland |
Throughout
high school I created many greeting cards for friends and family that kept my
drawing skills alive, and again, color dutifully filled in the spaces. Its
study was not an exploration into its own qualities and dynamics but was
creatively and stylistically hemmed in by other design requirements.
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| Underwater mural for private residence, Florida |
University
study brought an explosion of creative possibility but not much in the way of
color theory. The drawing classes were rigorous and demanding but my painting
classes were "do what you want and it would be analyzed later." Technical skill played little part in
developing the craft of my imagination. I eventually quit and studied life
outside university. I set up an easel in
my apartment and would devote serious evening hours to creating paintings that
allowed all manner of imagery to pour forth.
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| Lazure for Ecole Steiner near Paris France |
Art
reentered my biography in my study of Anthroposophy, a spiritual philosophy
created by the Austrian philosopher, Rudolf Steiner. I learned a philosophy that gave me a reason
to be creative. From a fuller more spiritual understanding of the place of art
in human development, I was able to gain perspective on the importance creative
activity had in developing my humanity.
 |
| Cycle of Life, watermedia,24"x17" |
The
idea of creating art to be more human, not to be 'an artist,' appealed to me
more and more. Further work with Anthroposophy led me to England to study art
therapy from this unique perspective at the Tobias School of Arts & Therapy.
It was there that I learned the color theory of Johann Wolfgang Goethe and my
creative life would change forever. Picking up where Goethe's color theory left
off, Rudolf Steiner asked artists to work with their medium to discover the
creative possibilities inherent in this relationship. For painters this meant
learning the dynamic qualities within each color and how these expansive and contractive
forces work within the human soul as well.
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| Aspen Grove, pastel painting |
The
founder of the Tobias school told us that if we were to be art therapists, we
should learn to create a therapeutic environment as well so we were taught the
art of Lazure painting by a British master of this decorative wall finish. If I
were to give a definition of Lazure, it would be, the atmospheric blushing of analogous colors across a white wall.
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| Lazure for Mt. Phoenix Community School, Colorado |
Alongside
my fine art and murals, Lazure painting became my life's work - traveling
worldwide to "ensoul with color" the interiors of residences,
commercial settings, medical facilities, places of worship and schools, as well
as lecturing and teaching workshops in the Lazure technique.
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| Mayan Ruins mural for child's room, Colorado |
In
meditating on the qualities of different colors, I find that one better
understands how to communicate and where and how it can be properly used within
a compositional context. This process of working with dynamic color theory
unleashes a creative relationship between the soul of the individual and the
creative energies of nature.
For
me, it has formed a healing and regenerative source of creativity where I never
feel alone in these imaginative explorations but always have the inherent
dynamic qualities of color as a companion to work with.
 |
| Lazure at The Titerangi Steiner School, New Zealand |
This is Week 30 of 52 Artists in 52 Weeks. Thank you for reading and sharing Charles' story today! To connect with him and see more of his work, please click on the following links:
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