Becoming a professional artist can be a personal goal early in life, or it can be the result of a series of unexpected events and influences. Due to the latter reason, I thought it was particularly important to write an editorial about the artist Angela Stout; but also, to write about her notable exhibition titled Evoke at the Cape Fear Studios in Fayetteville.
First and foremost, Angela Stout is an extraordinary artist who is able to successfully cross disciplines and be exceptional in whatever medium she undertakes. Anyone who visits the Cape Fear Studios, to see her recent body of work, will be pleasantly surprised at the artists’ approach and method to painting, sculpting the figure, and printmaking.
The challenge for any artist who focuses on the portrait is how the subject, an important genre in the history of art, fits into the rage and complexity of contemporary art styles. For Stout, the subject is just the starting point to reveal more than a likeness, but an essence that transcends the individual, an ascension to a state of being that is our humanity. For this artist, it is our humanity that connects us -not gender, sex or race.
Visitors to Evoke will see a body of work which reflects this artist’s vision about the place of portraiture in contemporary art. For Stout, portraiture is not just about a likeness, but her intent is to evoke emotion and transcend the focus from the individual to the many. What she may not realize is that she creates a context that is inclusive and illusive at the same time; we sense the precipice, we sense the humanity in the room – and it is everyone.
All the paintings in the exhibit are 30” x 40” on stretched canvas, the scale of the figure, larger than life-size, invites our attention. On close inspection you can see the marks of color from Stout’s paint brush being dragged across the surface or the blending of layers of color - she moves seamlessly between opacity and translucency as needed. The painting titled “O” is an example of her exactitude and pursuit to move past the individual to a human condition, using only the warm and cool colors of indigo, phthalo blue, and a hint of magenta.
As in all her paintings, Stout has a clear understanding of the potential of color and its complexity to create meaning on different levels - all at the same time. For example, she is keenly aware of the characteristics of color and ways to exploit its complexity: the symbolism of a color, the temperature and weight of color, tone, tint, shade, and saturation are all possible means for Stout to create a feeling, an emotion, a moment, or even a state of beingness.
Visitors to the Cape Fear Studio will see how Stout moves easily between mediums. Not only are their nine new paintings, but she is also exhibiting 4 portrait heads in clay, and over eighteen monoprints. What becomes relevant is why and how she moves effortlessly between mediums. In order to get to the significance of an artist successfully working in different mediums, I need to go back to the beginning of the article: “becoming a professional artist can be the result
of a series of unexpected events and
influences.”
Stout, raised in Ohio, the city of Warren, has drawn since she was three years old. At the age of 16, she asked her mother for a Bob Ross kit as a Christmas gift, and her mother surprised her with the Master Bob Ross kit (complete with supplies and a video). In high school she focused on playing drums instead of art lessons and was told upon graduation that she was not prepared or good enough, as an
artist, to apply to art school.
Those negative words and lack of encouragement from a teacher changed the direction of her life for the next twenty years. After serving in the military, married with three children, almost completing a degree in radiology before she became ill, now married again with 2 additional children (for a total of 5): Stout was out of the army and painting portraits as a self-taught artist in Broadway, North Carolina. With encouragement from family and friends, she enrolled in and completed a two-year Associate of Arts degree from Fayetteville Technical Community College, which included four art classes.
Stout had the experiences of painting murals for dayrooms when she was in the military, but it was the beginning painting and drawing classes at FTCC where she received her first formal instruction in the mechanics of drawing and painting. Katey Morrill, her painting instructor, identified her preferences in painting and introduced her to significant artists for her to study, those artists who focused on using light to create dramatic effects. Equally important, Stout was encouraged by the art faculty to become a professional artist and continue into a 4-year art program.
Confident in her achievements at FTCC, Stout entered Fayetteville State University in the Department of Performing and Fine art and was affectionately told “you have a lot of talent” and “you have a long way to go.” Only working in black, white and greys, her solid education from FTCC was the beginning of her personal journey in the arts.
Stout worked with five different instructors at FSU, each bringing their own influence. After taking fifteen hours in art history and art criticism, painting classes, printmaking classes, and various sculpture classes she graduated from FSU with a 4.0 average. Because of Stout’s ambition to know as much as she could and her work ethics, she worked tirelessly at the challenges each course would demand but was always open to new ways of seeing and working.
Stout explains it like this: “Painting classes improved my understanding of color theory and composition, printmaking classes challenged the way I viewed the process of painting and image-making, from painting I could create volume in clay modeling, and clay modeling helped me to see spatially and that helped my painting. Art criticism and contemporary art class challenged everything I thought I knew, I was then able to refine the direction of my work, I become open to new possibilities in ways I had never considered before.”
Stout was not only a student of art who wanted to know all that she could learn in a short period of time, but she was always taking advantage of any situation where she could exhibit her work. She participated in local and national exhibitions, put her artworks in coffee house and any place that would showcase her works.
By the time she graduated from FSU in 2019, and soon after, she had created and was facilitating a Facebook page called “acrylicpaintingforeveryone” (link at the end of the article) which has 106,000 vetted members. A website created as a positive social media platform to encourage anyone who paints, includes an exchange of ideas, videos, tips, and critiques.
Stout has been in many exhibitions, local and regional. Due to her social media persistence, a curator contacted her to exhibit one of her paintings in an online exhibition in Milan, Italy during COVID. As an advocate of the arts, Stout is a member of the Cape Fear Studios and regularly gives classes to any age interested in painting. She participates in community outreach projects and continues to do portrait commissions.
Anyone who has visited the exhibit, and those who have plans to see Evoke at the Cape Fear Studios might be interested to know what influenced the direction of her work. Stout was asked how her work has evolved over the last ten years. She began by saying: “In the beginning it was important to learn and practice technique. I was self-taught so I did not understand the philosophy behind art, and the ways in which my work needed to be developing. Studying art and art movements, understanding the evolution of art gave me the courage to evolve in my own way.”
She continued, “Initially I just wanted to develop technically and portray the subject as accurate as possible. Now I want to convey an emotion. Every aspect of the painting is important to the overall meaning, the subject, color, abstraction, and techniques are used to evoke an emotion.”
“I never would have thought that courses in printmaking could have had such a dramatic effect on how I see painting, but it did? I am a perfectionist, but in the printmaking studio any number of things can happen, often accidents, that made me understand how process is relevant. I didn’t have the expectations I was going to be a professional printmaker at the time, so I felt I was free to fail and to explore. All good lessons, I moved from mimicry to intent in my work - possibilities in printmaking translated into possibilities in painting.”
After working six months towards her first-person exhibition, I was interested to know what the experience meant to her after the opening and what her future plans are as a professional, free lance artist. Stout was resolute in her response, “I feel as if my intent for the exhibit was met, and I hope the works communicate the emotional connections to anyone who see the exhibit in the painting, the sculpture or a print. During the process, I had to make choices during the making, I felt a sense of relief that, as a whole, there is a continuity in the body of work.”
“My plans at this time are to continue to explore image making and intent, continue teaching, network for opportunities to exhibit. It would be nice to have a gallery outside of North Carolina carry my work, and I love being involved in community projects. At this time, I have written a grant for disabled veterans to take my workshop in acrylic painting and healing; and I have a written a grant to be able to work with Gold Star Children. One big goal is to write an extensive grant for underprivileged children to have art lessons and artkits. Afterall, it was a Bob Ross Master Kit, given to me when I was 16 years old, that made a big impact on the direction my life would eventually take in the arts!”
Visitors to the Cape Fear Studios at 148 Maxwell Street in Fayetteville, North Carolina will be able to see Angela Stouts’ exhibit titled Evoke until July 20th, 2021. The hours of the studios are Tuesday-Friday, 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Email the gallery at artgallery@capefearstudios.com or call 910-433-2986.
To join Angela Stouts Facebook page for “acrylicpaintingforeveryone” the link is www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=acrylicpaintingforeveryone.
For information in taking classes with Angela Stout, call 910-433-2986 for information on times and cost.
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