Maxwell Nolin
Maxwell Nolin is a painter based in Belfast, Maine. I met up with him in his studio apartment as he was putting the finishing touches on a commission to chat about Radiohead, inspiration, and trying to paint less.
Tell me who you are and what you do.
I’m Maxwell Nolin. I guess a portrait painter is the easiest way to describe what I do but I don’t really like to box myself into that category. I’m a realist painter that has bits of magic realism. I’ve gotten quite a bit of training from studying with various artists that all work in the realist tradition but I certainly don’t consider myself a pure realist. More experimental. I’m evolving. I wanted to get to a place where I could really master realism, get a good understanding of it. I feel like a did a few paintings that I was happy with, where everything was very tight and refined. Now I’m moving on to more expressive, experimental paintings that are more authentic to who I am as a person.
How did you start painting?
That’s an interesting question. I could just say I’ve been painting since I was three, cause I have. My mother is a painter, that’s her profession. So I grew up with that in the house. Art books everywhere. Constantly absorbing artwork. She’s super inspirational. It was until about high school that I started taking it more seriously. We had a really great art department at our high school. Half my time playing baseball and half was art. I wanted to be a professional baseball player but art won. It was the only thing I could do. I couldn’t not go down that path. I don’t think I would be here if I couldn’t paint.
What inspires you in? Where do you come up with ideas?
Psychology is a huge driving force in a lot of my paintings. All the figures in my paintings are very pensive, they’re in deep thought, reflecting upon certain things. I’m very much in my head a lot. I tend to be an over analyzer. I’m hyper sensitive to certain things and that lends itself to creating works that is very reflective of that headspace. The feeling of being a human is a big inspiration too. The mystery of what we are. What’s going on here? It’s kind of bizarre. This is all unfolding. We’re born and come into this life and we didn’t really choose this scenario. The whole enigma of life is what’s inspiring to me. That’s why I paint. When I’m working, I don’t really have a specific end product in mind. The process is what I enjoy the most and whatever comes out of that is more of an added bonus. For the most part, it’s a lot about feeling the paint under the brush, applying the paint and all the problem solving that goes into it start to finish.
Walk me through a typical piece from start to finish.
It varies cause I don’t have a typical piece. They’re all people. I love painting faces. In a nutshell, a lot of my paintings come from different ways. If I have someone I want to paint that’s a different route. I’ll contemplate about that person and think of a setting I like them in or just have them come sit and see what happens. It can be very organic. It’s not all pre-determined. And sometimes I have a vision in my head, like,” I want to bring to life. This is really important to get this out.” I don’t know why. There’s not, “I want to paint this, because this means this and this symbolizes this.” It’s more that I really love this and want to get it out. I don’t want it to be just an idea. I want it to be a representation of my imagination. And then the other things fall into places like a photoshoot, getting a model that fits the vision and all that setup.
But the painting themselves, the technique involved, is pretty similar. I’ll start with a Jessup white panel and I’ll tone it with a golden-brown wash so I’m starting with a start white. It’s a way to bring everything to a middle ground so when I put a highlight and a dark and midtown, they all relate. Then I usually just go right into it. I’ll do very subdued colors to start and almost take notes, color notes. The first underpainting is almost monochromatic. Then the next layer is a bit more understood and more chromatic and from there I just push colors even further. I try to hold off on black until the very end.
How do you know when something is finished?
(Laughs). You don’t really. I just say, “all right, that’s it.” Commissions are different but with my own work, I could work on a painting for the rest of my life, because so much of painting in this particular way is pushing and pulling. Back and forth. Darkening something and lightening something. Adding more coloring and dulling it down. Everything is based on opposites. Cool and warm colors. Hard and soft edges. So that could go on forever. It can drive you kind of crazy. Many times I’ve overhanded something and I’ve lost it. Restraint is big. The more I’ve been painting, the more I realize that I need to not be painting as much as I do. I need to be looking more. Looking and putting a stroke down and letting that stroke be and then you’re like, “do I like that? Do I want to change that?” We can so easily, as painters, keep moving it around and fuss over it to get it right. There’s beauty in a brushstroke that is just left alone and I like to think of brushstrokes as thoughts. A well made painting is like an accumulation of all these thoughts. They make whatever the end result is a map of my brain.
Tell me about your space and if that influences your work?
I like to surround myself with beautiful things to inspire my work and my life. It’s great to live and work in the same space. I’ve not worked in the same space many times and I like that too. I enjoy eye candy. To always look somewhere and see something inspiring and pleasant to look at. I set up my space for that particular reason.
Has the current start of world affairs affected your work at all?
No, I don’t think it has. It’s affected my own headspace, which maybe has affected my work. It’s funny, I’ve been going to this group, it’s like socially engaged art meetings. I think there’s a really great space for politically engaged art, activism artists out there, I just don’t see myself as one of the painters. Painting for me can be political because it’s a way to enlighten myself. If I can understand more about who I am, I can serve my community in a better way and that has a ripple effect. Rather than saying I’m gonna make this painting that’s gonna make this statement that’s gonna make people think a certain way, it’s kind of selfish but I have these ideas and I want to paint them. As long as I’m true to myself, I can look back on a piece and think, “That’s exactly why I painted that. That makes total sense.” I don’t really like to have a particular goal or theme in mind, it’s just self discovery.
Is there anything you hope other people take away from your work?
No, not really. Many people do see the work and like it. It’s a common conversation I have, “I don’t know that person, but I do. That could be me. I understand that person. I can relate.” So I guess if you can relate, that’s great.
What’s on your playlist right now?
Let’s see…Philip Glass. He’s a minimalist composer. His stuff’s pretty epic. Always, always Radiohead, always. Thom Yorke. Bjork. Tool. Primus. I’ve been listening to some Edgar Allan Poe read by Vincent Price. Tim Burton is a huge inspiration, which might not be super obvious looking at my work, but I love him so much.
Where do you see your art going?
Conceptually, I’m evolving more into…I’ve done a lot of pretty traditional portraiture, but I’m really interested in taking in further and bringing more narratives in to the paintings. I started this little study…it’s hard to explain, that’s kind of why I paint. I could say some things about where I’d like to go, but I think where I’d like to go is do things that feel…like there’s something about who I am as a person…a very specific vision that I think I’m heading towards now. That’s all I want to say about that because I don’t know where that’s going. I write so much stuff down, I have ideas. I also don’t know either. I’m only 29. I haven’t been painting for 40 years. I don’t have this “voice” yet. Although I think I do, I just need to keep doing it. The constant battle of being an artist, what keeps us evolving and going. The next painting is going to be the one that really does it, checks all the boxes.
You talked about how you do a little farming. Talk about the balance of that with your painting?
The farming is a great practice to get some physical exercise, be outside, connect with the part, get your hands in the dirt. Although I’m in the tractor quite a bit,(laughs) so driving on the dirt. It’s just one of those practices that feels like a great balance and I probably would choose to do that even if I didn’t have to. I don’t know that I have to but it’s nice to get the extra income and have the community and sunshine. And I think it helps feed my art. After that last day of farming I get to paint. I just had a nice little break and I’m ready to go. And I’m always thinking of painting when I’m farming.
What advice would you give to anyone interested in a career in an art field?
I guess I would say to not be concerned about caring about what other people think. There’s not right way to do any sort of art practice. There are principles that might help you express an idea, but I think if you can just learn to trust your vision and be authentic…but then again I do commissions. You gotta have the bread and butter paintings but I think, it sounds cheesy, but just be authentic. If you can try to figure out what that is. That’s hard. Life’s hard anyways. Understanding who you are is not easy but art can be a way understand who you are. I don’t know if that gives advice for how to be a professional but I think that resonates with people, when they see art that’s totally someone’s unique self.