A Creative Passion

Story & Photography by Alison Ball

Many artists and creative minds call Franklin home. This is no new news to Williamson County residents. What may be new news to some is the accomplished life of two artists in the area, Joseph Sulkowski and Elizabeth Brandon.

After numerous years of schooling, traveling and teaching, this pair of artists has raised a family in the city and now enjoy their picturesque landscape and backyard studio in the beauty of Everal Hills.

"We live to paint, even when we don't have a show we are still painting," Elizabeth says. After spending only a few minutes with the painting duo anyone can easily feel every bit of truth in the statement through seeing the joy in their eyes when they speak, show or think of their common love - painting.

Joseph's creating began when he was just a toddler. Looking at his earliest work saved over the years by his family members he saw technique in the untrained work of his youth. As he grew older, Joseph continued to create. He was known as the local artist in grade school and it became "an identity" for him. After discovering masters of the arts such as Michelangelo in his father's art books Joseph says the "magnificent obsession began."

The artistic path of Elizabeth is quite different than that of Joseph. Her connection to the arts began during her schooling for interior design. The connection grew to a way of life when a close friend talked her into taking a summer painting course in Connecticut with Robert Brackman. Her indestructible love grew strong almost immediately. Something inside of her would not let her leave painting, she new this was the start of a passion she could never stifle. Brandon wanted to learn more. She wanted to grow in the art form. She new this would happen if she took a couple month-long courses under legendary Frank Mason and Robert Beverly Hale.

These instructing greats were found with hundreds of other creative minds in what was then one of the artistic Mecca's of the time, New York City. Little did she know that a fellow classmate at The Art Student's League would be her life-long companion - Joseph.

"The first thing Frank said was, 'it will take you five years to understand what I am saying,'" Elizabeth recalls. Students like Elizabeth and Joseph would remain in the studios all day, until light was void of the room, gleaning knowledge from their seasoned instructors. In this time the two realized that their instructor was right. The pair spent five years in the program before "graduating themselves."

Learning an art, Joseph says, isn't just copying. It is learning a principle. "You have to paint 1,000 heads before you get a good one, and you know when you get it," he says. The pair new they could not leave the program before they "learned the principle."

Joseph says when you are an artist, "you have to like being alone." This is not something he or Elizabeth have had to experience for much of their life. During their time of study Joseph and Elizabeth fell in love and were later married. Neither of them were searching for love when they arrived in New York but long hours in shared studio space allowed their friendship to grow into a years of encouragement.

Both of them understand knowing more than just the basics of painting is required for a masterpiece. Joseph, for example, has spent long hours studying anatomy and has built his own model horse complete with anatomically correct layers of muscle. He says so much changes in a painting (for the better), "when you know what makes the bumps" of an animal. Learning the anatomy aids an artist when painting any living form he says. Elizabeth, like Joseph, has always stretched herself by learning to paint everything. From portraits and landscapes to still lifes and interiors. All things are found on their canvasses.

While they do paint a variety of subjects the two are known for some particular subjects. Joseph for instance is known for his timeless Fox Hounds and she is known for her flawless still lifes. Some of Elizabeth's best work has been featured on the cover of Cook's Illustrated magazine while others have sold out in galleries in cities like Carmel, Calf. This is all without mentioning a piece that will be presented to Tennessee's First Lady later this summer. With equal success Joseph's work has found its way into the hands of private owners like George Michael and others like the Duke of Bedford where his pieces hang among family heirloom masterpieces from artists such as Rembrandt.

The couple has taken may art inspired excursions. One of most memorable was a teaching trip of Joseph's. During the journey they, along with his class, were able to have Monet's entire estate, Giverny, open only to them for an entire day of painting. Both say they have never experienced anything quite like their time in Giverny.

Though beauty like Giverny provides a wealth of inspiration for work; the artists are most inspired by light. "Light is a powerfully positive force... and to paint it, is never to be bored," Joseph says. Elizabeth adds, "the movement of light is a fascinating subject in itself and a challenge to explore in all its forms and rhythms." When the two purchased their home the selling point was the unfinished garage with that received perfect northern light behind the home. The unfinished garage is now a studio large enough for two large windows allowing the inspiration to pour in through the panes onto the workspace the artists use daily.

The materials the two uses are just as important as the subject and the quality is of the highest caliber. The imported linens provide a canvas for the prepared oils and varnishes used to depict the light and subjects they observe. The colors in their paintings are born from European pigments ground by their own hands into gum resins from Greece.

Creation for the two artists is a way of life, it is a need; "I think we live for connecting moments and to capture them honestly is my desire in art,"Elizabeth says. In addition for the need to create, Joseph feels that in every person there is a need in the spirit for art. Joseph says, "it is my goal as an artist to create through inspiration and personal interpretation a visual image of an abstract idea that people can relate to."

Joseph and Elizabeth will continue to grow and create in their local studio as they enjoy life in the hills of Williamson County.

Brandon Painting at the TN Governor's Residence

First Lady Andrea Conte Welcomes the Original Artwork of Award-Winning Artist Elizabeth Brandon at the Tennessee State Museum - 2008

Master oil painter Elizabeth Brandon has donated an original painting entitled, "Roses and Eucalyptus," to the Tennessee State Museum.

Tennessee First Lady Andrea Conte and Museum Executive Director Lois Riggins-Ezzell accepted the artwork at the museum on July 21st. This 12" x 16" oil on board painting, which was chosen by the First Lady, will be part of the museum's permanent collection.

"As governors come and go, this painting will remain as an artistic treasure presented to the citizens of the Volunteer State as a generous gift from the artist... and this will be the last time that its magnificent gold frame will be handled without curatorial gloves," Riggins-Ezzell commented as she received the painting. Having just returned from a museum trip to New York, Riggins-Ezzell compared Brandon's work to the three Johannes Vermeer paintings she viewed at the renowned Frick Collection.

"Brandon's technique truly has an Old Master essence to it with the luminosity and depth of a Vermeer; something quite difficult for any painter to accomplish," Riggins-Ezzell noted while discussing the artist's talent.

Brandon's work now joins that of her husband, award-winning master artist Joseph Sulkowski, who has two paintings in the museum's collection. She said she "is dedicated to practicing the Old Master principles of capturing light and atmosphere on her canvases," and feels that she has mastered a true poetic interpretation in her works of art. She reveals her natural beauty in her culinary subjects in her still lifes of fruit, vegetables and flowers.

As an artist working in the Poetic Realist Tradition and as a contemporary painter in the 21st century, Brandon's work has been featured on the front cover of the acclaimed Cook's Illustrated magazine for the past seven years. Additionally, her paintings are held in many private collections throughout the U.S. and abroad.

Southern Exposure

A Painter, a Mother - Elizabeth Brandon (Sulkowski)

Katherine Sulkowski

As it often happens to writers, by retelling a story, we learn something new about an old subject. How pleasantly surprised was I to come to a new understanding about my own mother when given the assignment to write her story for this magazine.

I put down on paper for the first time exactly what her example has been - a deep commitment to her art, a burning desire to be a better artist and a placed importance on the act of creating and painting. After our interview and my journaling about her (and the two of us sitting over coffee together on the front porch revisiting these ideas), what came about is a map, detailing those things that make my mother a great artist and a great influence on me, as her daughter and as a writer.

Interestingly, Elizabeth Brandon Sulkowski didn't take her first art class until she was 21 years old. After graduating from the University of Georgia, she was on the path to interior design when a close friend asked if she wanted to take an oil painting class in Connecticut for a couple of weeks the following summer. My mother went, not realizing that this small choice would drastically change her life.

By 1974, the year my mother enrolled at The Art Student's League in New York City, the social expectations of a woman artist had not changed since 1874 (or 1774 for that matter). Women painters were not expected to become professionals. It was all right to have a little hobby, but they were not expected to actually make a living selling their art.

At the time, the only thing on my mother's mind was a desire to paint. Despite the crime and bankruptcy that New York City was experiencing, her father agreed to let her go. With just a few things and no art materials, my mother and her friend moved to the Barbizon Hotel for Women on Lexington and 62nd Street. At the League, she enrolled in a drawing class taught by the famous anatomist, Robert Beverly Hale, and a painting class with Frank Mason, the foremost authority in America on Old Master painting techniques, who became a lifetime mentor to my mother.

During the second month of her classes, this petite young woman in her baggy overalls was very intense about her painting. She never took breaks when the teacher called them, and as the 49 other students filed out of the dark studios to have their cigarettes and coffee, she remained focused at her easel, squinting at the canvas and drawing with her brush, studying the subject and continuously working to get better.

She ended up living in New York for five years, attending the League and learning the principles of painting that the Renaissance artists, the Dutch Masters and the Hudson River Valley painters practiced. Good draftsmanship formed the foundation to this technique, studying the anatomy of the human, the animal, the landscape and the still life. In addition, she learned the technique of hand-ground pigment and preparation of linseed oil, according to the old recipes that allow the mediums to keep their integrity for generations.

My mother and father moved to Nashville, just as I was born in 1980. They had my brother, James, in 1983. For my mother, having children fulfilled another dream come true.

She says that in the early years, transitioning between studio and house, painter and mother, was no easy task. The mornings were devoted to her art, the rest of the day and night, to me and my brother. But it wasn’t always as rudimentary as that.

“I first realized at the League that doing the transition from working with the public all day and then going into the studio to be alone with my craft would be a big lesson for me later as a wife and mother transitioning from house to studio,” she explains. “Even now, I am so much more grounded when I go out and do my painting that the rest of my chores and responsibilities feel better when I have that part in my life.”

My mother’s commitment and burning desire to become a better artist, while placing an importance on creativity, has meant everything to her family. Our values are built on these principles. And now, my brother and I shape our future careers on these principles. Much of the time, her influence is action-based.

“I believe by example I’m showing you guys that you can do it, you can pursue your dream in art,” she says. “I also wanted to give you the freedom to pursue your dream in art for yourself whatever way that was. I certainly didn’t feel it was necessary you painted - that had to be your choice. One thing I know about the arts, it chooses you. It’s not something anyone can talk you into. They can open the door to it. Our example was just that you can do it.”

It has been 35 years since she first entered the doors to the League. Now she is a well-established artist, represented by galleries in Carmel, Calif., Warmsprings, Va., and Mayfield Walker Gallery in Franklin, Tenn. She’s won prestigious awards, is a lifetime member of the Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club of New York. She has earned her place at the table with Lebrun, Morisot, Claudel and the rest of the art world’s female masters. Like them, “despite all the odds” she became a better artist and is driven every single day by her passion to become even better.

She has turned that proverbial corner where she doesn’t just believe, but knows the importance of what she’s doing. I’m still watching her climb in her career. COOK’s Illustrated approached her four years ago and asked her to do their covers, and more companies approach her for her images. More and more galleries want her work, and more collectors find her through her Web site and inquire about original oils. In our interview, I heard for the first time that she does feel the pressure that 800,000 people see her work immediately when the new COOK’s magazines come out every month.

“The pressure is a good thing,” she says, which to me means she is continuing to challenge herself. “There’s definitely a connection with people who buy your work - it’s very humbling when someone puts their support into my work and truly loves it.”

The outside support is just as important in reinforcing her work as realizing her personal goals, such as building her dream studio just behind her house this past June.

I expect now that my brother and I are grown and out from under her wing, she will concentrate more on exhibiting, traveling with my father on more painting trips abroad, and attending more out-of-town exhibition openings, getting her images on more products as more companies seek her work. No matter where her career will take her images, she will always be about the original oil paintings - no product can compare to their intrinsic value and beauty and longevity.

As for her influence on me, I continue to watch her example. I am now pursuing what I love, and I apply her lessons from painting, to my own writing. One thing that has always had a deep affect on me is when she says of a painting:

“Don’t be afraid to start over, your time has not been wasted. If anything, starting over will make you a better painter,” or in my case, a better writer. (I love that we share this dialog.) With this approach, everyday, my mother walks out to her studio in the country to answer the call of inspiration.

I will consider myself very lucky if I can accomplish what my mother has by
persevering… because she’s shown me that the act of creating is the most important thing.