Oil Painter M-J de Mesterton: What the Rocks Tell Us

Interview by Aggie Villanueva

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Fate introduced me to M-J de Mesterton. She wrote an obituary/tribute to Navajo Code Talker, John Brown, Jr. that showed up in my Google Alerts, because she had attributed to me two photos of Navajo Code Talkers. Where fate stepped in was that I had deleted those photos from the web years ago. They were phantom photos. But you can hear that background story another time.

This began a correspondence with M-J that blossomed into such admiration for her art that I had to learn more about the simplicity and explosive colors of her art. M-J’s artistic mission statement is divorced from complex jargon. “I use oil exclusively, and oil paint comes from rocks.”

Anyone who knows me knows my ardor for saturated colors. It’s no wonder I fell for M-J de Mesterton’s compositions. They are vibrant, and they are “moody and nuanced, and harbor a deep fascination with organic structure.

“Every color we know comes from the ground below. Fields of rocks are cold blue arroyos that run toward fading skies, and they are glowing sunlit shapes that combine power and sensuous abandon,”  Melodie-Jeanne writes about creating “voluptuous harmony that is uniquely pleasing…” not only to herself, but to us viewers.

I could go on about how M-J’s art will speak to you, but I’ll let both her work and M-J, speak to you.

Color-Field by M-J de Mesterton

VAJ: You started painting young, winning a blue ribbon in an elementary school art contest for doing an oil portrait of Ringo Starr. How old were you? How did this affect your life and your feelings about art?

M-J de M: I was nine years old, and had a gift for portraiture, which I used later in my art career. Even though I was a serious painter in many different styles as a child, I drew cartoons of people in high school. I eventually became a restorer, working on oil portraits and landscapes, by painters from the Renaissance to the 20th-century.”

VAJ: You have been dubbed the Original Rock Painter. Why?

M-J de M: I am the original “rock painter” because since 1974 I alone have focused exclusively on painting fields of rocks and gemstones, in a multitude of compositions, with and without backgrounds, all from the recesses of my mind; my paintings are not created from life…: they reflect idealized rockscapes.

VAJ: I read that you painted caves as a teenager. Was this the inspiration for turning to rock painting?

M-J de M: Yes, it was a natural transition, since I had a desire to use more color and contour. Painting caves, after having gone underground into mines all my life, was the first spark in my fascination with stone in art. My father had owned a little gold mine in the Cascades, and while I was in Michigan’s Copper Country, I had visited old mines. Two years after my first cave painting at Michigan College of Mining and Technology summer school in 1972, the painted cave walls evolved into “psychedelic” piles of rocks and gems, which represented the vast store of colors and textures in my mind.

M-J in her studio

VAJ: You had a painting teacher who advised you to cut your education short and go straight to New York City and “just paint”. How did you feel about that getting that kind of encouragement? Did you do it?

M-J de M: Yes, it was a natural transition, since I had a desire to use more color and contour. My instructors at Cornish School of Allied Arts, in my hometown of Seattle, were all going to quit because of manifold disagreements with the college administration. That’s when my oil painting teacher, Fran Murphy, gave me that advice. Murphy knew that he and others among the art instructors there, Charles Stokes and Ron Wigginton, were not going to be back the next year, and had no confidence in the school’s future. That’s when he said that since my work was “outstanding”, I should go to New York City and just paint.

Of course, I was very flattered to hear that, but I needed a reliable way to make a living. Painters aren’t guaranteed an income, so I enrolled in the Stetson School of Photographic Retouching and Restoration to learn rare skills which I would later teach to others in New York. I spent two years going to regular college focusing on languages, while working for portrait studios and high-quality photographic printing labs in Seattle, doing retouching, hand-coloring in oil and restoring new and old photographs. I specialized in portraits. Skilled in realism, I once had to give a new pair of ears to fellow in an executive portrait.

Rock and Gem Painting by M-J de Mesterton, Oil on Canvas, Copyright 2006

Once I decided to go to New York City, several job opportunities presented themselves, including at a major commercial retouching house. I was then offered a freelance position in J.P. Yafcak’s photographic laboratory at 45 West 45^th Street, where I worked for famous art, commercial and magazine photographers. I visited Madison Avenue advertising agencies and publishers on a regular basis to pick up work. Later I became an art restorer, and enjoyed some portraiture commissions.

VAJ: When did you start selling your work? And was it paintings of rocks?

M-J de M: I started selling my rock paintings to acquaintances in 1976. My Cornish School instructors had turned me off the idea of showing at commercial galleries, because they had bad experiences with them. In the 1970s, I donated some rock paintings to charity auctions and was hired to paint a mural on a large window in the home of a record producer in Seattle.

VAJ: You freelanced in Manhattan, New York City from 1979 until 2003, working for several 57th St. galleries, and downtown at 500 Broadway, the Museum of Modern Art, and several commercial entities. During all this time were you painting your beloved rocks?

M-J in her studio

M-J de M: Yes, and some of my paintings were in display-windows of midtown Manhattan businesses.

VAJ: I know you play the violin, were in a university symphony at MTU, and used to stand-in with bands playing western swing, country, and Cajun-style music.  With your love of music across so many genres, does music play a part in your creative painting process?

M-J de M: Melodic music inspires me, as its beauty promotes colorful pictures in my mind. I painted my mystical vision, Lost Horizon, while listening to Verdi’s Rigoletto. It seemed to make the paint flow in an unusual way. Mellifluous sounds or blessed silence in the background while one paints is essential for me. Some painters live in areas blighted by discordant noises, and ought to use headphones to block them out, because the immediate environment can adversely affect an artist’s work.

VAJ: How would you describe your painting style?

M-J de M: Sui generis. I have my own style, proprietary brush-stroke and theme. I cannot relate my work to an established painting style; never have emulated anyone else. The rocks I paint are created not from life but from my own imagination.

Painting, 1964, tempera and Crayola, by M-J de Mesterton

VAJ: I’ve heard that there has been some trouble with copycatting? What happened, and what is your response to that?

M-J de M: A painter in Canada, who obviously didn’t think I would discover his attempt at duplicating my paintings, received a telephone call from my husband, a staunch protector of intellectual property, a person who has dealt effectively with creeps of all stripes around the world.

I am well-established as the original rock painter. Do your own thing; this is mine: imitation is not the sincerest form of flattery; rather, it is the most infuriating kind of theft was the message I sent him and another Canadian imitator, whose compositions were carbon-copies of those I presented on the internet.

I’ve long been a leader in a world otherwise devoid of vividly colored rock paintings. It was clear that these two imitators had viewed my website and just copied me. The first perp had sneakily put no dates on his pictures, but I recorded his location on my diagnostic traffic tool, after which his paintings suddenly cropped up next to mine in search-results. Even his title was unoriginal, a quote from my favorite poet and art critic, John Ruskin.

El Dorado, Oil on Canvas 66″ X 72″, Copyright M-J de Mesterton 2007, at Her Arroyo Lindo Studio

The other copyist so much as admitted what he had done, and claimed that aping other artists is a legitimate way of finding one’s artistic style. Poppycock, I say. If a person is not creative and inspired enough to develop a proprietary style, perhaps he ought to turn elsewhere for a vocation.

VAJ: M-J, in your opinion what are rocks telling us?

M-J de M: Rocks remind us that beauty and strength are as old as the earth; stones represent microcosms of color, pattern, texture and power, as well as being time-capsules of the world’s history. They come in all sizes and shapes–shapes created by dynamic forces of nature. Rocks are like ancient living things, full of energy!

VAJ: You said, ”I use oil exclusively, and oil paint comes from rocks.” I didn’t know that. How does that work? And did you learn that before you were drawn to painting rocks in oil, or after?

M-J de M: My mother taught me to use oil paint when I was small, and told me that it was derived from minerals.

VAJ: Which would you say is your most popular painting? And why?

M-J de M: One of my 2007  paintings, Color-Field (oil on canvas 65″ X 72″), gets a lot of attention from people using the search-term, “color field”–which is ironic, since the color field genre is comprised of blank, flat fields of one color, and my paintings are their polar opposites. You only have to view the painting in question to see that its hyphenated title describes it perfectly.

VAJ: Tell me more about your Santa Fe County Gallery.  It’s private and by appointment only, isn’t it?

M-J de M: Yes. It is a grand old adobe, purpose-built as an art studio with several gallery rooms.

Chiaroscuro, Oil on Canvas 36″ X 40″, Copyright M-J de Mesterton 2009

VAJ: How can art lovers contact you for an appointment?

M-J de M: By e-mail introduction; that is the best method. The contact address appears on my front page.

VAJ: Do you have any advice you’d offer other visual artists about finding their own style and niche?

M-J de M: Play with paint to develop an individualistic style, and do not look to other artists for your inspiration. As I have done, refuse to let anyone else influence your work. The essential idea of art is to express what is in your own mind, not to follow the herd.

VAJ: Some may be surprised to learn that you are also a writer about minimalist living at your website, Elegant Survival: Stylish Living on a Shoestring. This strikes me as being as personally passionate for you as your paintings. How did ES begin?

M-J de M: I like to write. I wanted to be an English teacher. But my father, who was an early influence, wanted me to use my artistic talent instead, so I began my college career in fine arts.  I still had the desire to work in the world of words. Consequently, besides having an art career, I have been a copy-editor, publicity writer and a medical and textbook editor.

In 2006 I created a website where I could write about tasteful, affordable beauty and simplicity that eschews trendiness. I want to promote the maintenance of a person’s health and basic survival skills. I think people looked better in the 1800s, without the benefit of electricity,  fashion magazines, plastic surgeons and spas. I like durable, timeless materials like rocks, tweed, linen and wood.

If the U.S. is attacked again or we’re no longer permitted to use coal, oil and nuclear energy (France runs on 85% nuclear power), the internet and other modern conveniences will disappear. I would like to help people prepare psychologically and physically for that possibility, by encouraging them to simplify their lives with sturdy tools and old-fashioned skills.

VAJ: At ES you reacquaint us with the simple luxuries, such as your article, “The Clothes Line, an Elegant Survival Original.” Why is this important, especially in the life of an artist?

M-J de M: Self-sufficiency was part of my training when I was at art school. These days, schools seem to teach students the fine art of consumerism, and to use more money than elbow-grease to get any job done.  I learned my skills long before the internet and Photoshop were invented and can manage without the current technologies. I don’t consider a string of light-bulbs, dependent upon a coal-fired electrical plant, a work of art, but today’s art students  are taught that trendy gimmicks are the key to success.

M-J’s washing machine

VAJ: You wash all your clothes by hand, and advocate this practice. What is the purpose, what does it accomplish, and why do you believe it’s preferable?

M-J de M: Materials are delicate and need to be treated well. Clothes are an investment. Hand-washing preserves their fibers and makes you appreciate the work that went into making the garments. Clothes dryers deplete fiber-content. Besides, hand-washing is good for your muscles, and hanging clothes outdoors strengthens the body, too.

In my career as an art restorer, the object was to ensure that beautiful things would last hundreds of years. Paintings are made from cotton and linen, and require intelligent care, as do our clothing and textiles. And finally, hand washing followed by line drying conserves precious resources.

VAJ: I particularly enjoyed your Theater of the Absurd on the ES site. In your March, 2009 “Fashion Victim Favorites” you highlighted the low-riding hip-hugger/above-the-ankle length jeans saying, “Make your gut prominent while shortening your legs. Hurry, they’re going fast!” Made me laugh out loud. What kind of fashion advice will we get from your living-on-a-shoestring site?

M-J de M: Don’t follow fashion, rather, create your own style and respect the proportions of your body. Looking good doesn’t mean you have to wear a different outfit every day or depend on trendy designers, those who force disfiguring styles upon unwitting consumers just to satisfy their need to be different. A skirt made in 1970, with proper care, can be worn for decades if it flatters a lady’s corpus.

VAJ: You have a clown painting heading the Theatre of the Absurd. Is this your painting?

Collide-O-Clown (Dexter), Copyright MJ de Mesterton 1986

M-J de M: Yes, it is my original painting. I created Collide-O-Clown in Manhattan, New York, during the wretchedly hot month of August, 1986. It is a large oil-on-linen, and now sits in an executive office, cheering up its occupant, who likes to call him “Dexter”, after the famed cable television serial killer. (I painted a series called Kaleido-Clowns in the 1980s.)

VAJ: Do you see a correlation between your art and your Elegant Survival lifestyle?

M-J de M: Absolutely–rugged individualism, pure elements, and natural beauty are common themes.

VAJ: M-J, it’s been a rare treat to visit with you. Thank you so much for giving us your time and attention.

M-J de M: Thank you, Aggie! It has been a pleasure to speak with you. I love your brilliant photographic landscapes, and enjoy reading “Visual Arts Junction”.

More about M-J de Mesterton

M-J de Mesterton, the Original Rock Painter

Elegant Survival: Stylish Living on a Shoestring

Elegant Survival News

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Three Mystical Rock Paintings, Oil on Canvas 8″ X 10″, by M-J de Mesterton Copyright 2008 (available)

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What are the Rocks Telling Us? Oil on Canvas 56″ X 42″, Copyright M-J de Mesterton, The Rock Painter, 2008 (Courtesy of Pegasi Energy, Tyler, Texas) Escondido, Oil on Belgian Linen, 34″ X 46″ Copyright M-J de Mesterton, The Rock Painter; May 2008 Courtesy of Pegasi Energy

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Opalescent Dawn, Oil on Canvas 16″ X 20″, Copyright M-J de Mesterton, 2006 Courtesy of Pegasi Energy; Tyler, Texas

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