Oscar Senn (pronounced sin) is a painter who maintains a studio in his Riverside home.
WHEN DID YOU FIRST PICK UP A BRUSH?
“I began seriously about 15 years ago. I painted some in school. After college, I got completely out of it so it was peculiar to work in oils again.”
WHY DO YOU PREFER OILS?
“They’re forgiving. You can mess up as much as you want. Watercolors are brutally honest; you have to do it right the first time. I like it better than acrylics because you can play with the surface longer. It dries slower so you can mush it into other areas of canvas. I always liked the luminosity and I love the smell of turpentine.”
BORN
Americus, Ga.
NOMAD
Before settling here 10 years ago, Senn spent four years painting in Los Angeles. “L.A. is where I first showed. There’s a gallery there that still shows my work. I bounced around Florida and ended up in Jacksonville.” He also worked for The Florida Times-Union and The Miami Herald as an illustrator. “More and more people realize that the arts are part of the revitalization of a community. People don’t move here just because of golf courses. They want a robust cultural life, too.”
EDUCATION
Commercial arts and illustration was Senn’s major at the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota.
WHY BEcome AN ARTIST?
“Because I couldn’t do math and I’ve always drawn. The stories in pictures were my companions as a kid. I can’t stop doing it. In America, it’s natural to harness that to an income.”
WHO COLLECTS YOUR WORK LOCALLY?
“Mostly individuals like [contractor] Ben Moore, doctors, executives and quite a few lawyers. Barnett Bank [now Bank of America] bought a piece. Jay Stein [of Stein Mart] owns my work, as does Sally Ann Bryant — she’s a painter and cultural influence at the beach.” Senn is represented currently by spiller vincenty gallery.
DO YOU TARGET A PARTICULAR MARKET?
“I don’t do anything for a particular demographic. My work started out extremely internal and now it’s a lot more available to a wider market. I can’t work in a way that’s just generating merchandise.”
WHAT MESSAGE ARE YOU TRYING TO CONVEY?
“My paintings tell a story. There’s always an underlying theme and sometimes I’m not aware of it. People have a misunderstanding that an artist is consciously doing everything on the canvas that they want the viewer to respond to. In my case, I am frequently at the end of a painting or in the middle or long after that I know what it’s really about. People bring their own meaning to it. There’s a spooky, narrative force that works through what I do. It’s just like writers who say the characters take over their stories. The paintings have something they want to tell. In my earlier work there was a lot of turtles and people want to know about the turtles. Sometimes I say, ‘Well, the turtles just wanted to be there.’ There’s something they express through imagery. I never know what a painting is going to look like or the impact that it’s going to have. I always start with images but you never know what the full realization will be.”
IS THERE A COMMON THEME?
“There’s something spiritual about the content. It’s about vulnerability, dreams and appearances. They’re about the magic inside of reality. Painting is about overcoming deficits and everybody overcoming their childhood.”
WHAT’S REWARDING ABOUT THE WORK?
“Mushing goo around. I have this stick with animal fur on the end that I dip into oil and put on stretched skin. The process is extremely archaic. It’s working with my hands, being very tactile.”
GETTING OVER THE HUMP
“There’s a curve with every creative process. You start out with a big white square. Hammering away at it takes courage. You fail for a long time. You get discouraged because you can’t do what you want to do but you push through it. Acceptance is a major part of the curve. Eventually it starts to gel and the painting starts to paint itself. You can vanish as an individual. Then it becomes this long, lingering goodbye. It’s so sad and poignant; it’s sort of like a romance.”
WHAT INSPIRES YOU TO CREATE?
“People, human beings, especially children, the tiny details that tell a story.”
WHO’S YOUR MAIN INFLUENCE?
“I learned a lot from [the late] N.C. Wyeth. I don’t consciously paint like him. I think we paint alike. You tend to admire the people that can teach you.”
WHAT ABOUT HIS WORK APPEALS TO YOU?
“The moments that he picks to depict. This tiny strange moment that’s before the action or after the action. It’s a little bit off. It’s what you choose not to say. Why this moment and no other moment? It’s very dramatic to choose the moment right after the knockout when the fighter is standing over his fallen opponent, just breathing. That depicts more than the actual moment of drama. It’s more human.”
FAMILY
Senn has two grown sons, David and Blake.
HOBBIES
Writing poetry, grooving to blues music or channel surfing for an episode of “The Twilight Zone” are his favorite distractions. Dining at Biscotti’s, visiting the Florida Keys or watching the documentary of artist Robert Crumb are other passions.
— by Monica Chamness