John Al Hogue

Art Brokerage: Wyland Gallery Artist: John Al Hogue Canadian Artist: In 1981 John Al Hogue, and his older brother Terry, spent long winter days and nights in isolated Canadian oil field camps . This isolation spawned interest in sculpture, wood carving, and photography. Their need for artistic expression grew and they soon began picture framing from an old Canadian farmhouse basement. Word spread, and demand for their finely crafted custom frames grew around the area. Soon the brothers found themselves in a business they both loved. They even had the good fortune of apprenticing with a retiring master frame maker with a distinguished reputation for his hand-carved and gold leaf guilded frames – many of which hang in the Smithsonian Institution, The White House, and many other prestigious institutions. When John Al Hogue began painting himself in 1992 he was already an accomplished frame designer, wood frame carver, and gold leaf guilder. Ten years as a professional artist, and twenty years framing experience, allows Hogue to supervise his framing craftsman in building frames that are works of art in their own right. Each frame is carefully chosen to enhance the unique beauty inherent in each individual piece of art. John Al Hogue's style is very difficult to reproduce accurately using most printing processes. Print shops were unable to capture either the original painting's subtle detail, or the transition of finely blended color layers. The print must capture the subtleties of Al's trademark painting style – "paintings which appear to transmit their own glowing light source." Out of frustration, John Al decided to learn how to make prints himself. After several years of research he decided that Iris Giclée was the only printing method capable of capturing his subtle style. He hired one of the world's best printmakers, Ernesto Clark, to work with him for over a year to learn art of printmaking. Together they were able eventually to make prints virtually indistinguishable from his original oils. Finally, John Al could make prints worthy of the original paintings. Listings Wanted