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By Kelly Cupp
The Winchester Star

	Artist Mort Künstler describes his creative process to a group of students at Millbrook High School Friday morning, explaining how he comes up with ideas for Civil War paintings and makes those seeds a reality. (Photos by Scott Mason)

An artist nationally known for his Civil War images shared his techniques with students from Handley and Millbrook high schools Friday, and explained the process is much more complicated than people think.

Mort Künstler’s presentation in Millbrook’s auditorium kicked off activities for “A Civil War Weekend,” which includes tours, living history, and book signings.

For the past 15 years, Künstler has created images from the Civil War. It takes months to create a painting, he said.

“It’s just not a moment of inspiration or throwing paint on a canvas,” he said.

The process starts with reading picture-taking, and visiting battle sites or towns.

“I could see a line [in a book] somewhere that wasn’t important but could be a good painting,” he said.

When the field work is complete, he sketches out small drawings, Künstler said.

As an idea takes shape, the thumbnail sketches become larger until he knows exactly how the painting will look.

Next he creates a large color sketch and places a 16-box grid over the drawing and the final canvas. That allows him to recreate the grid, box for box, on the canvas without worrying about matching scale, he said.

“This is exactly the way the picture develops,” he said. “It’s a set process I do with all the paintings.”

Students also had a chance to ask Künstler questions, including whether he had ever included himself in his paintings and what medium he prefers.

When he first started out and couldn’t afford models, Künstler said he would use himself and his wife as models so he could tell how light would reflect in a certain pose.

Artists use a variety of mediums, he said. Though he mostly uses oil now, Künstler said anything would do.

In a restaurant once, Künstler took a wine cork, heated it over a candle and sketched out a Native American on a napkin when someone asked him about media. Then borrowing a ladies’ lipstick, he added red war paint, he said.

Students also wanted to know how much Künstler’s work costs. They learned those figures depend on the complexity and size of the piece.

The most anyone has paid for one of his paintings was $200,000, he said. A smaller work often sells for $5,000, he added.

But when he first left college, he earned $2 to $5 for diagrams of basketball and football plays, Künstler said.

If an art career is what the students want, they have to be patient, he said.

“You have to be very persevering. You get turned down a lot,” he said.

But if they work hard and perfect their craft, people will want the art, he added.

Millbrook High School senior Colin Wieman, 17, enjoyed the chance to hear from a working artist.

“It takes time for this type of artwork to be completed,” he said, adding he found the information about the grids interesting.

David Rogerson, 14, agreed.

“The presentation was very interesting. His methods keep you in tune. His tones are incredible,” David said.

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