  When your name is Abraxas (he dropped the surname a while ago) people naturally wonder how that came about. Even for an artist, the name is unusual. If you're thinking Santana album, think again. "My name means 'culmination of the spirits in the universe,' and it comes from a pre-Greek, pre-Sumerian culture in the region of Mesopotamia," says the 23-year-old artist. And, yes, it's his given name, not something he adopted in a free-spirited moment. Abraxas hales from the very ordinary town of Lewes, Delaware; but since graduating from Cape Henlopen High in '93 and completing his training as an artist that same year, he's been dividing his time among three locations: Whidbey Island near Seattle, Rehoboth Beach and Clearwater, Florida. The event that changed his life and set him on the path to artistic success began when he discovered Master Libby Berry and her New Renaissance Academy.  "Basically it was a crash course in oil painting," Abraxas explains. Over a period of eight weeks, Master Libby turns anyone with the desire to learn into an artist. She offers two sessions a year. "In art school they teach color theory, but not how it relates to the real world," says Abraxas, who now acts as Master Libby's assistant. "We teach how color works in nature; then we teach how to paint." Adding that he discovered the 20-year-old school after a two-year search, he is passionate about the results it achieves. "It's unbelievable to really learn how to paint injust eight weeks. And we've never had a failure, never had anyone come out of the course and not produce a beautiful painting." Aspiring artists will be relieved to learn that talent, in Abraxas' view, is highly over-rated. "Talent's a myth, that's my philosophy," he says, adding that when students are presented with constant, stable data, and they understand it, artistic success is a forgone conclusion. Abraxas concentrated on portraits until two years ago, when he produced his first beautiful landscape "a dramatic sunrise portrait of Delaware's Cape Henlopen lighthouse as it was in 1924." Nine hundred limited edition prints of the original oil have sold exceedingly well in the past year; there are only 12 left, he says. "I got into landscapes because when I did portraits (mostly by commission), few people saw them. With landscapes I get a lot more exposure." Abraxas will be available at Roam Nightclub above the Shipley Grill (913 Shipley St.) on Dec. 4, 4-8p.m., to sign Out & About covers and prints of his work. |