Las Vegas Academy benefits in multiple ways working with artist

Internationally acclaimed artist Graham Knuttel is perfectly willing to readjust a plan when it goes a little off the rails.

In April, he began a two-week project with students from the Las Vegas Academy to create a large-scale painting that would be reproduced on vinyl and hung as a mural at Neonopolis. The time it took and the final outcome were not part of the original plan. Yet it all came together with a result the artist and his collaborating students are pleased with.

The work was unveiled Wednesday by Knuttel and the students at the artist’s gallery in the Palazzo and a large print of the work will be sold Nov. 10 at an auction benefiting Las Vegas Academy at the Rio. It features Knuttel’s trademark bold colors and whimsy and captures many of the odd characters of Fremont Street.

“As soon as I saw the place, I knew it had to be painted,” Knuttel said. “There’s so much life and so many unusual people down there. You could spend a lifetime painting it.”

Knuttel was born in 1954 and grew up in Dublin as the youngest of three children. He attended art school not far from his home although at the time the field was somewhat looked down upon, as he described in his official bio.

“Ireland was a poor, somewhat backward place at the time, where art was seen as rather a selfish indulgence that would ultimately lead to idleness and destitution, but that didn’t bother me,” he wrote.

He worked several blue- collar jobs, at bars, building sites and farms. He met many people who lived in the margins of society. And when he hit his stride as a painter, these fringe characters were often the subjects of his work. When he came to Las Vegas, he wasn’t inspired by it until he saw Fremont Street.

“I only discovered Fremont Street last November,” Knuttel said. “I thought Las Vegas was the Strip. I didn’t realize it’s got a soul.”

While working on the project, Knuttel, who still resides in Dublin and usually visits Las Vegas once a month or so, lived in a Fremont Street hotel. He came here to set up his gallery at the request of one of his patrons, businessman and former mayoral candidate Victor Chaltiel, who died in August. Chaltiel and his wife, Toni, collected more than a score of the artist’s works during 25 years. He was on the Las Vegas Sands Corp. board of directors that bankrolled Knuttel Gallery at the Palazzo.

“Victor convinced me to come to Las Vegas because he said my work belonged here,” Knuttel said. “A lot of Irish art is landscapes. Victor felt my work was very Vegas.”

When the idea of creating a public mural in Las Vegas was being fleshed out, Chaltiel and the artist met with local arts advocate Brian “Paco” Alvarez, seeking insight, connections and suggestions of locations. Alvarez was taken with the artist and his work.

“I just connected with him,” Alvarez said. “I was impressed with his artwork, it brought a smile to my face. I loved his use of color, and his subject matter. On top of that, he’s just a cool guy. It’s great that Graham wanted to do something with the community.”

The Las Vegas Academy students who worked on the project were similarly smitten.

“It’s been amazing,” junior Ysabel Caleje said. “He’s such a great guy and it’s been so exciting to be here for the process. We’ve learned so much already.”

Fellow junior Reina Dalton concurred that working with Knuttel has been one of the most beneficial things she’s done at the school.

“At the end of the first day we told our teacher, ‘I know it doesn’t look like we’ve done anything today, but today was the most important day of my life,’ ” Dalton said. “We learned so much today and we didn’t even paint yet.”

Knuttel took the students through the work’s creation, from sketches to well into painting. No painting was done the first day because the construction of the canvas critically failed, undergoing what artists refer to as “tacoing.” New, sturdier stretchers were obtained, and the process of building it, stretching and preparing the canvas continued.

“Right off the bat, the kids learned that if something’s not working out, you don’t abandon ship,” said Kelly Mabel, the academy’s department coordinator for the visual arts. “They learned how to fix the canvas, they learned the wait time and dry time and other technical aspects.”

Knuttel explained how he works out a painting long before he touches a brush. The classroom was littered with reference photos and sketches, both Knuttel’s and the students’. They worked on the composition as a group and then the students drew and painted costume elements separately as a guideline for the finished piece.

“It’s the same process whether you’re 14 or 400,” Mabel said a few days into the project. “You’re going to start with the idea and it’s going to morph and change. He’s included the students in so much of the process. They’ll have a stronger relationship to the finished work.”

The two-week collaboration was an education for Mabel, too.

“They were talking about color use and overlap in ways I hadn’t worked with before,” she said. “He experimented with using chalk pastel underneath, spray fixing that down and doing acrylic glazes on top. That’s something I’m definitely going to try in my own work.”

The collaboration exposed Knuttel to the students’ energy, enthusiasm and unfiltered feedback.

“I taught them and they taught me,” he said. “I’ve learned a lot of new words. I wouldn’t mind doing something else with them. They reminded me of my youth.”