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The Blog &
Stuff, 2008
December 9, 2008
Port A
Gallery's plein air event
For three days
in October Port A Gallery
in Port Aransas, TX, hosted it's first plein air painting event.
I was fortunate to be invited to participate along with gallery
artists LaNell Arndt, Lynn Dickey, Rusty Jones and Roy Murray.
We were given royal treatment by gallery owners Rick and Cameron
Pratt and director Linda Morgan, including a dinner at the
Pratts' home, an afternoon at the historic Lydia Ann Lighthouse
and a lively and well-attended opening reception.
Port Aransas is
a charming town on Mustang Island, a barrier island along the
Texas coast, with a rich history as a fishing village and
tourist destination. It is full of quaint and colorful houses,
fishing scenes, boats and other seaside treats . . . fun
painting! In addition to being the gallery owner, Rick is
also a local historian active in preserving the character of the
area. He has actual hands-on experience, too -- he and his wife
Cameron lived at the Lydia Ann Lighthouse for several years as
caretakers and restorers. The lighthouse, a well-known local
landmark, was built just before the Civil War and is still
occupied and maintained. Rick says that the town of
Aransas Pass (the actual port across the bay on the mainland)
and Port Aransas should have each other's names, but for some
now unknown reason were misnamed and the names stuck. Certainly
too late to change them now.
With Rick
Pratt (left) and Rusty Jones
After the
event, I was honored to be invited to join the gallery so now I
have all the more reason to make regular painting trips to the
area, the next one planned for January. It will be interesting
to see how the place looks in winter.
At the
reception
December 9, 2008
Looks
like it was the right decision . . .
Yep. Staying
home was the right thing to do (see the entry for Sep 10).
Hurricane Ike did indeed pay us a visit, with the eye of this
massive storm passing just west of Lufkin on September 13. This
thing was almost the size of the state of Texas! The whole East
Texas area, which is densely wooded, suffered serious effects
with trees down, roofs blown off and structures damaged. We lost
part of a large pine tree and two large oaks, one of which hit
the house and did fairly significant damage. It was so large it
had to be removed with a crane. But we were luckier than many
people and thankfully, we were without power only three days
this time. We have just completed the repairs and things
are back to normal except for the yard which won't recover for
at least another growing season - lot's of holes from the trees
and ruts from the heavy equipment.
This was the
worst part (note the guys on the roof)
Just some of
the debris that had to be picked up one piece at a time
Nothing like
having a logging operation in your front yard!
After two
storms plus my own culling, I don't have many trees left that
can reach the house so maybe I'll be ready for the next
hurricane season. Oh well, at least now I can concentrate on
painting again.
September 10,
2008
The Best
Laid Plans of Mice and Men . . .
Well, Hurricane
Ike has rearranged my schedule - a not uncommon event in Gulf
Coast states. I had planned to be in Colorado painting the San
Juan Mountains this week, but as I write this, Ike is headed our
way and doesn't seem to know exactly where it will come
ashore. Even though Lufkin, where I live, is over 100 miles
inland this storm is big enough to still do some damage if it
comes our way as Rita did in 2005 (I had three trees on my house
then). So I stayed home to batten down the hatches and such and
will have to make that trip to Colorado either late this year or
early next year. Oh well, I wanted to do more snow
paintings anyway.
August 3, 2008
Painting
at the Vineyard
Yesterday I
painted with a couple of members of the Outdoor Painters Society
at a vineyard south of Tyler, TX. The OPS had been invited to
set up easels and paint during an annual event that features
wine tasting, live music and other festivities. It sounded like
fun and I had never painted in a vineyard, so I set out early to
take advantage of the relatively cool temperatures. (It is
summer in Texas and the forecast called for temps near 100 in
the afternoon.)
By mid-morning
the place was bustling with people enjoying the music, the
vendors' booths and the wine tasting. There was even a barrel
with grapes so you could try your hand (make that 'feet') at
grape stomping.
After looking
around for a while I found a shady spot with a nice view of a
driveway under a canopy of crepe myrtles in bloom and started
painting. I was joined by Herb Bryant first, then by Herb Reed
and his wife SuAnn. I finished my painting first and left them
to find another subject, but couldn't find anything that really
turned me on. So I had a glass of sangria, listened to some
music for a bit and left for home. Here's the 8x10 I did:
Later, I
learned that the owner of the place had confronted the other
painters, telling them they were trespassing and that he was
going to confiscate their paintings. They explained that we had
been officially invited to paint at the winery, but he insisted
none the less that they were trespassing. Ultimately, he bought
their paintings instead of confiscating them, but the conflict
was unfortunate and unwarranted and we won't be going back
there.
You never know
what you're going to encounter when plein air painting. Insects,
animals, weather, art critics and even grumpy land owners all
make for interesting experiences.
July 11, 2008
"En Plein
Aire"
Since some
paintings on this site are identified as "plein air" pieces, it
may be in order to say something about that term for those who
aren't sure what it means.
In the days
prior to the French Impressionist movement of the 19th century,
artists rarely ventured out of their studios to paint. They
either had to mix their own paints from dry pigments or buy
paint in vessels that were impractical for out-of-doors work.
Then in 1841 an American artist living in England named John G.
Rand invented something that changed the nature of painting
forever - a collapsible tin tube with a stopper in it. This
simple development allowed artists to take their paint with them and to paint
directly from nature in the open air (or en plein aire in
French) instead of from pencil sketches, notes and memory.
Today there are
many plein air groups (I even started one myself-
see here), many plein air
events and exhibitions and even galleries devoted to plein air
work. But the real reason for painting from life is often lost
in all this seeming desire to create a new genre - that is to have
at hand all
of the information about the subject for the artist to use.
The eye (and mind) can see infinitely more colors and values
(the darks and lights) than can be captured in photos taken with
even the best cameras. And even though it is not possible to
reproduce with paint all that the eye sees, it is up to the
artist to decide what part of that information contributes to a good
painting and what does not. And paintings done from life will
often have more honesty, truth and immediacy not always seen in
studio woks.
My objective in
painting landscapes from life is to capture all of the most
important characteristics of the scene as faithfully as I can.
Then I can use those studies in the studio, manipulating those
truths in order to create a statement of my own ("telling small
lies to convey a larger truth" as someone has said).
So if you are a
painter, try always to paint from life. If you are a collector,
remember that painting from life is a process, not an end in
itself. A painting isn't a good painting just because it was
done en plein aire. Lots of bad paintings are done en
plein aire. It just means that the artist went to the very source
of the the truth about the subject.
July 8, 2008
New
Studio
I have just
recently moved my studio from one rental space to another that
is smaller (and cheaper) and closer to home. My previous space
was all the way across town in the next community - a whopping
seven miles! - but the new one is only a mile from my house.
When I put pencil to paper I realized that at today's (mid-2008)
gasoline prices that would save me a minimum of $50-60 per month
in gas alone. That will buy several tubes of paint! And given
that the rent is also much less, it was a "no-brainer". I can
even ride my bicycle to work on cool days!
But it's quite
a bit smaller than the previous studio, consisting of two
identical rooms, one for a studio and one for a work/storage
room. There's no space to waste and I'll have to think wisely
about what to keep and what I can do without, but it looks like
it will work out well. Time will tell.
Here's what the
studio portion looks like:
And here are a
couple of shots of the work room where things are stored and
paintings are framed and packed for shipping.
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