Original Vision “Sometimes people want to know if the paintings are for sale. They are not. And I don’t have any plans to sell or exhibit or take commissions…” —Spring 2001, from a note to my father about recent plein air work Background First If this essay were a painting that I was about to paint on location, I would wash the canvas with a thin layer of burnt sienna, or yellow ochre, or a neutral light gray. Not all artists do this, but I find that when a bit of the canvas shows through it creates an overall tone […]
Why the Plein Air Movement is Dead, Part Two
Savage Grace “I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process.” —Vincent Van Gogh Decisions One, abandon all work in anything but oils. Two, spend at least two years sketching the landscape before attempting to paint it. Three, move to California. After reading an article, in the early 90s, about something called “plein air”, and deciding that plein air was the direction I would take, these were the three decisions I made…and kept. Embodied in those two words, plein air, I saw artistic challenge, physical, mental, and spiritual challenge, and a fiercely […]
Why the Plein Air Movement is Dead, Part Three
The Heart of the Matter “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” —Steve Jobs The Calm Everyone understands the appeal of seeing familiar places in old paintings or photos. Think back on the early California paintings of Monterey, for example; who does not enjoy E. Charlton Fortune’s views of the harbor, for example, as it was then? In the same way that we find old photos of places fascinating because […]