slogging through winter with still life's

Studio time. To paint everyday keeps the brush sharp and pallet fresh. It also means keeping the rain and snow off your back. It means searching the internet and following up leads on show opportunities, competitions and marketing. Following the 'business plan' which is basically a schedule of production to keep this A.D.D. artist, focused. Seems to be a work in progress......

Villa in Twisp

11x14 plein air study. The Methow river wends its way through the foot hills of the Cascades. A landscape of deer, salmon and exceptional steel head fishing if like my friend, Kevin Bevins, you know how to get 'em.
It's an area that has been discovered by the 'rich and famous' but gets pretty mellow in the winter as the pass to the West side of the state closes and the place returns to the locals.
Art is finding its way into the culture, replacing timber jobs that have gone away. There is some ranching and some orchards that still manage to get by but life is in transition as it is in the entire 'inland' west.
A land of scarce but clean water, the locals are making a concerted effort to reclaim the land and the balance of nature with many projects that preserve agricultural land, reclaim natural habitat and look forward to the future.
A good place for art and plein air painting.

thoughts on plein air and abstract art

I write as much as I paint, perhaps more. I think I should share some of those insights as this is a journal of artistic progress.
Every painting is an experiment. The current goal is to reflect not only the visual model but the internal thoughts to try to attain spiritual content.

Journal Jots;

Spiritual Abstract Art

Abstract Spiritual Art

The blank page is a spiritual slate
ready for creation/expression

Interpretation
Perception
Revelation
Nature as a teacher/model is a point of departure for spiritual reflection .
Beauty
Truth
Being
Plein air painting is a study that puts one in the moment.
The studies are developed in the 'Temple of the Studio'.
The product is a revelation of
Being
Beauty

Truth.

So..........

The first painting in this series was done en plein air, Washington Pass, Mazama, WA., as were the next two. The last painting was done in the studio, a result of plein air studies and thoughts developed over time. Plein air painting puts one in the moment. The information gathered achieves a visual vocabulary that can be expanded on in the studio. Both practices enhance my development as an artist and as a person. Hopefully the effort will have value to others as well.

thoughts on art; abstract plein air

I regard this as a fine abstract landscape. It is from this point that the painting gets developed in an attempt to accomplish something that is a representation of nature. One that gives comfort to those that need to know what they are looking at is familiar and perhaps safe, in-as-much-as art goes. It is at this point that there are paths to less comfortable but more insightful opportunities. Opportunities that fulfill aesthetic and even spiritual truths. After all, the pursuit of art is a personal adventure if one is to pursue ,should aspire to more than a mundane fabrication of a material product. Whoa! Is that a little too much?

work in progress

I regard this painting as a 'Spiritual' effort.
Done in the Temple of the Studio, reflecting thoughts and artistic aspirations, reflecting my knowledge of horses, plein air landscape studies with deliberate attempt to include abstract composition. It is a direction I hope to expand upon.

Back from Beyond but Still Traveling

I'm home painting my familiar haunts after a whirlwind tour of the Northwest. Done harvesting hay with the horses, I saved August and September for plein air paintouts. I've got the garden harvested, the hoses put away so they won't freeze, the lawn mowed and am mounting the snow blower on the tractor to be ready for winter.

My creative batteries are charged and I have lots of ideas for the studio this winter. Meanwhile I'm enjoying my favorite season and painting everyday. Fall is perfect for a plein air painter. The weather is cool with few bugs but the crickets are chirping and birds are passing through on their way south. The bears are storing up fat for the winter and the wood rats are packing off everything that isn't nailed down.

The fall colors are just beginning to turn. It's a very dry end of summer and I hope the leaves don't just fall as they sometimes do when there has been a draught.

Painting in Hood River was cosmic, literally. I got my chakras adjusted by new friend and massage therapist Mark Larsen, founder of http://www.menwithsticks.com/. A giant of a guy successfully opened up long neglected chakras in my body and I can now see better. Very important for a painter. Mark is also a painter, set designer, muralist and all around creative guy with WHOLE lot of energy he likes to share.

It's pretty common knowledge for those that pay attention to such things, that once you start down the road paying attention to details of not only the world around you but your spiritual self, syncronocity kicks in and cool things start happening, seemingly out of the blue. For example. I was set up by the side of the road in a little tiny burg called Hunters in eastern washington continuing my project of painting the small towns of rural eastern washington and a fellow that looked a lot like what Buddha must have looked like, came over to check me out. Turns out, after two hours or so of palaver that we had met at the Barter Fare. He is knows as Organic Al, an ex drill sargeant that came home from Nam and proceeded to try to make up for all the dastardly deeds he had done to his Karma. Atleast 70 years old now, he's a cosmic guy with a cherubic smile, Om Mani Padme Hum he encouraged me to continue to tune in. "We're all travelers in the cosmic dance and obliged to help each other along whether it is painting, praying or cooking soup!" Peace, Harmony, Laughter and Love is his mantra.

I feel painting is my way of tuning in and sharing. It's all about light. Painting is a concerted study in light. With the help of those such as Mark Larsen and Organic Al I find painting is as much the pursuit of spirtual light as physical light. Perhaps that's a painting I will eventually accomplish? Anyway, it's the journey that counts. Every painting is an experiment. A new attempt at perfection.

Three Weeks on the Paint Out Trail

I'm off to the races or rather, Paint Outs. I'll be two weeks in Hood River, land of windsurfers and wonderful vistas of volcanoes and rivers.
32 artists juried into the event. We have an itinerary of orchards, farms of flowers, the unique Maryhill museum grounds, Columbia River gorge, the steppes of the Cascades and downtown Hood River. We each try to get 6 paintings worth sharing in 4 days of painting and an opening show on Sept. 4th. Last year was awesome. The folks at the Columbia Art Center find accomadations with locals for the artists and really go all out to make it a super event. So far it's been the best plein air event in the Northwest.
I'll stop in Portland to present my work to some galleries then head up to Seattle to do the same.
Next stop is Whidby Island and the U.S. Open Plein Air Paintout. Last year I made it from Hood River to Coupeville on Whidby Island by the hair of my chinny, chin, chin. You have to get your canvas stamped to be eligible to jury into the show. Fortunately the two shows are separated enough for me to make both.
September I'll make it over to a paintout in Hope, Idaho with the infamous, notorious and wonderful maven of the arts Kally Thurman.
Wish me luck and stay tuned!

Plein Air Trek, Ingalls Peak and the Alpine Wilderness

I had a plein air gig in Cle Elum Washington so I spent the time in the Alpine Wilderness around Ingalls Lake.
It was quite a slog. Not the 18 year old I was when I could hike 20 miles a day in the back country with a 50 lb pack. Matter of fact, this is the same Kelty pack that I had when I was 18 and hiked the Olympics, Cascades and Rockies as well as hitch hike from BC to Mexico. I think it is the single item I've kept in my life consistently from that time. I traded 3 pairs of skiis, two pairs of ski boots for a guitar and this Kelty pack. Traded up on the guitar but still have the pack after almost 40 years.
The online hikers guide said it was an easy hike of 9 miles round trip and ONLY 2800' gain in elevation. I'm sure that is right but ..........let's just say it was good to get t0 camp.
I guess I could have just taken my watercolors but they just don't do it for me. I gotta say though, this was the finest place to paint I've ever been. I've found the painting will paint itself when you set up in the right place.

From Headlight Basin and Ingall's Meadow, Mt. Stuart dominates your view. I have to say, the human race is amazing. I met a man and his teenage son that had just "summitted" Mt. Stuart in two days. They hiked in, climbed the mountain and were hiking out the next day. I was passed on the way up the trail by a group of 4 ladies. I don't think the youngest one was less than 50 years old. They passed me coming down after they had done a little skinny dipping in Ingalls Lake (which from personal experience is cold enough to shrivel any libido!) and I hadn't even reached the pass yet. Ouch!

There were far more mountain goats than people. They were friendly too! Almost too friendly as they are starved for salt and will eat anything with sweat on it, back straps, shoes, packs. I hung my pack in the trees from past experiences in the Rockies. Nothing like hiking out barefoot with your pack tied together with shoestrings.

Now it's back to the studio and work up some of the material I got in the back country while it is still fresh.

Barrister Winery and Fine Art Room Dividers

Painting away........getting ready for a show in Spokane, WA at Barrister Wynery. 1213 W Railroad Ave, Spokane, WA 99201

Lots of wall space so I will have all my big paintings from this past year and lots of un-framed little paintings at a very affordable price point ($45+). I'd rather offer originals at a print price than prints. I don't have much good to say about computer printouts or giclee's. Computers have ruined the value of prints.

I also will be displaying this unique new idea. Working with a local finish carpenter I've come up with this 'fine art room divider'. This is a model "6"x18" which will be 5'x5' room divider available in custom hardwoods and paintings.

Coos Art Museum 'Expressions West' Exhibit

This painting "Man In His Garden", was juried into the Coos Art Museum, "Expressions West" show, http://coosart.org/expressions/ew9/EXW09-Slideshow/index.html. It didn't win an award which is somewhat disapointing but then, from the ones that were selected my work isn't the style that has been in vogue the last couple years.
I'm leaning more to a unique presentation technique wise and the show seems to be favoring the 'old school' paradigm of realism. I'm not critisizing at all, I like every type of art. I do appreciate getting juried in as that is a measure of acknowledgment. Sitting out here in the expanse of the reservation it's difficult to measure my progress so getting into these shows is a way to do that.
Personally I'm jazzed about what's going on with this piece. It's solid in many ways, composition, color key but most of all I've developed my own way of painting that has lots of potential for development.
I'm already onto the next level that came out of this effort. 3, 20x60, panels that are a landscape tryptic that has gone well. Like this painting, lots of paint, carved with a pallet knife. The type of style suited to an ex horse logger.
"Man In His Garden", is available during this show for $1500.

Blues of the North for Red of the South.

We left the warm southwest for home and 2" of snow on the 3rd day of April. Folks say and I agree that this is the longest winter we've ever known, in contrast to the Southwest that had a dry year. I wonder how it will go for the folks in L.A. who depend on this watershed for water.

I went a little farther north to my friend and fellow artist and horselogger, Rod Gould's. I thought we had it bad until I got across the line and found even more snow although the sun came out for us as we stood in the mud and painted Canadian skies. My pallet went from a warm, high key Burnt Sienna to a cool Ultramarine/umber pallet that took more energy if only because it was Colder!

Santuario Rancho de Taos, 11x14, oil, pleinair

From Sante Fe to Taos a backroad winds through the mountains. There are lots of paintings I missed but we managed to find time to stop at this extraordinary adobe church built because of the vision of a farmer and is a sacred healing place that many come to pray and take some of the dirt of the place away with them. I saw folks on crutches and wheel chairs, young and old.

We stayed in Taos which was NOT Sante Fe. I found the Church of St. Francis Assisi in Rancho De Taos, made famous by so many artists, including Georgia O'Keefe.

Real Adobe is so human. It is workman toiling, it is native material, it is a grand vision with deep roots. Betts prayed, I painted. Both our efforts payed off.

Canyon de Chilly, oil, 11x14, plein air

Stayed at the Cameron Trading Post near the notorious Lee's Ferry, NM. Wonderful stonework gardens. We got on the Trading Post road through the High Colorado Plateau, marveling at the red rock dinosaur eggs, stopping at a couple pueblos for a gander at pottery, jewelry and horse blankets. We stopped at the Hopi First Mesa and got the opportunity to talk with Hopi artist, Lawrence Namoki and wife Lucida, traded for one of his pots, decorated with Hopi Katchina, the One Horn God, Two Horned God, Sun God and Warrior. Lawrence explained as much as he could about his work in the 4 hours we had. Lawrence pushes the envelope of Hopi tradition with his art but stays true to the craft and world view of his people.

We got the deep fried Chinle, in time to view the sun setting on the red rock Canyon de Chelly, a place I could spend the rest of my life painting. I couldn't help but feel it is one of the sacred places of the planet. What a wonderful place to be now and in the past, a sacred place to the People of the southwest.

As I was painting Spider Woman Rock, the sun was coming up, smoke from a hogan rose from the roof. A person came out and threw their blanket over a horse and rounded up sheep and goats. It felt surreal to witness such a moment, as if time stood still.

Legend says that the white color on the top of Spider Woman Rock is the bones of bad little children. Pretty convincing.

Tripin' the Southwest with an easle

When we hit the Grand Canyon I jumped out with my easle and disapeared into the landscape. It was a perfect day, a little overcast but warm at this high altitude untill the sun went down then the wind from the Canyon whelled up and the temperature went down with the sun.
The Big GC is a little daunting expecially for a pleinair painter trying to get something said before the light changes. I think I managed to pull off what I did because I'm using my pallet knife to load color onto the canvas in order to cover ground fast, try to make the color, value and temperature selection on the pallet, block it in and move on, coming back to finesse whatever needs attention.
With so much beauty and granduer to filter, I knew I had to get in to the moment and let whatever come through that could. I did 3 sketches by the time the sun went down. Unfortunately Betts got worried as I had left the trail and didn't rendezvous when and where I said I would so she got the Rangers stirred up to come looking for a loss arteest. I got back in time to thank the gentleman and enjoy the wonderful chicken and martinis on the tail gate of our rental car. Twas a Grand time at the Grand Canyon.

More of the South West

On our trip through the South West our goal was Sante Fe. We stopped at the capitol of the Navaho Nation at Window Rock. Looking for the Window Rock Trading Post we found the rock with the window in it that also had a memorial to Navaho warriors and the Code Talkers of WWII by accident.

The Trading Post was full of great stuff from all over the Navaho Nation. We scored a nice piece of jewellry for Betts. I don't think you can get a better deal unless you go to the source like Window Rock.

If you ever get to Sante Fe I recommend the Bonito Pueblo Bed and Breakfast. Built in the late 1800's it is authentic adobe. It's walking distance to the Plaza, clean and well furnished with a great breakfast. We were warmly greeted by Strellsa, a local artist and the owner Herb, who is a horseman so we talked shop about owning horses in the southwest.

We went to Taos but were disapointed in as much as the Fechin Home and Museum was closed so we went back to Sante Fe. Betts loves Sante Fe and rightly so. There must be something about the thin fresh air that makes for so much art. There are over 5000 artists in the Sante Fe area and that doesn't count all the Native Americans that come to the Palace of the Governor to show their wares.

They have to show their tribal enrollment cards as well as establish that their work is made by hand. Each day their are new artisans that roll their blankets out. There are also many, many galleries some of great prominence such as the Fenn, Alterman and Gerald Peters fine arts galleries, crafts galleries, and galleries of a vast array of contemporary arts.

We visited the Sante Fe Fine Arts Museum for the opportunity to see works of the Taos Society, Georgia O'Keefe and an excellent curated show of SW artists "How the West was One". We had the fortunate opportunity to sit in on a presentation by 6 conceptual artists doing 'bleeding' edge stuff that I enjoyed emmensly. Between the symbolic language of the Hopi, the inspiring landscape of the Colorado Plateau and wealth of creativity in Sante Fe, Betts and I had one of our best trips.

Burnt Sienna, history, Gregg, Betts and the SW

Anywhere is as close the nearest airport, just ask a stewardess. Betts and I just got home when we left for Flagstaff, Arizona so she could be on a panel having to do with telecommunications and the Stimulus Package (I'll Stimulus Package U). Sounded like an opportunity for this iternerent pallet to go someplace I hadn't been before. Turns out that the SW US is another cosmic feature of our great place on the planet we all refer to as the US of A up there with Bar Harbor, Maine, the Berring Sea and the Sanpoil of the Colville Rez.

While Betts did here thing on the www, I got lost on the convoluted streets of Flagstaff, AZ and found the first of the Catholic Churches that pervade the SW that I painted. Although not adobe this ediface presents the pervading pink a.k.a. burnt sienna and white that built my pallet during this sojuorn through parts of the SW.

From Flagstaff we tried to unwind and get into the trip although what with Betts channeling contacts through her cell phone it was a challenge for her to chill.

2 hours north we scoped the big hole mother of many Native American creation stories and American Pie photo ops, the Big GC.

While I painted, Betts scoped a place to stay. At $350 a night we opted for Cameron Trading Post, 3o miles on our way to the Hopi First Mesa, $120, clean, neat and charming walled garden, excellent breakfast too although pretty campy chinese made knockoffs of indian artifacts.

Night fell and no Gregg so Betts calls 911 and notifies the Rangers her paintoro is missing. I get back in time to flag off the rescue squad and Betts breaks out the makings for a martini and pollo picnic. Gotta love that girl!
We headed out on SR 89 to which takes us across the heart of Navaho and Hopi country to scope the pots, rugs and jewelry using our trusty AAA road atlas and a book Betts had of Trading Posts of the SW. Betts having been here before had an agenda, me I was in hog artist heaven in the wonderland of Red Rock Mesa's and dinotopia. Everywhere is a painting. Unfortunately the pueblo tribes have been overwhelmed with tourists and either prohibit taking pictures or charge a few. What do you expect when you pave a road to the top of your fortress? But then it's a great way to get folks to pay to take a tour and man do they need the money. 60% unemployment on the rez and the associated social problems that go with that burden.

We stopped at Yuba City and took in the Flea Market. That's where the action is. Every weekend Indian country gets together and does a local flea market off the tailgate of their pickups. It's pretty cool. We were the only whites in a huge, I mean 200 pickups selling, bartering and trading. It's a culture. There wasn't any art or crafts to speak of this is where folks Pow Wow. We got some strange/indian food, Peeka bread? made from blue corn and ash, kind of like a potato chip/filo bread, not to appetizing but then I haven't had much native american food that has been. Everyone sells Pinion nuts, the fruit pf the Pinion Pine. I guess you're supposed to shell them like pistachios. I managed to get a sliver of shell through my gums which I worried the rest of the trip with my tongue. Managed to extract it about 6 days later.

We stopped at First Mesa and bought a pot. I didn't take any pictures out of respect for the no pcture policy. Met Lawrence and Lucida Namoki. Had an intense conversation about Hopi prophecies. Lawrence's family has been Katcheena makers for ceturies. Lawrence has started to make hand built pots and paint them with Katcheenas in such a way as to express his personal world view using his culture's symbolic language and colors. It isn't traditional but he is well recognized with pieces in the Smithsonian. He has a collector that is an astronaut that took one of Namoki's pots on the space shuttle. Altogether we had a cosmic discussion about Hopi, art, life and what the future will bring which according to Namoki is good although it will be traumatic. Namoki holds that everything is arranged to come down by 2012. We left with one of his smaller pots and stories, good medicine for the rest of the trip.

We continued on to Chinle' and arrinving in time to see the sunset over Canyon de Chelly (e.k. Canyon de Che'). Awesome! I think Canyon de Chelly is the most sacred, beautiful place I have ever been. I left Betts at the Thunderbird Inn (I recommend the Navaho Taco for breakfast) and greeted the moon coming up over the Plateau and then set up my easle to capture the sun coming up casting long shadows into the canyon. I painted Spider Woman Rock, which has to do with many native creation stories. I hiked around the rim and got a view from the west. The painting captured the moment but fails to share the story. As I painted, listening to the birds wake up in the cedars, 2000' below a woman emerged from her hogan which sits at the base of Spider Woman. She threw a blanket over her pony standing unteathered in front of the hogan and began to gather her goats and sheep. It was magical! If I had to choose a place to paint for the rest of my life it would be Canyon de Chilly.

The place is a national monument so you have to hire a native guide to tour by jeep or horse the Canyon itself. The floor of the Canyon are the homesteads of the Navaho and is private. The People have hogans where they raise sheep, goats, horses, weave rugs and grow blue corn for income and ceremonies. Some day I will return and get to know these people.

Where ever there is an overlook you will find Navaho with stuff for sale layed out on blankets. Not much of it is the quality you will find in Sante Fe, the trading posts or on the pueblos but it is a way for the locals to make a few dollars. They are all willing to dicker so don't be shy of negotiating.

I best go feed the horses and continue this later. Atleast we came home and the snow was gone.

DC in March

Washington DC is a happening place. Whether it is government issues, or visiting as a tourist DC is a great place to explore. I've been there 5 or 6 times. Because art is my thing I can obsess on the masterpieces that there are to appreciate.
This trip there was an exhibit at the National Gallery, of the newly un-earthed villa or the 'Gold Bracelet', Pompei. Incredibly intact frescoes, mosaicssculpture and archetecture, displayed intact. I hadn't realized how accomplished the Roman artisans were. I thought chiarascuro was a discovery by artists such as Caravagio but these artisans were quite accomplished at the practice of highlight and shadow, modeling, whether it was a fresco or mosaic.
At the newly remodeled Phillips gallery I was delighted with many new pieces of artists I thought I new well. I discovered the russian abstract artist Nicholas de Stael. A dedicated abstractionist, de stael had to leave Russia as abstract art was not supported. His wife died of malnutrition and he latered marred had 3 children and committed suicide after a critic trashed his work. A troubled individual he showed up on the doorstep of Phillips home with a car load of paintings that Phillips purchased. de Stael was well regarded internationally and was supporting his family with his work when he leapt to his death from his 11th floor studio.

What resonated with me is the texture of his canvas. Like most paintings you can't tell from a photo the texture and presence of a painting. I saw Monets that were extraordinarily thick paint, as if he had painted on them for years. Thick paint, up to 1/4 " thick, simplified subject, emotional color and compostion. Much of what I saw in painting this visit were things I hadn't noticed before that validate my explorations leading me to write, "give yourself permission to use color, thick paint and most of all paint, paint, paint. All the answers are in the doing!

Hood River Plein Air

Hood River on the Columbia at sunset. 8x10, oil

Man in His Garden

"Man in His Garden" 18"x18", oil

A landmark painting for me, this painting exhibits a style and motif, I care to pursue.

The paint itself is carved and sculptural. Entirely painted with a pallet knife. I find colors remain cleaner and is very tactile, achieving my effort to create a painting that becomes an artifact or something more than merely a pictoral representation and becoming something that shares the attributes of sculpture or an intaglio print or even a collage. I can feature pursuing this direction to the extent of using plaster and tile.

Road to the Highlands

I spent much of the fall in the beautiful Okanogan Highlands, a neighboring eco-system of high (4000') open grasslands of aspen groves in the folds of hills that rise to forested slopes of solitary peaks such as Bonapart Mt (seen in the background).

Bonapart has significance to my partners family, as does the Okanogan, because their ancestors were some of the first ranchers in the area and her grandfather, Russel Buckley, was one of the first Forest Rangers, patrolling the huge forests of the Okanogan by horseback.
It is important to me to follow the advise of friend and artist William Reese and his wife Fran who say that I should paint about what I know and the places I know. They say there is much of beauty and value in the region that have yet to be discovered by the art world.
From participating in paintouts and painting in different locations of the country I have found that there is considerable reason to regard 'place' as

important to not only the artist rendering the view but to those that live in that landscape and perhaps to those that value such work enough to purchase it and live with the painting they have invested in, a raison d'etre of place, painting, artist and patron.
I have set myself a project of painting the colorful studies I did of the Okanogan into large, 30"x40" canvases. Doing so I have reached a technique that is exciting and enjoyable and achieves a goal I have felt my work should also explore of considering the painting as an artifact of thought expressed in harmonious and beautiful stature. Simply put, I am using the broken color concept of the impressionists and using LOTS of paint, actually carving the paint into the drawing it needs to be. Perhaps nothing new in the realm of art history but new and exciting to me. If you can expand this photo you will be able to see the impasto effect of the paint.