I paint on location a lot using canvas as a camera. Plein air painting is the zen of painting. It is being in the moment. It is a light poem reflecting creation from the mirror of a single soul. Light stopped in the fabric of time, becoming material. Starlight caught in the web of earth's karma on the eternal path of existence.
I work en plein air daily as a gardener works his garden, in contrast to my studio work which is a reflection of what I've found most significant in those daily efforts. It usually has to do with light and substance. Light is the substance of the universe from which all is derived. It is a marvelous yet challenging privilege to be a painter. I love painting en plein air. It is a method that reflects today's world both internally and externally. Our internal clock is wound tight in a virtual world. Stopping that world for a moment and translating it into the eternal truth of a painting is a constant goal.
Working in the studio is taking up more of my time. I focus on projects to establish a body of work that pursues continuity in both technique and subject matter. One painting leading to the next and the next and the next with occasional aberrations that become tangential with prospects such as portraits and the occasional one off piece that may be a fish or an angel or an angel that is a fish. Imagination is a tool as much as a palette knife or paint brush. Reality is a source of inspiration that I use as a point of departure to arrive at a goal that is a painting to share the journey with others. Life is short and if I can, I hope to share some little impression on the life I was given so that others might know I was here and enjoyed the privilege with all my heart and soul.
Many of my pieces are farmscapes as I live in farm country and am a farmer myself. For many years I only used horses. You will find a gallery of equine art in my portfolio. Having paid my dues hoofing it behind a team of horses for 35 years, I bought my first tractor when I turned 60 which the horses greatly appreciated. They now are retired and enjoy munching the good hay their tractor provides.
Horses were a good life and took me many places. Logging in the Redwoods of California and driving horses on Rockefeller's roads of Acadia National Park. I now spend my time pushing paint around and hope to share what I find interesting and important in the world around me.
I also fish a lot. My motto "every good fishing hole is a good painting", if I can't catch a painting a fish will do. lol
About painting; When a painter paints the scene of a place, he owns it. Owning a place is as important as it is to have the next meal. In pre-european days of North America, all activity and culture was geared to the pursuit of food. The places that nurtured them became places to own, your territory, something to defend and consequently take from those weaker than your tribe and marked as petroglyphs on the wall of a cliff. It is human nature to leave your mark.
A plein air painter has the experience of owning the scene he dipicts. Not only that, he packs it and takes it with him to be repeatedly enjoyed. To paint a place is to know that place, acquiring the visual vocabulary of that place. Doing so one is in harmony with the moment and has the opportunity to know the earth better each time he paints its likeness. It is a map of a person's life.
As I get down the road of life I find the challenge and joy of creating is what motivates me. Sometimes while deeply into a painting I forget to breadth and get a rush out of the adventure of pushing on to the next idea, the next painting.
My family and I, find ourselves to be blessed to live in paradise on a ranch in NE. Washington. I never go begging for subject matter. With 1000' cliffs rubbing shoulders above the Sanpoil River where once 100 lb salmon spawned and died. Today we work with the Colville Tribe to bring back chinook and kokanee as well as endangered red band trout in Betty's Brook that joins the Sanpoil River. It's the headwaters of what was at one time a great fishery supporting the native family's in the valley. We have great hopes that salmon will thrive to establish themselves above Grand Coulee Dam, one of the impediments that prohibited salmon from half their native waters that included the west slope of the Rocky Mountains at Lake Columbia, B.C. I look forward to being part of their return and do quite a few paintings about that subject. It's a spiritual journey both for myself and the earth that my paintings are a totem to sing the salmon back.
Summary of Juried Shows and Events:
2020-2023 Gallery Representation and shows at Confluence Gallery Twisp, Winthrop artists co-op and Arthouse Designs, olympia, wa.
2020 Liberty Gallery, Spokane, WA
2020 Color of Words, Confluence Gallery, Twisp, WA
2019 Batdorf and Bronson, Olympia Fall Artwalk
2019 Pop Up Show, Olympia, Wa Spring Art Walk
2019 Exhibiting current work at Winthrop Artist’s Co-op
2019 MAC Art Source, art rental program, Spokane, WA
2018 Ferry County Memorial Hospital public art collection
2018 Confluence Gallery, Group Invitational
2018 Exhibiting current work at Winthrop Artist’s Co-op
2017 MAC Art @ Work, Spokane, WA
2017 Confluence Gallery, Group Invitational
2016 Olympia, Wa., Spring Art Walk
2016 MAC Art @ Work, Spokane, WA
2016 Confluence Gallery, Group Invitational
2015 Moses Lake Museum and Art Center, one artist show,
2014 Olympia, WA Fall Art Walk, featured at the Art House Designs Gallery
2013 Columbia Center for the Arts, Hood River, OR plein air event
(Juried in to show annually since 2008)
2013 Parklane Lane Gallery, Kirkland, WA Summertime Show
2013 Art House Designs, Olympia, WA one artist show
2012 Confluence Gallery, Twisp, WA, two man show with sculptor, Simon Kogan
2012 Scotch Peaks Wilderness, Sandpoint, Idaho, plein air paint out
2011 NW Museum of Culture, Spokane, WA, group show and auction
2010 Scotch Peaks Wilderness, Plein Air Paint Out, Sandpoint, Idaho
2009 Coos Museum of Art, Expressions West, Coos Bay, OR group show
2009 Barrister Winery, Featured Artist for Art Walk, Spokane, WA
2009 US Plein Air Open, Langley, WA
2009 Parklane Gallery,Juried Kirkland, WA
2008 Red Hawk Gallery, Plein Air Invitational, Sandpoint
2008 Moses Lake Museum Central Washington Regional Juried Art Exhibition
2008 Museum of Arts and Culture, Kress Gallery, Spokane, WA, one artist show
2008 Wallowa Valley Art Festival and Paint Out, Joseph, OR
2008 Coupeville Art Center, U.S. Open Plein Air Paint Out
2008 Oil Painters of America, Plein Air Paint Out, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
2008 Coos Bay Coos Bay Art Museum, 'Expressions West' Regional Competition
2008 Western Paper Company, 2008 Invitational Show, Kintsler Gallery, Seattle
1972-1979 Spokane Museum of Native American Culture Western Art Show
Awards:
2015 Best of Show, Confluence Gallery, Invitational
2013 Purchase Prize Award, Hood River Plein Air Paintout, Hood River, OR
2012 Best of Show, Scotchman’s Peak Plein Air Paint Out, Hope, ID
2012 Artist Choice Award, Scotchman’s Peak Plein Air Paint Out
2011 Best of Show Annual Gallery Exhibition, Coulee City, WA
2007 Best of Show, Moses Lake Museum of Arts and Culture, Regional Competition
2024 3rd place, Gonzaga University, Regional Landscape Competition, cash award $250
Galleries:
Outskirts Gallery, Hope, ID
Confluence Gallery, Twisp, WA
Art House Designs, Olympia, WA
Washington State Capitol Legislature, by invitation
NW Museum of Culture, art rental program, Spokane WA
Winthrop Artist’s Co-op
References:
Susie Englestadt, Arthouse Designs, Olympia, WA
Tammy.gabbert@northwestmuseum.org
The Inimitable Kally Thurman, Hope, ID
Publications, Instructional Videos and Illustrations;
Farmer’s Almanac
Small Farmer’s Journal
Rural Heritage Magazine
Publisher, Horse Logger’s Int. News
Author; Horse Logger’s Manual
Co-producer, Video; A Day Horse logging, The Basics
Education:
1972 – 1975 Eastern Washington State College
Print making with Bruce Beal
1975-76 Fort Wright College
Oil painting with Charles Palmer, Al Ring
Sculpture, Sister Paula Mary Turnbull
1974-76 Life drawing, Stan Taft
1976-1977 Spokane Community College
Certified Welder, Ironworker’s Local #14 apprenticeship
Workshops Taught:
2011 Organized and hosted an artist plein air retreat and workshop at our ranch on the Sanpoil River near Republic, WA
2013 Basics of Oil Painting, Gallery 2, Grand Forks, BC
2014 Basics of Oil Painting, Grand Coulee, WA
2015 Basics of Oil Painting, Coulee City, WA
Workshops and mentors:
1987 Ned Mueller, Clarkston WA
2005 David Alexander, Kelowna, BC
2007 Glenn Grishkoff, Sandpoint, ID
2007 William F. Reese, Wenatchee, WA
2008 Leonid Gervits, Gage Academy, Seattle, WA
2011 Simon Kogan, Olympia, WA
Online body of work;
www.greggcaudell.com
www.gregg-caudell.pixels.com Online store and fine art swag.
contact;
Gregg Caudell
Republic, WA
gcaudell@msn.com
509-775-2130
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