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.

Back at the Ranch, Fall Color

After an intense summer on the road to plein air paintouts including Joeseph, Oregon, Hood River Oregon, Whidby Island, WA, Ellensburg, WA., Wenatchee, WA., Hope, Id., I look forward to studio time and might night be seen until next spring.

I'm trying to capture the Fall Colors before they go away and plan to get through the black hole of Winter by doing a series using Fall Colors.

John Carlson, "Analyze your impression in order to approach expression......"

Have Brush Will Work for Art

It's been an intense past couple of weeks as I've been on the road going from paintout to paintout. I've met some wonderful people, artists and country. The weather has been spectacular and I've found homes for quite a few paintings.

The end of August saw me in Hood River which is an amazing location. 10 minutes in any direction and you can be a different landscape. East to the desert and steppe, South to Mt. Hood, North to Mt. Adams both dormant volcanoes and West towards Portland and what is know as The Gorge.

Everyone I met is there because of the wind. Windsurfers and kiters. I've never seen so many skinny people. Winter it is skiing. A lot of good energy and I look forward to going back.

Check out the event blog at http://pleinairhoodriver.blogspot.com// They even had a pleinair writing event. We'll have to wait a bit to see the results but it should be interesting.

Cathleen Rehfeld was our coordinator. She had pre-arranged sites such as the Whitehouse Bed and Breakfast where I painted this painting I call Madame Pear Bottom. I hadn't notice the figure until Joe Howard took a peak over my shoulder and said, "Looks like you've been away from home to long." I didn't get it until he pointed out the nice female anatomy of my pear tree. I honestly didn't paint that on purpose but now that's all I see. Sheesh!

Cathleen not only guided us around but is an awesome painter. The sale of that weeks efforts was awesome and couldn't have happened without the support of Rich Kruger a true patron of the arts that Hood River is fortunate to have. We painted at the Cathedral of the Airplane otherwise known as the Airplane and Auto Museum, http://www.waaamuseum.org/, every plane flies and there are over 100 planes. An amazing place if you ever get the chance to visit. One of my favorite highlights was the Maryhill Museum and a painting, "Solitude", by Lord Alfred Leighton. It is an awesome technically accomplished painting, done in the pre-Raphaelite manner. The painting itself is over 100 years old and there is not a crack in it although it is highly glazed. The work reminds me of opera and what it is possible for the human hand or voice in the case of opera, to achieve. It is also curious to find such a treasure, as well as many more, to be found on the arid steppes of the columbia river.

I then went to Coupeville, WA. I made it in time to get my canvases stamped and painted into the night doing my first 'nocturne', wearing my LED hat to see by. The painting was of the Dog House Tavern in Langley and came out well although I didn't get a photo of it before it found a home.

I was home a couple days to check on the horses and chickens. All was fine so I took off for Coeur d'alene, Idaho where the Oil Painters of America were holding there western region show at the Devin Gallery. They also held a paintout in which I participated and found a home for another painting. Each time I sell a painting I meet another great person with an interesting life to learn about. An emissary of art, my paintings are my calling card. OPA was well attended but the real show for me was at Stephen Gibbs, Art Spirit Gallery which was showing works by George Carlson, one of the geniuses of the today's art world. He had a series of oil paintings which were highly inspired. Reflecting "Big Ideas" as Bill Reese would say. He is the one that considers Carlson a genius which made me look even more closely at Carlsons paintings and sculptures. Carlson's work shows me what is possible if one commits to the highest levels of reflection.

I'm off to Wenatchee to paint with William F. Reese, one of the patriarchs of oil painting in the Pacific NW and the nation. I hope a little of his knoweledge rubs off on me, then I am off to Ellensburg for a paintout and N. Idaho for a paintout and benefit for creating a wilderness area of Scothman Peaks.

Stay Tuned

Shows and Competition

I've always admired this painting of "Lucky" and entered it in the Equine Acadamy of Art show but it failed to jury in but I did get it into a show and competition held by the Westcoast Paper Company. Although I will miss this painting should it sell I will be delighted for whoever ends up with it. If I held onto all the paintings I like I wouldn't be making much of a living.
Lucky is one of the best work horses I've ever had. I raised him from a foal. He's called Lucky because he's lucky to be alive when he was born.
The boys wanted to see a foal born so we slept in the barn. I got up thinking it must be time and found my mare Sister looking like she was ready. I got the boys up and we waited, and waited until finally I called the vet. She instructed me to stick my hand in there and see what was going on and when I did there was nobody home. There I am with one arm up to my shoulder and talking on the portable phone to my vet when Stephen Jeffries, a visitor from England, happened to look over the bank and said, "What's that?". I looked over the bank and there was Lucky, all curled up and cold. What a dunder head, the other horses kept siding up to the barn fence and whinnying. I thought they were trying to encourage Sister when all the time they were trying to get my attention to come down and rescue this poor little critter. I hurried on down and picked up the little guy and packed him up the hill. Talk about imprinting. We've been buds ever since. I never had to "break" him. I just showed him once and he got the idea. He's about as honest and bombproof as I have ever seen in a horse. He paces himself in the field and can outwork any other horse on the place without breaking a sweat.
I think this portrait of Lucky, captures his personality and my love for the guy. I especially like the different textures I achieved. The dexterity of brushwork and harmony of value and color is exceptional too if I don't say so myself. Oh, there are deflugalties (new word) but I'm not going to say anything if you won't.

"Sunbathing Betty", oil, 16x20

My favorite model is vaporizing in the sun before my eyes. A dedicated model I couldn't allow her to fry in the 95 degree heat so this session only lasted 20 minutes but I really like how it came off. I've been using oil gesso and sanding it smooth. Using thin washes of Old Holland medium I mix myself I can control the drying time and application. I got some nice sable brushes that make me have finer control. I believe I'm developing my sensitivity to color and handling. I've looked at art all my life without fathoming the finer points of application until I attempt achieving certain effects with the brush.
Instead of diluting hue with titanium white I use the white of the canvas as one would when doing a transparent watercolor. I especially like quick drying glazes that I can immediately layer new strokes. Cool over warm, light over dark etc.

JC is an EFF (emergency fire fighter) for the BIA on the Colville Reservation. Home from U of E. Kentucky, he chases wild fires to earn money for university. He's going to be a famous writer (starting with his first novel, "White on Rez") if his papa has any say in the matter.

To keep him preoccupied he's doing what most young people are doing these days, chatting on his laptop. 30 minutes was about all I could get out of him. He found out how hard it is to sit still or rather my version of sitting still. He's got great features. I hope he takes up my suggestion that he approach the art deptartment at Uof EK or "YUK" as he says, and make $20 an hour as a model. He's a fit dude, packing his firefighting equipment around these mountains keep him fit as a marine.

There are no rules

Attending a show of Impressionists at the Seattle Art Museum, which compares the realism of Fragonard and Rembrandt to the Impressionists Monet and Renoir, I came home and started into a series using a technique of painting used by early masters and taught to me by Leonid Gervits which entails the use of underpainting and glazes, exploiting the natural brightness of the oil primed canvas itself. A technique used by the old masters and shunned by the alla prima work of the Impressionists.
I started this series with a team of horses under a monumental cloudscape. I love painting clouds and have always been attached to studying them. Studio paintings allow me to implement the visual vocabulary I have acquired over the past 35 years of dabbling in art.
Considering imagination to be one of the tools of painting I have yet to explore, I am delighted to explore where I might go.
I started the series with something familiar, a team of horses farming. That idea led to the next painting we call "Blessings", of a willowy woman, arms upraised in supplication, her light dress blowing in the breeze. A very optimistic image that imparts good feelings. This in turn led to the next idea in which I had intended to simply change the dress to one of green and place the figure on a green hill to express the idea of "Verdancy". I started with a nude to get the proportions right with the intent of dressing her with the green gown but the gestalt of the painting led to an entirely different painting, far more spiritual and iconic ending up with a goddess like figure emerging from the clouds bringing rain to the sun baked earth. Still staying with the theme of verdancy I placed the constellation Pisces in the upper left corner which is the constellation the sun is in when it crosses the equator in the northern latitude spring. I put a sliver of moon, one native americans say is the pregnant moon. I'm quite delighted with these paintings and am looking forward to where I might go using my imagination.
Having developed my painting technique through the exercise of alla prima, pleinair painting, I strive to develop content by means of imagination which I feel is another level of effort with enormous possibilities. I find I am at a point where I am familiar enough with the mechanics of making a painting that I the next thing to do is explore the content of my paintings. I will still paint en plein air as that is how one develops the visual vocabulary necessary to fuel the imagination on the journey into an un-mapped world. There are no rules in this world I intend to explore. The danger is to guard against diminishing the effort by editorializing although much of what I'm interested in is definitely political and aspirations that have developed out of a lifetime of experience.
Each of these paintings are 30"x40", oil, done on canvas.