Paint what you know

To get a handle on the situation I do a drawing or a watercolor. Sometimes I would catch a glimps of an image such as a sea lion on a rock and take a mental picture of it then when the opportunity allowed I would draw a simple sketch of the memory. I find that I have developed the ability to take a 'mental picture' of the scene and fill it with as much information as I am capable. The drawing that comes from such an exercise is distilled down to the essentials. I have also learned to not make so much work out of things. I catch myself worrying a painting or drawing to death. I need to trust my first impressions and also expressing that impression.
The Warf at Trinidad is owned by Native Americans. At the end of the warf on the shore is a great place to eat breakfast. I had an oyster omelet that was excellent. It is a great harbor and many fisherman are moored to buoys. We had 3 incredible days of sunshine.
During our trip we saw sea lions, harbor seals, oyster catcher, fox, antelope, herds of elk and birds we had never seen or heard before.

Paint what you like

Part of the problem with Plein Air painting is developing a composition. If you just paint what you see you might as well use a camera. You have to maniputlate the information the landscape offers. Knowing how much of your imagination to use is difficult.
I've never painted at the ocean and the amount of information to filter was intimidating but as usual I just chucked my inhibitions as soon as I got to painting and enjoyed moving things around.
I worked around the sky, knowing that the sunset would be glorious but brief. I'm not sure I contrived the light on the rocks correctly but was happy with the composition if not the novelty of the tides breaking against the rocks.

"Wedding Rock" 12"x16"

"Paint what you see"

Early in the morning I wound my way up out of Redding and found this view of Mt. Shasta. I really wanted to spend some time painting the oaks of California. Individually they are intriguing and make strong designs on the hills. There are a few things going on in this painting that I like. The road cut is the impasto effect I'm trying to achieve. I'm finding it easier to work this way and delight in pushing the thick paint around and loading my brush with many colors. I try to refrain from overworking the paint and allowing it to blend together on the canvas. The red soil of California is a great opportunity to use colors I haven't had the opportunity to use and make for great purple shadows.

"Paint all the time"

"Paint what you know,
Paint what you like
Paint what you see
but paint all the time.

Oil, 12"x16", "Pine Tree, Lake Tahoe

Plein Air on the Road, WA to CA

Wilson Pt., Lighthouse is on the elbow of the Olympic Penninsula, Wa where the Strait of Juan de Fuca turns south to become Puget Sound. I was at Port Hadlock for meetings of the Washington PUD Association. I managed to carve out some time early one morning to do some drawing and painting. I did a lot of drawing and watercolors on this trip to Lake Tahoe where I had another meeting of the Northwest Public Power Association. Me and my friend Betts took the long way down and back.
I made a pochade box to keep 10, 12x16 canvas boards that worked well to contain messy oil paintings that would otherwise get all over everything in the car. This painting is on masonite because my order of archival canvas board didn't arrive before I left. I don't like the slick surface of masonite but worked with it to achieve some new effects. The sun came out for a moment at about 5 a.m. and I captured the colors it made on the sky. The wind on the west side of the point where I chose to set up was strong and cold. Just 100 yards to the leeward side the wind abated, so much for choosing a comfortable spot to paint.
It is an interesting area with the remnants of cannon placements made to keep Japanese subs out of the sound. There were 3 forts set up in such a way that a vessel would find it quite difficult to sneak by.
We stayed in Port Townsend which is full of galleries, boutiques, and fine old buildings occupied by the 'fringe' element of artists and creative types. There is also the school of wooden boat building and many vessels moored at the local marina. Betts found the proprietors receptive to the www.shopthefrontier and intends to follow up some business contacts.
From Port Townsend we traveled by Mt. Hood, Oregon and made our way down to Northern California. Betts loves a good hot tub and when she saw "Hot Springs" we took the next turn and found ourselves following the trail that brought pioneers to California over "Fandango Pass". We discovered an obscure valley of alkali lakes and weren't too impressed until we started seeing some great wildlife. We found the smallest indian reservation I've ever heard of, the 3 mile squarem at Fort Bidwell. The town was absolutely empty. Sheep walked the streets and we discovered a tree full of turkey vultures. I counted more than 30 of them in a cottonwood. I can't imagine what so many vultures found to eat.
We were informed by the local town greeter who was obviously not very far from his bottle of inspiration that the reason for steam vents and hot springs was that there were faults on both sides of the valley but not to worry there hadn't been any earthquakes lately. He was a happy fellow and pointed out our destination. On the way we discovered that the streams in the valley were running hot water and steam rose in the humid air all around the valley. I saw my first Sandhill Crane which were plentiful and quite a common sight as they were eating the newly planted grain of farmer's fields.
From here we headed south to our rendezvous at Lake Tahoe. We weren't looking forward to the interruption of our leisurely tour of the countryside but ended up having a good time in the casinos and learning about the state of affairs of the power industry.

Painting at Sisters and John Day Fossil Beds

We all met at the annual Small Farmer's Journal Auction in Sisters, Oregon. This year along with a couple buggies I took to sell I set up my horse trailer as a gallery. Kind of announcing to the teamster crowd that 'ol Greggor is plowing a new furrow, that of a painter. Had a great time doing some sketches of old timers. Might bone up on portraiture and try to capture the ol boys before anymore of them hang up their harness for good. Did two oil sketches of Vern Leathers and Dan Kintz. Dan didn't stop telling yarns the whole time I was sketching. It took a couple days as we had to hang it up due to rain. Dan ended up with the painting and bought a frame to protect it on the way home.
Fellow teamster and Horselogger, Rod Gould, from Greenwood, B.C. took the time on the way home to go through the John Day country and do some sketching of the Fossil Beds. It would have been great but my tailgate fell off the pickup and I ran over it with the horse trailer. Luckily Rod was following and stopped and drug it off the road. Kind of an interesting sculpture now. We couldn't travel at night because it tore the pigtail for the trailer lights out so we made the best of the situation and camped over at the Fossil Beds to do some painting.
The fossil beds are pretty outrageous landscape. Kind of like what Mars must look like. I would try to capture more details next time rather than the over all landscape as the details are wonderful colors but are more believable than the incredible ash flows.

I did this painting for a poster contest for our local fair. It is a scene of a "Pony Express Race". The yellow T shirts and bandannas signify the 'Moses' team of Sonny Moses who passed away as a young man but his family still races his horses. The rider is famous for his 'flying mounts'. It is a stunning event where there are 4 or 5 teams, each team has a handler, catcher, rider and 3 horses. The race is started from a standing start, each heat is a lap around a quarter mile track, as the horses near the grandstands the catcher flags his teams horse and the rider jumps off and runs to the next horse that his being held by the holder. It doesn't usually go anywhere near as smooth as all that. There are wrecks as the catcher may be run down by the charging horse or the rider falls off leaving a loose horse to circle the track, riders rarely use saddles and run the race bareback at full speed. It's very exciting and has been a tradition going back decades.
The painting was done in the old technique of an underpainting or grisaille although I think 'grisaile' is a full composition done monochromatically. I achieved some interesting effects and was able to construct the composition very deliberately. It is a good illustrative technique when the purpose is to relate information. Because of my close association with horses I concentrate in getting the anatomy correct and fill the picture with details of the subject and event. I can see where such work would improve an artists skills and is why many collectors value such work, it is straightforward and doesn't require interpretation.

March '06 paintings, "On your Game"

"Belgian Study", 16"x20"

"March on the Sanpoil", 11"x16"

It's good to get back to painting after traveling on business for the Washington PUD's. You have to paint everyday to be 'on your game'.
Paul Dorrel, "Are You Making What You're Worth?", April addition of the Artist's Magazine, explaining to a patron that is new to purchasing art about the seemingly high price of artwork. In answer Dorrel, explained the amount of time, perhaps decades and training an artist invests in his career and although a painting may not reflect the hours of time it took to make it, the painting was a reflection of all the effort that lead up to that point. Dorrel also points out the role of the artist to society is as important as that of any other career be it legislator, archetect or engineer and to allow for that in your pricing. Those thoughts resonate with me. Sometimes it's difficult to continue when the financial challenges are so daunting. Such considerations challenge innovation and the exploration of technique or even content.
People want what is safe, especially in times of social duress but in fact it is this duress that motivates 'new' points of view and the challenge of established status quo whether it is in art or our homes.
In these studies I have been influenced by an artist I met and hope to have the opportunity to work with, Robert Krogle. www.robertkrogle.com . An exceptional draftsman his paintings are masterful. I bought a portrait study and have scrutinized it.
Solid basics of drawing, value, edges,color and technique. Thick over thin, back to front, light over dark.
I hope to get to Couer d'alene, ID. where artists are working together in studio to keep inspired and be challenged by fellow artists. Except for Everett Russel, Republic artist this area is pretty remote from other artistic influences.

Art Notes to self from DC
Friday, March 3, went on a "Gallery Walk" in Dupont Circle. Surprised at how many were on art walk, quite popular. About 20 galleries on list and we hit maybe 8 of them. Many served wine and hor d'ouvers. Tiny, tiny little galleries. Some were converted townhouses useing both floors and sometimes basement. Very clever use of archetectural space but too crowded especially for viewing larger spaces. The townhouses are quite attractive and should be the subject of some sketches but the wind is blowing 30 miles per hr down these concrete corridors and too many museums to absorb the masters, I'll be going with Betts to the National where there is an installation of Cezanne in Provence http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/index.shtm#cezanne. Saw a show of Degas, Sickert (who I had never heard of, an Englishman that hung with the Montmart Impressionists, it was wispered he was Jack the Ripper but just gossip) and Toulous -Lautrec who I admire for his facility with the brush and intimacy with his subjects, the absinth drinkers, dancers and patrons of the debauched society of Paris. fun! Degas' is a superb draughtsman of the transatory moment i.e. ballet dancers, circus acts. In distinction to Sargent whose drawings we saw at the Corcoran who is a superb Academic draughtsman.
In Dupont Circle we discovered an acedemician, Dennis Olsen, from Santa Reparta Int., school of Art, Florence, Italy that resides in Texas. I only mention this artist as an example that affirms my opinion that 'art is a barometer of culture'. His work is interesting, in-as-much-as it is modern heirgliphics establishing the painting or rather wall decoration as 'artifact'. The trouble I have with much of modern art is the need for interpretation. I also don't think much of art that includes words or statements. Mr. Dennis Olsen's, work is derived out of what he refers to concepts of pentimento, vestigial images and palimpsests; which to me safely ensconce his work in an insularity that precludes a damaged ego, by that I mean, being so enigmatic insulates ones ego from critisism, which is safe but not courageous as hanging ones ego out on the end of a brush. Leaving ones self open to criticism is one of the best way an artist has to grow both technically and in character. One thing he did say that affirms my thoughts is that todays art is 'pluralistic', which I take to mean, "anything goes". I find the effort of making anything go the next extention of that thought. We, as artists, push the envelope hoping to discover some truth thereby shoving the wall of what we know forward, which is culture, this is true of any discipline but art, unlike engineering and the pracitcal arts, doesn't have any rules, like navigating through un-charted space and is congruent with what I feel is true about artists, they are the fringe element and should be either institutionalized or provided an island in which to live. I fear such an island would be a twilight zone and look a lot like a Hieronymous Bosh pictue.
I got Betts to the Hirshhorn (weird, two H's back to back?), and a dose of modern classics. If art is a barometer of culture then art history is the face of the barometric guage and the Hirshhorn does a good job of presentation although at this juncture there were more contemporary installations than pieces from the past. A number of them were photo based and quite cerebral. I was surprised to find the biggest crowds were viewing modern art as opposed to classic stuff although we haven't been to the largest display of representational art at the National Gallery. I think part of the reason is that the museums do a good job of local advertising and DC is a place of Universities and well educated bureaucrats, politicians and none too few population of a million people in the area.
The Corcoran, www.corcoran.org, which is also a school had an installation of dead things. It was horrible. I guess that was what the artist was after. I can't imagine working with such things. The smell was overwehlming. Dead fish, dead birds, dead coyotes it was appalling and entirely offensive. The artist was Ronald Gonzalez and you can have him and the death he must love. YUK!
The best impressions were of a piece by Henry Twachtman in the Phillips collection, that we both loved. We discovered a landscape of his that was gorgeous. It might be that we liked it because of the similarity with my own work. We discovered another piece in the Corcoran by Monet with similar technique of evident brush strokes that emphasize light and local color in which the artists personality and character is evident because of the brushwork and the choice or perhaps love of color.
Betts and I agree that one of the most important features of a painting is that the hand of the artist is evident. You can always recognize a certain artist by their work but should that work be appealing and something that resonates with the viewer becomes the mature patrons reason to appreciate and perhaps desire to own. If a person extends themselves to purchase or own a work of art outside the consideration for investment, it is likely because that work resonates with them, speaks to them, perhaps on many levels and is the mystery that compels artists to continue to pursue the muse. It must be something like a love song. There have been enumerable love songs throughout history but we never tire of hearing the same thing in a new way, so too art, we wish to know how others see the world, whether it affirms, discovers or refutes what we have come to learn or wish to discover about life.
Before I sign off I have to mention the discovery of "ledger art," that we found in the Museum of Native American Culture. Ledger books were provided to Indians by settlers, storekeepers and governments on which native americans would draw. It is a curious record of both the art (primarily storytelling i.e. tipi drawings/symbols) done on a record of the life at the time, purchases, records of death, birth and enrollment lists. Their is a dual value in that the record the drawing is on is antique and the drawing itself. In some fashion it relates to what Dennis Olsen and his work is doing in that it is about a record of a record that becomes an artifact.......fini...........almost, I must remind myself of the early work of Richard Diebenkorn, good stuff.

I'm blogging from Washington D.C. I'm up late, DC time, but not so late Washington time, i.e. Pacific Time. Even the mall in D.C. is an edifice to monumentality, makes apparent 'malldom' is a transitory, disposable, archetecture.
art note to self: painting as artifact- images as symbols, statement, less illusion than comment. Once technique is achieved the challenge may be application of opinion, perhaps through the excercise of imagination, less artist as recorder as in portraiture but artist as editorial commentator. At what point does craft become art? Cartoon become Art.
While touring the Freer Gallery, Corcoran and Museum of Modern art, I will look for answers to these questions. It is easy to be enamored with representational art, studying technique and impressed with the virtuosity of such masters as Rembrandt or Bellows or Matisse but challenging and not a little scary to work in the fashion of more modern artists such as Kandinsky, Miro, Chagall. Like bungy jumping or pointing your skiis over the precipice anticipating the challenge of making it down the slope without breaking a leg.
The Horse as a symbol. Color as expression. Close scrutiny to convey meaning the hopeful result a new creation that imparts understanding in the form of substance. Telling a story in a literal sense is a fine accomplishment but saying the same thing with feeling imparts substance i.e. Washington Crossing the Delaware as opposed to Guernica.
I am enjoying the contrast of urban/rural transition. Going from the paradise and peace of the Sanpoil to San Diego or Washington DC or Seattle which I have been to in the last couple weeks on business for the WaPUD Assc. my visual vocabulary is stuffed to overflowing which makes it difficult to commit to a particular expression but all goes away once the brush is in hand.
I was walking past the Capital which stands on a hill at the end of the Mall and the sun was lighting the sky which was filled with light purple cumulus clouds. A very difuse light in which the white stone of the capital building merged with the sky. What was extraordinary was the sky was Red, White and Blue. It would be a bit trite as a painting but having seen the effect I was excited to make the effort to portray the experience as I saw it. Sort of a Hudson River school lighting, sunbeams et all.