Thoughts on painting, "En Plein Air"

I've painted, en plein air, from Maine to Washington state. I've stood on the dock painting lobster boats as they came in from lobstering and traded paintings to lobstermen for a sack full of lobster. Parked on the roadside painting landscapes of the Rockies or Wallowas, folks stop, look over my shoulder and take photos of me painting the landscape. We trade email addresses and they send me photographs, sometimes we trade paintings.
Whether painting on the side of the road or the wilderness, the thing I like about plein air painting are the 'Paintouts'. Paintouts have become a popular way for galleries, festivals and communities to ramp up the exposure to art. Such events are an opportunity for artists to meet other artists and compare their work. Galleries and community art festivals get an opportunity to showcase their local artists and invite outside artists, sometimes of great stature, to their community, which can be a great economic boon to all parties. Artists are invited to "paint the town", after a day or two, paintings are collected for a show and reception where the work is displayed, and awards presented. It's a great way for art to bring artists and the public together. The public gets to see artists at work and are thrilled to find ordinary scenes brought to life by gifted painters.
Artists have always turned to nature for both inspiration and knowledge. The Impressionists made a practice of working directly from nature. Today painting "en plein air", literally, painting "out of doors", has become something of a movement along with an interest in "daily painting" in which painters challenge themselves to do a painting a day. Google 'daily painting' and you will find blogs and websites displaying extraordinary galleries of artwork. Many of these pieces are available directly from the artist or sold at auction on Ebay for very reasonable prices.

Painting 'en plein air' fits our busy lifestyle. In an abbreviated world of acronyms and sound bites, small quick paintings done on the spot, are only appropriate. It is the artist freezing a moment of time, focusing like a Zen master and deriving inspiration from an intense reflection upon nature, like haiku poetry, distilling the moment into it's essence. A process where the heritage of the Impressionists meet the oriental art of Zen masters.

Much has been written about the Impressionists' interest in oriental prints. I think they were as interested in the process as much as the product. Untill Monet and the Impressionists took painting out of the atlier and Salon into the streets and forests, official art was considered to be work done in the studio. To consider work done "in the moment", on site, en plein air, was revolutionary. We can thank Monet for elevating everyday scenes to the extraordinary and bringing art to the common man. Painting was no longer an activity for the affluent but something anyone could do. With the advent of paint in tubes, artists developed a portable studio. The french easle and pochade to carry wet canvas, became synonymous with the image of the artist at work.
It is a privledge to make a living as an artist but it is also a job that puts bread on the table. Like a carpenter or plumber, doctor or dentist the artist and his tools find work enhancing our lives and culture, turning the mundane into the thing of beauty to be appreciated in our busy hyphenated lives.


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Kress Gallery Opening

The show in Spokane at the Kress Gallery went well. My friend Slatz was the guest poet and hushed the crowd with his wonderfully embellished poetry. Quite appropriatelly Slatz read from his suite of poems titled "Seasons" which went well with my series on the wall behind him titled "Seasons". To be honest, we didn't plan things this way but the collaboration started 30 years ago with myself playing guitar behind Slatz. I look forward to more such opportunities.
Perhaps it would be appropriate to organize a political fund raiser with all such artist types. After all it is an election year. Artist should let their candidates know what they think and ramp up the support for the arts. Thanks to Mapplethorp for blowing the government off with his explicit photography, politicians are allergic to the political risk of supporting art and the results are a culturally impoverished public art world.
Ryan Hardesty manager of the art@work program who hung the show and did an exceptional job. It was great to see my work all in one room. I had over 30 plein air paintings which just filled the room. Ellizabeth Mills, manager for Riverpark marketing department helped make the show possible. Luna's catered the event with wonderfully creative treats. I greatly admire the art@work program that the Northwest Museum of Arts and Cultures. Paintings can be leased with the rental going towards the eventual purchase of the piece or the piece can be returned and anther tried on. A great deal for artist finding a home and income for their work and a way for new collectors to get started. Thanks to all who attendende and for those of you that have the opportunity the show will be off for a couple months at Riverpark Mall.

One Man Show in Spokane, Wa

Up Coming Art Shows and Paint Outs

May-July, I have a piece in the Coos Bay Museum, Expressions West Show, have to try their marine exhibit and paintout next year.
June 6, Kress Gallery, Riverpark Square, Spokane, WA. Opening One Man Show, "Fresh Air, The Plein Air Paintings of Gregg Caudell. Reception, with poet, Slatz, reading from his series, "Seasons". I'll have my easle out getting paint on my good cloths. I should have called the show "Seasons" as I have a Season Series myself and many of my subjects are the same in different seasons, such as the "Willow" Series. I have a large sculptured willow tree outside my house that I paint in every season and time of day. It has great sweeping branches that are gold against a cerulean sky. The horses have stripped the bark off the lower branches making for interesting lines. It sits in a slough and must drink hundreds of gallons of water a day. A solar water pump that sleeps in the winter. It is just waking up now and is completely golden flowers.
Slatz, a.k.a. Dick Bresgal, and I used to go around with a group of other inspired types giving poetry recitals in the Spokane region. Dick still writes and keep his hand in such creative endeavors. It will be like old times, coming full circle. He's quite a character, about 6'3", long mane of silver hair, voice like a gentle giant and writes with the moon in the corner of his eye. Should be a great time. Come on down!

June, 2-8, Wallowa Arts Festival, Joseph, Oregon. I'll be visiting the area to paint and show. There will be an auction of plein air work on Saturday night at the Civic Center. Never been to Joseph but it looks stunning. Little Town by a lake surrounded by mountains. Sounds like home. The date runs concurrently with Spokane so it will be a shuffle for me to hot foot it back up to Spokane for the opening reception of my show and then back down to paint on Saturday.

August 1-8, not for sure but I've been invited to Cheyenne, WY, to a paintout. A bit far to go but I should be done putting up hay in time to make that one too. Like to think I could go down through Yellowstone but that is the hieght of tourist season and I've never been down the back roads of Idaho.

The Art of Farming

Riding a Sulky Plow is quite an experience. I would compare it to the delight cutting a nice furrow is to painting as a brush is to canvas until you get to the end of the furrows and it's like riding a bucking horse and just staying in the saddle is a challenge in the rough sea of sod. I can understand the term, "sodbuster" and have a new found respect for the term.

Plowing a field takes planning if you want to save yourself some work. The first furrow dictates what the rest of the day will go like. Even with a single bottom sulky plow you want long straight rows. Turns get the team out of the furrow and onto rough plowed sod and that's like riding a cork in white water rapids. I usually get off and SLOWLY turn the horses. I've been bucked off a time or two but ended up on my feet yelling "WHOA!!!!"

After we get the plowing done, we'll disk it all up and seed it to an oat hay cover crop with pasture mix seeded for next year. The price of seed is 3 times higher than previous years but then so is the crop. I may even put in some spuds. Do some Yukon Golds and Peruvian Purples. I don't mind if I can weed them with the horses. I'd much rather make my own fuel. Talk about a small 'carbon footprint', I'd rather a footprint of a horse "U".

There's not much that beats a good team of horses plowing on a sunny spring day. You can watch the trees turn green. The birds are great after the long winter we had. After each furrow we get a breather because the horses are getting in shape and cutting sod is a real chore. I take out my little sketch book and sketch the pond or the ol wagon wheel laying burned in the river bank, maybe the rear view of the team or the wall of canyon we live in. Eagles fish the river and swallows fill the air. Mixing Art and Life.

Horse Farming on the Sanpoil

New Orleans, sketching the Big Easy

Sketch of row houses in the French Quarter of New Orleans.
Although this is a sketch from the street what you are looking at is the back of homes built around a central courtyard which is the opposite of our neighborhoods. The arrangement allows for better privacy. Between each house is a locked gate, usually ornamental iron, the fleur-de-lis is the standard emblem of New Orleans used for ornamentation everywhere.





There were quite a number of abandoned homes and buildings but many were being renovated. Being so old and built on marginal foundations, square and plumb is not a feature of these homes and buildings. I got the impression there were real estate deals to be had whether a commercial building or residence. I was told that 70% of the population in this area has not returned after Katrina and that downtown and surrounding quarters have yet to be renovated. Many high rises were vandalized and have yet to be repaired or razed as the case may be but people such as Donald Trump have staked out sites for new construction.

Music is everywhere especially the French Quarter and Bourbon street.
Whether a formal club or tavern or just street musicians the place Rocks.
We danced to Zydeco at the Rock and Bowl, a 50's vintage Bowling alley where the entire family including grandma and grandpa, danced or rather 'two stepped' the night away. I sketched this little drawing while eating a mess of Crawfish at the French Quarter Farmer's Market. It seemed every musician lives to play. The quality of music was exceptional whether it was a brass band playing ragtime or a piano player in a lounge. Zydeco was my favorite which differs from Cajun in that it is largely associated with the Creole (black) culture as opposed to the Cajun (white) culture.

Betts and I rented a car and drove down the Gulf Coast with the intention of dining in Lafayette at Mullate's, famous for Cajun food and music but only made it as far as Avery Island where TABASCO is manufactured.

It is an extraordinary place where they not only make my favorite chilli sauce (700,00 bottles a day) but the McIllheney family started a Snowy Egret Sanctuary to help save the endangered Egret back in the mid 1800's.

It was a success and today there are hundreds of Snowy Egrets as well as herons, Ibis and ducks that roost on bamboo warfs.

I particularly liked the huge live oaks from which moss hung. It's a place I would love to spend time painting with my oils. The colors are wonderful but the mixture of vines wrapped around everything, moss hanging like beaded curtains, the blooming azalias and exotic palmeto fronds are so wonderful I could spend months painting and never run out of new subjects.

I discovered the Cajun artist Rodrigue http://www.georgerodrigue.com/ at the New Orleans Museum of Art. Creator of the 'Blue Dog' otherwise known as the 'Loop Garoo" a childrens tale, told to make kids behave (you better behave or the 'Loop Garoo" will get you). Rodrigue is wildly successful which goes to prove that art is about expression and that among the wide panoply to choose from, art is truly in the eye of the beholder. A huge market has been created around his art, especially the 'Blue Dog'. His technique is marginal but his vision is exceptional. He paints about what he knows and the Cajun culture that he was raised in. He is the pictoral spokesman for the Cajun culture. Very regional and native son made good.
I look forward to returning some day. Enjoy Jambalya, Fille Gumbo, Etoufe' and crawfish and maybe even learn to play Zydeco or atleast dance the two step.
To view my Picassa album of this trip go to http://picasaweb.google.com/pleinairartist2/NewOrleans308

Toxic Oil Paints

Recently I have been wearing a glove on my left hand to keep from getting paint on me or I should say, less paint on me, when painting. I'm pretty sloppy and it's not unusual for me to get paint all over me especially my left hand that I hold my paint rag in and use to clean my brushes and pallet knife.
Even taking breaks, I get pretty fatigued after 6-8 hrs painting. I was painting in Maine with Grant Hughs who was wearing a light plastic glove, like you would find with someone handling food, and asked why he wore a glove. He said a painter he had worked with found that after protecting himself from getting paint on him he had more energy. Now I know why.
Oil paints are highly toxic with heavy metals. Some are even listed as radio active such as Strontium Yellow. Most of these paints have been taken off the market and the formulas changed but I have to think it is still an issue.
Myself, I am susceptible to toxic metals as I was "leaded" while welding cadmium and zinc coated pipes when working construction. It doesn't take much and I get serious flu like symptoms.
Since I have started to protect my skin I not only have more energy but I paint better because I keep my pallet clean, something I learned from Richard Schmidt dvd, "White Pine".
Here is an article that goes with the link regarding a list of paints that are toxic. Do what you will with the info. Me I have to carry on so will keep painting. Very disappointing that all the cadmiums are on the list.
Here is a source against toxicity;
http://captainpackrat.com/furry/toxicity.htm
and here is an explanation of the subject for artists by Gamblin;
http://gamblincolors.com/newsletters/index.html

Behind the Barn, 16x20, oil

After studying the paintings of Russian Realist I have come to appreciate the colors of winter. The variety of greys are an opportunity to indulge in the temperature of colors.
As Twatchman I have come to know snow is full of color and pattern or an opportunity for design elements.
Richard Schmid forces me to draw and keep my pallet clean. Very important when trying to express the close hues of a white tree against the white snow of a mountain or the tracks of deer making paths behind the barn.
Top to bottom, front to back, thin to thick, are becoming second nature when executing the painting. I still have to stop and remind myself what range of values I had in mind but by mixing my paint before I start I achieve both a range of value and establish the overall temperature of the painting which achieves harmony.
Spontenaity is achieved by deliberation.

Village in the Mountains 8x10 oil

The town of Republic is located in the mountains between two mountain passes, Sherman pass 5500' and Wauconda pass 4300'. It is very isolated and self reliant.
This is a view of the Catholic Church which overlooks the town and valley.
The town was founded due to the discovery of gold. It is the one and only incorporated town in the County .
The area is reknown for hunting and fishing and has been the destination of many generations who appreciate that activity.
It is a very economically depressed area but a good place for an artist.
One of my favorite subjects are the small rural towns around eastern washington. Whether the wheat fields or the timbered mountains, life is changing. Many small towns may disapear due to the challenging economy. "Ghost towns do happen", as one economic specialist said.