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.