Plein Air Road Trip

Finally back at Westfork Ranch after a couple hundred miles of traveling which started out painting on the way down to Hood River and the best plein air paintout in the NW at the Columbia Art Center.  About 40 of the most prominent plein air painters of the NW gathered for a week of painting in and around Hood River, Oregon.  What an extraordinary place.  10 minutes west and you are in a green rain forest of waterfalls.  10 minutes east and you are in the desert.  World class windsurfers fly across the Columbia river in kites, parasails and boards and if that isn't enough Mt. Hood is only an hour away as well as Mt. Adams in Washington.

The folks at Columbia Art Center really know how to put on a show.  Artists are hosted by area patrons.  Maps are provided and a number of receptions are held.  Sales are great and the comaraderie is even better.  Thanks everyone.  Look forward to seeing you all next year.

Elio Camacho Workshop
As I was painting in Hood River, I came around the corner of a building where we were all painting to find Elio Camacho set up and painting.  I had never met or heard of this artist.  To say I was delighted to see him paint would be an understatement.  Rather, I had an epiphany.  Here was a guy painting BIG.  Big easel, big canvas and big paint!  I sat mesmerized as I watched his technique.  He's a shy guy around people he doesn't know but a very warm and friendly person once he gets to know you.  I was so inspired I gave myself permission to 'do my thing' which is to paint big.  I drove to Portland and picked up some 24x24 canvases, the size I have been painting on at home.  It turns out I 'dumb down' my work and paint small at paint outs.  It's not good for me as I don't do well on 11x14.  Guess these old eyes and being 6'3" I need to paint big.  The next two days I did 3, 24x24's and was 'back in the groove' and enjoying myself.  My pieces really stood out in the show and one found a home with a delighted collector.
Brookings, Oregon Workshop with Elio Camacho

On the spur of the moment I decided to attend Camacho's workshop in SW Oregon near the California border.  It's a big deal for me to expose myself to the influence of other's work but I've been looking for an artist to paint with that I appreciated their work.  I considered attending a Ovanes Berberian workshop but kept putting it off for years as I didn't want to get out of the groove I've been in.  Turns out the Camacho is a student of Berberian and quotes him a lot as well as Berberians mentor Sergie Bohngart, an artist my mentor, William F. Reese, held in high regard.

I've never spent much time at the ocean.  I'm a desert rat in that the first time I saw the ocean I was 18 and from Montana.  It's a little bit like the Big Sky Country but doesn't stop moving. It was something like being on an alien planet.  It was good weather and beautiful and I did some good painting but they are workshop paintings trying to work out the things Camacho pointed out needed work.  There isn't a painting that doesn't need improvement so I did a lot of scraping and still came home with 6, 24's that I'll keep as reminders of what I need to work on. 

Elio is a generous and knowledgeable teacher and very accessible.  His best teaching is done with the brush as he usually has a painting going.  His technique and color use is exceptional.  Check out his work at http://www.eliocamacho.com/ .

Interview; July, Rural Heritage Magazine

I had the privelege to get interviewed by Bethany Caskey for Rural Heritage Magazine, one of the few magazines which cover draft horse and farming issues. Ms. Caskey is an excellent writer and easy to talk to.  She is also a horse person and artists so it was an easy interview that turned into a 4 page article with many photos of my work!  I'm sorry I don't have a digital copy but have ordered many hard copies.  I recommend subscribing to Rural Heritage.  Publisher Joe Mishcka also has an extensive online library on things rural with an emphasis on draft horses.  Thanks Joe and Bethany for the opportunity!

Galleries and Art Shows July through September

Avenue West Invitational juried show August 1-27, reception friday august 6, 5-9

hours; tues - sat 509 838-4999 avenuewestgallery.org; one piece, 11x14 plien air, "Sherman Grotto", lovely little piece, impasto plein air view of Sherman Creek tumbling through the rocks on it's way to the Columbia.

Museum of Arts and Culture, Moses Lake, July 16-August 13, reception July 16, 6 pm

118 west third Ave, hours 11 am to 5pm tues-saturday, 509 766-9395, 20 large paintings of recent work. Equine motif, from representational, plein air and large 5'x14' conceptual piece of the 32 horse Talkington Hitch.

Confluence Gallery, Twisp, Wa 104 Glover Street, 509-997-2787, tue-sat 10;30-3pm, Confluencegallery.org; Harvesting the light, june 5-july 24; reception, 4-8, Saturday, June 5

Jenn Allen-Tate's, "The Studio", Twisp, Wa, 101 N. Glover, 509-997-3090 20 plein air pieces, winter series 16x16 and small towns, 30x40.

April Monday's, Silver Star Gallery, Chelan, WA., 108 East Woodin Avenue, 509- 682-4848, plein air landscapes, 11x14, equine subjects 30x40, large triptych screen, 6'x6' with aspen landscape.

Wedding Bells for Gregg and Betts

It's wedding bells for Gregg and Betts June, 26 2010, 4pm at the Westfork Ranch on the Sanpoil!

Barbecue and music by local Peacenik, Robin Ellis

Come boogy and help us celebrate.
Garden party or ranch attire appropriate.

Bring your tent, camper, fishing pole and sleeping bag or stay in nearby Republic at the Northern Inn, 775.2130, or the Kdiamond K, 775.3351.  Our friends at the K Diamond K are providing rooms for us at their special B & B rate.  If at all possible they'd like a 3 night minimum stay as it's their high season.  The ranch offers all sorts of extras, like horse rides, so come over and have a mini-vacation.
While you're here you should also check out the Stonerose Interpretive Center.
Check http://www.ferrycounty.com/ for even more information on things to see and do in our corner of the world.
Questions?  Call us at 509.775.2130.

Your smiling face is all we look for on our wedding day but for those of you that insist, we made wedding presents easy at Amazon.  We love music, books, movies and of course, Art.  Wedding present registry;

Eats the Sun II, 30x40, plein air, oil on gallery wrapped canvas

"Bodies made of Light, Eat the Sun"

"Bodies made of light, eat the sun"
11x14, plein air, oil

slogging through winter with still life's

Studio time. To paint everyday keeps the brush sharp and pallet fresh. It also means keeping the rain and snow off your back. It means searching the internet and following up leads on show opportunities, competitions and marketing. Following the 'business plan' which is basically a schedule of production to keep this A.D.D. artist, focused. Seems to be a work in progress......

Villa in Twisp

11x14 plein air study. The Methow river wends its way through the foot hills of the Cascades. A landscape of deer, salmon and exceptional steel head fishing if like my friend, Kevin Bevins, you know how to get 'em.
It's an area that has been discovered by the 'rich and famous' but gets pretty mellow in the winter as the pass to the West side of the state closes and the place returns to the locals.
Art is finding its way into the culture, replacing timber jobs that have gone away. There is some ranching and some orchards that still manage to get by but life is in transition as it is in the entire 'inland' west.
A land of scarce but clean water, the locals are making a concerted effort to reclaim the land and the balance of nature with many projects that preserve agricultural land, reclaim natural habitat and look forward to the future.
A good place for art and plein air painting.

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?