Richard Willson, Los Angeles plein-air

Richard Willson is a plein air painter, poet, enviromentalist and teacher in Los Angeles, California. A co-founder of the Mount Washington Plein Air Painters, his work seeks to create empathetic observation of the interaction of the natural and built environments. The geographic focus of his work is the communities of Northeast Los Angeles.

Willson's art is influenced by the urgency of global environmental challenges. He sees plein air painting as a way of understanding and appreciating nature. Plein air painting places the artist in a context of changing light, weather, seasonal variations, and plant cycles. It also provides opportunity to observe the effects of human activity on nature. In Willson's case, a bridge, road, or building is often seen in its relation to nature.

Willson's paintings are a parallel effort to his research and teaching activities on environmental sustainability as a professor at Cal Poly Pomona. Willson holds a Ph.D. in Urban Planning and has studied art at Otis Parsons Institute in Los Angeles.

http://willson.myexpose.com/

Ferdinand Kaufmann (1864-1942)

When I was growing up in Denver, I was always drawn to these two little boat paintings by Ferdinand Kaufmann when I would see them in my grandparents’ apartment. The foggy colors and subtle values expressed the hazy California climate, so different from high, dry Colorado (the paintings always made me think of California because my grandparents had lived there, but, looking at Kaufmann's bio, I realize they could have been painted on the east coast). I had never seen mossy pilings or deep, still water like that, but these 12”x16” plein-air oils gave an accurate impression, and I realized, Hmm...it’s a big world out there.

It certainly was a big world for Ferdinand Kaufmann. He was born in Oberhausen, Germany, immigrated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as a teenager, then went to Paris where he studied with Laurens, Bouguereau and Constant at the Julien Academy, and with Manet. He returned to Pittsburgh after six years in Europe, and painted plein-air in New England, New Mexico, Arizona and California. He became well known for landscapes, coastal vistas, figure studies and ship paintings. In 1921, he bought a home in Pasadena and later a studio-home in Laguna Beach. He remained active until his death in 1942.

– Sarah Judson

References:
www.askart.com
www.derusfinearts.com

Mel Adamson - Cycle of Water

“The rate at which we are consuming natural resources in the country, the consequences of this phenomenon, and our society’s tendency to simultaneously revere and destroy nature all influence the thoughts and feelings I bring to my visual search.

More specifically, the cycle of water, from land to cloud to rain and back to land, and our alteration of this cycle, is a theme that I’ve been exploring for a few years. From the ground, clouds appear to exist closer to the heavens, their edges fugitive, ever changing. Viewed from above, clouds appear like soft coverings, mimicking the patterns of earth, still defying human touch. I search for ways in paint to suggest the extraordinary pressure necessary for their creation, to celebrate the miracle of water – present at once as vapor, ice and liquid. With a two-degree shift in global temperatures, ice crystals that help form various types of clouds will not be able to exist. I think of clouds as indicators. We have the technology to travel through the clouds, above the clouds, yet this very technology is part of what is heating up our atmosphere and slowly strangling life itself.
With the images of dams, clouds, sewage treatment plants, contrails and such, I search for a shift in perspective away from the familiar. It is my aim in these paintings to say something about the beauty of the physical world and our marvelously complex relationship to it.” – Mel Adamson

(pictured above, Cover I)

http://www.meladamson.com/

Pam Glover

Pam Glover is recognized as one of the major plein-air landscape painters in California. She is also a founding member of the Outsiders, a group of fellow artists whose striking, fauvist style traces its roots back to impressionist groups formed on the West Coast. (pictured above, Pjaro Dunes, 16"x20")

Pam's work is notable for bold brushwork and the Impressionist use of rich layers of oil in brilliant tones. An enthusiastic advocate of painting in the out-of-doors, Pam paints entirely on location.

Pam Glover was born in Shanghai, China, and was exposed early to Far Eastern influences in the arts. Her education includes a period in China, where she studied for three years with Olga Popoff; the Polytechnic of Art in Sydney, Australia; the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, CA and four years with Lundy Seigrist, member of the Society of Six. In her 80's, Pam is still going strong and paints every day.

"Pam Glover is the godmother of plein-air painting in Northern California. Countless painters have come to her to learn how to capture the peculiar mix of light and sky and color that makes our part of the world so beautiful. She captures the rustic charm of the land with loose, bold strokes that fill her well-composed landscapes with gorgeous color. Because she knew some of the founders of plein air painting on the West Coast, there is a wonderful sense of continuity to be found when comparing her work to people like Lundy Seagrist."- Teresa Onoda

http://www.nancydoddsgallery.com/Pam_Glover.cfm

John Budicin

Born in Rovigno, D'lstria, Italy, John moved to California at the age of 11 where he went to college and continues to live today. After several years as a commercial artist and freelance illustrator, he became a plein air artist when his employer moved out of state. John paints outdoors almost every day and many of his paintings are close to his home in San Bernardino, California. (Pictured on the left, Worth the Wait, Oil, 14" x 18")

John is not only a plein air painter but also spends several weeks each year teaching workshops all around the US and Italy.

"I have always found painting outdoors to be exhilarating. Mother Nature is the best teacher and if you make a commitment to be out there day after day, she will "speak" to you. During the painting process, many changes take place before you. Perhaps a beam of light will illuminate a particular area, or a cloud pattern will form. The foreground may go into shadow, making the composition more dramatic. If you pay attention to these changes and incorporate them into your work, it will be more interesting, exciting and believable." - John Budicin

http://www.johnbudicin.com/

Scott Gellatly

Scott Gellatly taught painting in the Art-Zones/Continuing Education program at Bellevue Community College before accepting his position as Techical Support Represenative for Gamblin Artist's Oil Colors in 2005.

“I really like the immediacy of working outdoors without any preconceived ideas. As I’m working in the landscape I edit what I see so I can paint the essence of the place. I always want to strike that balance between the specific and the general, or the aspects of the landscape that are associated with one place and those that more universal characteristics of nature. I want viewers of the paintings to sense they are looking at a sky in the Northwest or the Southwest and yet not know exactly where I was painting.” – Scott Gellatly

http://www.scottgellatly.com/

Frederic Fiebig - 1885 - 1953

A very much overlooked plein air painter in the history of 20th century art, Latvian born Frederic Fiebig studied in St. Petersburg and at the Julian Academy in Paris. His work was well received in Paris where he exhibited alongside other well known avant-garde painters during the pre-World War I years. Despite this and periodic successes thereafter, his life was mostly a downward spiral of isolation, misfortune and poverty culminating in a hermit-like existence in the mountains of Alsace before his health broke during World War II.

Fiebig was a painter of integrity, following a unique path of absolute individuality far from convention. “The tragic terms of his miserable life never compromised his art.” 1. His distinctive style of the 20s and 30s was expressed in tiny (as small as 3” x 5”) jewel-like plein air paintings done on paper with a palette knife. Although these are objective paintings, they have an underlying structure of triangular forms evocative of Cezanne and cubism. The painting shown is View of Rodern from a Mountain, 1934, oil on gray wove paper, 6 ¾” x 5 ½”.

- Carl Judson

References:

1. Kashey, Elizabeth, Frederic Fiebig St. Petersburg-Paris-Alsace: Fall Exhibition 1990 Shepard Gallery. New York, 1990

http://www.fredericfiebig.com:82

Clyde Aspevig: A Living Landscape Legend

“My first concern when beginning a landscape outside is capturing the overall feeling of light as it affects the forms. I use broad brushstrokes to block in the overall color and values of the masses while simultaneously trying to create movement. As I progress, my intuition drives me to concentrate on the idea or purpose behind what I’m painting. The further elaboration of the concept comes later in the studio. Field studies supply you with information that you can then use on a more complete painting.” - Clyde Aspevig

From an interview by Allison Malafronte
American Artist, April 29, 2008

www.clydeaspevig.com

Painting as a Pastime - Winston Churchill

Currently out of print, but available used, Winston Churchill’s compelling invitation to take up painting as a life enriching pastime was first published as an essay in his book Amid These Storms (New York 1932). A chance reading of this little book convinced me to start painting almost 30 years ago. I find myself re-reading it every year or two, and it never fails to re-energize me.

At his lively and engaging best in this charming little volume, Churchill makes a case for the all-absorbing activity of painting (particularly plein air) as a respite from stress and overwork. His argument is particularly aimed at the care-worn professional contemplating taking up painting late in life, to whom he recommends bypassing deliberate study and getting on with it – “a joy ride in a paint box,” for which “audacity is the only ticket.”

Churchill took up painting at the age of 40 and quickly became an accomplished painter. He recounts his beginning painting experience in 1915. He had just hesitatingly made a sky blue spot “about as big as a bean” with a tiny brush on the canvas when a friend, the wife of a painter, drove up: “‘Painting! But what are you hesitating about? Let me have a brush – the big one.’ Splash into the turpentine, wallop into the blue and the white, frantic flourish on the palette – clean no longer – and then several large, fierce strokes and splashes of blue on the absolutely cowering canvas. Anyone could see that it could not hit back. No evil fate avenged the jaunty violence. The canvas grinned in helplessness before me. The spell was broken.”

He makes a good case for oils, but Churchill, the (mortal) sensualist, is also revealed: “Just to paint is great fun. The colors are lovely to look at and delicious to squeeze out. Matching them, however crudely, with what you see is fascinating and absolutely absorbing. Try it if you have not done so – before you die.”

I would add to that exhortation to make sure to read this little gem, too.

- Carl Judson

Churchill, Winston S., Painting as a Pastime. New York 1965, 52 pages, 18 color plates, 8 1/4 x 5 1/4, hardback

Jean LeGassick

Jean LeGassick was born in California in 1950 and lived there for her first 47 years. She graduated from Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, in 1979 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree. Her artist affiliations include the Plein Air Painters of America and the California Art Club. Jean was recently honored by being chosen as one of six artists filmed for the PBS series, "Plein-Air: Painting the American Landscape." An art instructor at Cerro Coso Community College in Bishop, California for many years, she continues to teach an occasional oil painting workshop. The summer 2008 issue of American Artist's Workshop Magazine features Jean teaching a recent Art in the Aspens Workshop in Pueblo, Colorado. Jean now lives in Silver City, a small, historic mining town in northern Nevada.

“I’m happiest when I’ve taken some effort to get to the place I’m painting. There is nothing more exciting for me than to hike, snowshoe, or mulepack to remote peaks, hidden canyons, windswept desert outcroppings or the rocky shores where land meets sea.” – Jean

http://www.jeanlegassick.com/

Friendly Chaos

This notion is a direct affront to the German & Swiss DNA that I have, but it's true that chaos is always there, lurking just beneath the surface, so we might as well make friends with it.When you think about it, isn't chaos the wellspring for all our bold, mysteriously beautiful creations?

Granted, a finished painting is usually considered to be the antithesis of chaos. Composition, color scheme, perspective, proportion, you know the drill. Trouble is, after you've worked hard to get all of those things right, you might still have a spiritless painting. Very pat. The kind of painting where you look at it once and say, "Wow, that's really good," and walk away, dismissing it from your mind & memory.

Watercolor has a special affinity for chaos. It tempts you to improvise.

Pick up a wild card, give a nod to the personal, unverifiable and unpredictable. Designate a "Chaos Appreciation Day" (or two, or more).

- lady guerrilla painter

Dwight William Tyron 1849-1925

Dwight William Tyron considered a series of more than 20 small pastel seascapes (~ 8” x 12”) painted in the autumn of 1915, which he called “Sea Phrases” or “Sea Moods”, among his best work. When you look at these, that these are probably not, strictly speaking, plein air paintings is hard to believe – especially since they are so evocative of the composition and subject matter of Whistler’s plein air pochade box paintings of the 1880s and 1890s. (see "Afternoon Clouds" on left)

Whistler had a strong influence on Tryon and they shared a patron, Charles Lang Freer, the Detroit industrialist, who had made his fortune building railroad cars before becoming one of the most astute American collectors of art in the early 20th Century. Not surprisingly, the Freer Gallery at the Smithsonian houses the largest collection of Tryon’s work.

Tryon was a passionate lover of the outdoors and a meticulous observer of the New England landscape (and seascape). He had rigorously trained himself to commit his observations to memory and then to render them in paint later. This carefully honed skill particularly allowed him to record fleeting effects of dawn and dusk with great veracity. Although his paintings are almost all studio paintings, done from memory and pencil notes on little scraps of paper, they give a sense of immediacy and direct observation characteristic of plein air paintings by an artist who has really “seen” the subject.

- Carl Judson

Merrill, Linda, An Ideal Country: Paintings by Dwight William Tryon in the Freer Gallery of Art. Smithsonian Institution, 1990, Hardcover, 10 ¾ x 10 ¼, 200 pages, 80 color plates.