thoughts, works and occasional videos

So, in reality this is more of an article than a blog post.  I rarely write blog posts.  I come up with great ideas but find more real time people needs in my life than people who read posts.  Who has the time to read much in an increasingly busy life filled with continued societal needs and greater financial encumbrances.  If you have avoided some of these, ie: much of contemporary media, then you won’t be reading this anyway.  

 

If you have read my blogs from the start, some of this next paragraph is repetitive.  Sorry.  

 

I am a painter who prefers to paint outdoors as opposed to the studio, though as I paint larger works I am blending both.  I am blessed with a deck on my home so even my large works can be painted, or partially painted, outside weather permitting.  When I returned to making art (after a conscious decision to leave art to be more of a parent than my unusually young yet successful art career afforded) my son, Ian Marion (a painter) suggested I paint representationally.  Having raised my children in Vermont, I loved the out-of-doors and in fact left NYC, after a year in residence there, as a result.  I did not know the term “plein air”.   I knew “colorfield”, “conceptual art”, “performance art”  and such terms from the art movements of the early 70’s.

 

With my love of the outdoors and my return to art professionally, upon hearing of people who painted outside, my head and heart set out to learn more.  I found and contacted Toni Perrin, the organizer of such a group.  She welcomed me into the fold and I bought some basic supplies (and then tried to figure them out, chuckle).  To this day I remember asking her what ‘plein air’ meant and what were the parameters.   Her response and her warmth set me on a new path.  After all, people in our lives make a difference.

 

I had never painted in college and realized I knew nothing about color.  I had attended the Boston Museum School for college, but had made the conscious decision during my first year to learn what I termed as the ‘colors of black and white’ via drawing. I also chose to try ceramics, printmaking, photography, jewelry and graphic design.  After that year I had a full time job and did most of my art on my own with the occasional dip into the school. Credits at the school were obtained based on portfolio work at the end of each semester, not on classes attended. The works i was fortunate enough to sell through galleries at the ripe old age of 20+ were non-objective mixed-medium, of the somewhat colorfield, mark-making variety.

 

Back to 4 years ago, I also was unfamiliar with painting terminology.  One of my first Facebook friends mentioned a plein air page, so I looked around and joined some plein air groups. And these Facebook pages basically became my painting classes. I remember Ed Terpening, who hosts a Facebook page on plein air painting “Plein Air Painters Group”, commenting, maybe with a touch of surprise, that one of my paintings “works on the grey scale” to which I responded “what is the grey scale?”.  

 

For those fairly new to plein air painting, listed here are some Facebook sites on which you can see and learn a lot.  Another major page I joined was “En Plein Air Painters and Paintings, only 3 at a time” I did some homework after that.   Eventually I joined other pages: “Outdoor Painters Society”, “American Impressionist Society, Inc.”, “Landscape Painters” (a highly selective site which you can ‘like’, not ‘join’), and “Landscape Painters, only 3 images at a time”on which you can find some exquisite fairly traditional or conservative plein air paintings.  “Paint On” and “Today’s Impressionists” primarily hosts those artists with representational leanings but of greater stylistic variety.  I have joined other pages which I less frequent.  There are so so many but there is never enough time nor enough time to list them.  

 

But, here is the crux of my problem and the reason I am writing.  I adore seeing beautiful traditional, classical, and more conservation quality paintings, be they plein air or studio based.  And while I frequent sites that show such work because of skills I can target to study. I just don’t paint that way.  They are the diving board to my dive.

 

My vision, my heart and basis for my own reflection and expression of what I see while painting plein air is elsewhere.  Yet, while I am developing a following, so to speak, and buyers, when it comes to the plein air movement, I, and others like me, are constantly swimming upstream.  What is expected from the ‘plein air community’ is ‘tradition’.  We repeatedly come up against a bit of a wall in this regard.  Lon Brauer, a fabulous painter, recently came to me expressing his frustration with this.  His similar experience, in spite of his achieved recognition and accomplishments, is partly what inspired me to finally write.

 

At first, many in the plein air community held some disdain for my work and/or thought I was clueless as to how to paint.  I know this because I had some people suggest that I “should not paint plein air if I was going to paint like that!”  and i have garnered messages such as “I did not think you knew what you were doing, but I now see you do”.  

 

Difference of opinion makes the world go round, so be it.  It’s just a bit of a rockier road when you decide to go off the primary trail.  I am guess I am off-trail.

 

After my first real year painting, I gifted myself with a huge treat, a week in Maine at Eric Rhoads “Fall Color Week”, a painter’s retreat.  When I was not in Arizona I primarily painted solo. This retreat proved a great gift, one I highly recommend to others.  I met, painted with and shared time and talk with other painters, some recreational, some professional.  Upon departing, Eric came up to me and paid me a compliment (felt totally honored) to which I replied “learning to paint was not the hard part, bucking the nay-sayers was.”  The ‘nay-sayers’ being the ones who closed their minds and hearts to those who broke from traditional plein air.  

 

After attending the “Plein Air Convention”, another period of time well spent, a questionnaire was sent out.  I remember responding positively about the event but noting that the advice from instructors was basically non-applicable because in reality, most of them do not know what to do with those who paint differently (…another chuckle).  I have taught but am very eclectic in my approach so I come to art with a different mindset.  (Actually if it were not for our education system, in my heart I believe that people are more sculpturally inclined.  We are trained to the 2D world in school).  I believe in a traditional skill foundation but love helping people discover their personal vision, tradition and personal vision are not always synonymous.

 

I finally took a workshop from one of the top plein air painters in the country, even though it was studio based, working from photos.  He is a renown wonderful painter and person; but on the 3rd day he suggested I take drawing classes.   In response, and evidenced by his exclamation of surprise, I quickly knocked out a more traditional painting.  When he came over and I showed him a couple of my plein air paintings and explained what interested me and my vision, he somewhat understood (I think… smile).  Just another example of swimming upstream.  

 

I was honored to be juried into the Lighthouse Plein Air Festival (4th Annual Plein Air Festival in Tequesta, Florida this past winter.  Not totally sure of it’s name because it was changed and different people refer to it differently).  Approximately half of the painters there are what I consider to be ‘top dogs’ in the field.  As mentioned in one of my blog posts, I tend to tighten up at these events and expressing this issue to Ted Matz, the founder of the event, he responded “You were chosen because you paint differently”.  I sent him an email expressing my appreciation for the comment.  There are some open minds out there.

 

Yes, perhaps I should move myself into a pool of more contemporary painters.  BUT, I don’t think that is the answer because first and foremost I consider myself a plein air painter and that is the pond in which I choose to swim.  Perhaps it is time for the plein air community to open it’s boundaries a bit.  We are not corrupting the tradition of plein air, we are blessed to live in a time when we can express different elements as we perceive them.  I acknowledge how the plein air community has helped me grow, perhaps in the end, by writing this article, I can return the favor.

 

This winter I am planning to hit the road around the USA to just paint and better establish my style, away from ‘plein air events and pressures’.  I can’t wait to see how my work develops, and where in the plein air world it can find a foothold, if at all.  But you can be sure, I will be out painting in the outdoors. painting ‘plein air’.

 

In closing, at the Bath County Plein Air Festival, we were handed out t-shirts printed with a quote by Matisse “Creativity Takes Courage”.   Be courageous.  We can find room in the plein air pond and enrich it … for art’s sake.

 

Have a great day and please share this and your thoughts….also for art’s sake.