The Hazards of Being A Plein Aire Artist

Plein aire is the French term for open air, first popularized by the impressionists in the late eighteen hundreds. The first group of impressionists began setting up their easels outdoors around the 1860s. Before that time, most artists worked in their studios from sketches or from memory.

There are many benefits to working on location. Artists are in the position to seize the essence of their subjects because they are surrounded by their auras. They breathe the air, smell the aromas and sense the depth. The ultimate skill of a plein aire artist is to paint emotion, not information. Accuracy gives way to fluidity, and the ability to communicate essence through stroke and color. The hand that manipulates the brush must touch the canvas with strokes that convey the significance of that moment in that place. Powerful objects require powerful strokes. Delicate objects require delicate strokes. Being on the location allows the artist a full range of sensory information from which to utilize.

The plein aire artist must endure challenges created by Mother Nature herself, as well as those encountered in painting and creating. On one occasion, I was painting along the San Simeon coast, and had set up on a series of rocks twenty-five feet from the sand. My concentration was focused only on the landscape and my canvas. I suddenly found myself surrounded by water on all sides. I had to flag down a tourist to catch my equipment, and then waded in various depths of water to get back to shore. There was also the time on the Ortega Highway ten miles east of Dana Point, when I was working just off the road and a gust of wind caught my easel, blowing it over and sending ninety-six sticks of colored pastel into the highway. It was a beautiful sight as the road lit up in color. As cars passed, they crushed the sticks into smaller and smaller pieces, eventually dyeing the entire road in an array of hues. Their was another instants when, I was set up on the edge of a field when a jack rabbit on a full sprint suddenly found me directly in his path. He put the skids on, to no avail, as he collided with the easel. The surprise of that moment cost both of us a few extra heart beats. The elements can make it very difficult to work. The extremes in weather, the insects, and other annoyances keep most landscape artists in their studios. But to the true plein air artist, the elements only add to the sensation of capturing the truth of that moment in that place.

Mother Nature is not the only obstacle facing an outdoor painter. People can provide some very interesting stories. There was a time when I was painting on the cliffs near Ragged Point, about twenty miles north of San Simeon, and a photographer crept up two feet behind me, positioned himself on his knees seeking an interesting perspective for his photo. Backing away from my easel, as I often do to get a truer look at my work and unaware of his presence, his body caught me at the back of my knees. This caused me to roll over him thus propelling me into a complete backward somersault on the ground behind him. In his embarrassment, he got up and sprinted off, leaving me on the ground still in shock, yet with a smile on my face. In San Francisco I had panhandlers interrupting me about every five minutes. Out of change, and only enough money for my own needs, I got tired of making excuses for not lending a hand. I went to my van and found a piece of cardboard. With red pastel in bold print I wrote, “HUNGRY, WILL WORK OR PAINT FOR FOOD,” and placed it at the base of my easel. It worked like a charm keeping the beggars away, yet no one offered me a job.

I have been thrown out of gambling houses in Las Vegas because they thought I was a spy, and surrounded by farmers as I was trying to capture the beauty of their land. I asked how many of them had ever taken an art class. The answer was a resounding zero. I packed my equipment and moved on.

Sometimes when painting, I will move a tree or dwelling for the sake of a better composition. I have had individuals come up and tell me that I was not supposed to do that. Annoyed by their picayunish comment I leaned against my easel and asked them if they wanted to frisk me and read me my rights, and on another occasion I fetched my cell phone so they could call 911.

These stories and many, many more are a part of the plein aire experience. I owe much of my growth and development in the field of visual art to painting on location. I can paint bad pictures all day, yet when the day is done, I feel a great sense of being, because the day was spent intimately with Mother Nature and all the beauty she has to offer.

Art Sherwyn

Show Me Your Strokes

“The greatest painters say it with the fewest strokes.”

Painters throughout history are often defined by the nature of their strokes. Most people can identify the short and broken strokes of Monet or the decorative and fleeting strokes of Van Gogh. We easily identify Cezanne by the squareness of his strokes. Even some of the abstract expressionists were known for the character of their strokes. Willem Dekoonig attacked the canvas with large brushes in an aggressive slashing and slicing manner. John Singer Sargeant was considered one of the great strokers of all time. Each stroke had a purpose. One spontaneous swipe of a paint-filled brush becomes the bridge of the nose. Push, twist, roll and drag, the brush touches the canvas like a well-choreographed dance.

A painting with well-defined strokes adds numerous layers to the viewer¹s experiential potential. The nature of the strokes magnify the rhythm and pulse of the subject matter, giving the viewer an intimate look into the sensitivity and vision of the artist and their statement about their subject matter.

For the portrait painter, the strokes define the character and temperament of the individual. Carefully placed strokes in a horizontal direction portray an individual who is contemplative, quiet and peaceful. Quick allusive strokes depict an individual who is energetic, creative and enthusiastic, while strokes that are vertical in nature usually portray stability, power and control.

To the landscape artist the stroke is critical for expressing the true experience of that moment. The wind blows, the waves roll, the high grass sways and the flowers grow because of the stroke. Rocks are heavy, fences are weathered and water flows because of the stroke.

“Artists paint emotion not information.” The brush stroke can be the vehicle that paves the way for the artist to achieve this goal.

Art Sherwyn

Parameters and Artists Do Not Mix

I have always felt that true art is about emotion, rather than information. This is not a new or especially deep theoretical statement. Emotion is talked about in art dialogue all over the world. In fact, it¹s considered in vogue to be in touch with your emotions, and express yourself from a gut level. From peace to pain, humor to horror; the artists of this planet are touching every edge of the emotional playing field. One of the prime goals of many artists is to capture an emotional response.

If this is so true, why are galleries and museums all over the globe, offering their space to artists that exhibit consistency in style and subject matter. Why are some of the best known and purchased artists, the ones whose works are repetitive in content and style. Starting with Norman Rockwell, whose paintings and drawings of family and ordinary people in every day life, are popular even to this day, but he was also considered an illustrator. Illustration has a layer of consistency and repetition to it. Then there is Leroy Neiman, who uses bright, broken strokes of color to paint the energy and verve of athletic events, a busy street scene or a gala evening at a casino. There is Bev Doolittle, who hides faces in the forest and R.C. Gorman who painted stylized representations of Indian woman. Now we have Thomas Kinkade, whose serene landscape paintings, infused with light, are reflecting spirituality to his buyers all over the world. These are all very fine painters and artists. They accomplished a dream that millions of others can only fantasize about. Yet, where is the creative truth and integrity in manufacturing great numbers of the same kind of art works. Pablo Picasso once said, ³The hardest part about being an artist is not copying yourself.² Artists live off of diversity. Through diversity comes inspiration, and through inspiration comes great works of art with a strong foundation in purpose and technique.

The real truth to one¹s art has to come from within. In order for the truth to come out, the artist must be given the freedom to travel any artistic path he or she desires. Parameters will only weaken the art and limit the artists potential for producing works that are true to its content, in turn making a greater impact on the viewing audience. The fore mentioned artists have all made a profound impact on segments of the population. It is very difficult to make such an impact on so many, and not be true to your art. They do not generally go hand in hand.

Art Sherwyn

Lessons in Art are Lessons in Life

Lessons in Art exercise many of life’s most vital needs. To even think about education without the arts, lacks vision and sensitivity.

It is about making decisions concerning challenges that have never been defined, forcing the individual to react intuitively, making choices according to the previous actions. It is about exploring the inner self, and finding inspiration and emotion from a wide range of issues, and teaching the individual how to internalize their feelings, developing an understanding and forming a solution. It is about being unique. The very nature of creating is about being different and finding new ways to express oneself, in turn, becoming sensitive to the uniqueness of others. It is about taking that uniqueness and melding it within the community, learning how to work together as well as apart. It is about risk, opening up your heart and soul and expressing it in visual media for anyone to view, developing a comfort zone for being out on the edge, and dealing with possible rejection, controversy or even applause. It is about studying history through the eyes of some of the most flamboyant characters to walk this earth. Before photography, artists recorded history through their paintings and drawings, yet after the camera, artists glorified history by reacting to the social context of it. It is about learning to see through the uncommon mind. While the common mind is one that can only see what it can touch, the uncommon mind is about vision, and creating things that have never been seen before. It teaches the intellect of perceptiveness, inventiveness and cleverness, all very powerful traits to have throughout ones life.

Art is a wonderful vehicle for preparing our youth for life. We give them tools and teach them skills for attacking future challenges. As they move down the road of being, their lessons in art will become the road map for strategy in creating their existence.

Without participating in the process of creating, ones perception of the significance of art can be very limited. I call it the, “It Takes One To Know One Theory.” For most people to understand, they must experience first hand how the act of creating directs the being to every edge of life. Art teachers, artists and advocates throughout the land are often frustrated when money¹s and programs in the arts are cut. They have explored a myriad of avenues to educate those who do not support the arts in education, yet explanations alone do not suffice. It is very difficult to see the view unless your on top of the hill. In order to make it on top of that hill most of us must participate in the process of creating. Only then will ones perception be clear and true. It requires a different strategy of justification. In Mathematics 2 +2 will always equal 4. In Art 2 + 2 can equal 12 on one day and 2002 on another. In creating, the answer is irrelevant. The process is what counts.

“Art Is Life and Life is a Process.”

Art Sherwyn

Fine Art And Technology – A Marriage Made In Heaven

Ten years ago I was beginning to experience deep feelings of gloom over the state of visual art and its future in our technological society. The making of fine art was becoming another victim of the age of technology. As an artist and educator, my spirit and passion for my profession was waning. I was on the verge of becoming a victim of progress, a dinosaur. But this wasn¹t only about me, this was about one of histories most powerful and dynamic disciplines; Art.

Technology is about looking ahead, continually searching for faster and more efficient ways to perform tasks. Art is about balancing the past with the future, exploring processes that are built on the foundations of the past and melding them with the invented processes of the present.

Paradoxically, great numbers of people were creating art on the computer. Who wouldn¹t be intrigued by all the special effects that the computer could provide a user. You could now click your way to some very interesting art and you didn¹t even have to draw or mix color, etc.

As a teacher I was envisioning all the schools filling their art rooms with computers, replacing the pencil and brush with the mouse and stylus. As the computers move in, the classics move out. Fewer and fewer charcoal and conte¹ studies, fewer and fewer brush strokes, fewer and fewer wood cuts. If no one is studying the classical techniques and theories, I question who will teach the next generation.

Progress is nothing new. Life has always been motivated by progress. The difference lies in its speed. The pace of the 90s has been so quick that we have very little time to sit back and figure things out. We purchase a piece of technology and by the time we get it home and set it up, it¹s obsolete. The opposite is often true for fine art. We are still using tools that were invented hundreds of years ago. We never stop returning to our books on Leonardo, Michaelangelo and Rembrandt. I probably could have joined the band wagon and devoted myself to creating art with a computer, but it is not that easy, especially for someone who has spent the last twenty-five years making art with antiquated tools like brushes, pastels and ink. After all these years of learning about art, its theories and its processes, how could I possibly be motivated to create computer generated art using someone else¹s options.

Well, I was wrong, way wrong! My doom and gloom was for naught. I underestimated the monster of art and forgot that it has overcome many obstacles in its long and illustrious history. It has beaten the dark ages, great wars, and some selfish and aggressive leaders. Great works of art have been bombed, burned, deemed degenerative, defaced, stolen and copied, but the art has always prevailed. Its history is too rich with great moments and remarkable individuals performing some very engaging activities for it to fall. Art is presently growing at a pace that has rarely been seen in history. With all the greatness and potential of technology, people are desperately searching out balances for the catatonic life style of a days work in front of a computer. How many hours can one look at a computer screen before they start to become lost in a technological fog..

Much of the work force leaves their jobs every day semi- spaced from the hypnotics of working at a computer. People are seeking creative and physical outlets to balance their daily routines at work. They are searching for hobbies and interests that define the quality of their life. They are respecting the lessons and romance of the past, and visiting art galleries and museums in record numbers.

In the school systems, the arts are the last of the survivors in the race to remove the electives. Most of the wood, metal and automotive shops no longer exist. Many of the schools are chipping away at the Home Economics and Agriculture programs. This leaves the brunt of the weight on the arts, most notably, music and visual art. The role and responsibility of the arts teacher in today¹s fast paced world is even greater than before and includes the preserving of the arts and exposing all the wonderful layers of learning that the arts provide the individual. More and more students are realizing their talents and seeking out directions for the future that contain some level of creative thinking and doing. Even the advent of the computer and its potential as a tool in the world of visual stimuli has opened up numerous avenues of employment for the artistic individual.

My spirits are repaired and I, as a teacher of the arts have a renewed enthusiasm, momentum and self esteem. The arts can stand side by side with technology, just fine. They are certainly opposites and in this instance opposites do attract.

Art Sherwyn