Plein Air Painting: Panama City Beach, Florida

My family and I just returned from Spring Break in Panama City Beach, Florida, where I was able to complete a pair of new oil paintings using my dandy little pochade box from Alla Prima Pochade (the subject of a future post).

Panama City Beach has gained a somewhat dubious reputation lately as a college Spring Break mecca and as an example of typical "Florida overdevelopment." But I've been going there since the 1960's and still love the place, warts and all. The area still has some cool natural beaches and wetlands left, like St. Andrews State Park and Shell Island -- an undeveloped barrier island accessible only by boat.

That's where I painted the beach/boat scene above. It took me a couple of hours and a duo of cold Heinekens to pop out this little 8" x 10" and I was pleased with the composition and color. The boat pictured is Lucretia, a 28' Carver cabin cruiser owned by my good friends Glenn and Kris Prechtel. I had to hurry up with the foreground because it was lunchtime and I was hungry!


Here to the left is another little 8" x 10" I painted outside my dad's house, just up the road from St. Andrews State Park.

Midway into this one I thought I'd created a mess, but a half hour or so later it really started to come together. I'm very pleased with the composition. The intense colors felt right at the time and the values are good, so what the heck? This painting evokes my feeling in the moment, which was ebullient considering it was 75 degrees and sunny and I'd just come from Chicago where it was 30 degrees and gloomy! I can almost hear Gato Barbieri playing Poinciana on tenor sax when I look at this one. Or maybe Chuck Mangione -- remember that dude?

I painted both of these on canvas covered board, which generally worked fine. I did have a little problem with the canvas detaching from the board a bit, due to the high humidity, but nothing I can't fix pretty easily here at home. Next time I may just go with Gesso-painted board. Not a huge deal, though.

If you get to the Florida panhandle be sure to check out St. Andrews State Park and Shell Island in Panama City Beach. Destin is a great spot, too. My favorite seafood restaurant anywhere is Captain Anderson's in Panama City Beach. And try driving down to Apalachicola, which is reminiscent of the Florida Keys of the 1950's. Boss Oyster in Apalachicola is not to be missed.

Tom Thomson: Plein Air Artist

One of my favorite plein air artists is Tom Thomson, born August 5, 1877 in Claremont, Ontario, died July 8, 1917 in Algonquin Park, Ontario.

A largely self-taught painter, Thomson first visited Algonquin Park in 1912. He roamed with friends around the wilderness of Canada, especially Ontario, capturing in broad brushstrokes its raw, natural beauty. His style has been compared with that of post-impressionists Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Cezanne. He was a direct influence on the Group of Seven.

Thomson first exhibited with the Ontario Society of Artists in 1913 and became a member in 1914, when the National Gallery of Canada purchased one of his paintings. For several years he shared a studio and living quarters with other artists, before moving into a shack on Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park. It was in Canoe Lake that Thomson drowned in 1917. (The drowning has been called accidental, but rumors abound that Thomson was murdered or took his own life.) Thomson's work has increased in popularity and value since his death. In 2002 the National Gallery of Canada staged a major Thomson exhibition.

I'm drawn to Thomson and his work. He personifies the plein air painter of my imagination -- trekking through the wilderness, maybe stopping to fish for lunch or pausing just to take in the air. And the paintings! Thomson's work is as straightforward and stark as the landscape he depicted. I find myself shooting to paint like him, if only I could -- his work is deceptively simple. Jack Pine, 1916, (above) is a prime example of his spare, rugged style. Hemingway in paint.

Check out the Tom Thomson Art Gallery in Owen Sound, Canada, which maintains an excellent website:

http://www.tomthomson.org/

The Essential Vermeer

In my opening post I commented that "I'm no Vermeer." That's true, but then again, who is? Vermeer, of course! I can't think of a better way to get started in oil painting than by studying the Delft master. Vermeer was shrouded in virtual obscurity for hundreds of years until his recent rediscovery. His known paintings number in the mid-30s and are concentrated mainly in Europe, though we have a few examples here in the States -- the largest number being a handful in the Metropolitan Museum. One of Vermeer's works on display at a Las Vegas casino was recently stolen (don't look at me). Another, on display in Boston, met the same fate.

Why the swell in popularity? Vermeer's works have an immediacy, an intimacy, seldom seen elsewhere and are executed with great precision and sensitivity. Like many of the greatest works of realism, his paintings faithfully represent "what is there" while simultaneously transcending material reality. Vermeer's paintings positively glow with a sense of the sublime behind the stuff of this world -- they are religious works in the highest and best sense. Vermeer was in love with the light and the figures he painted were invariably captured in a spontaneous human instant, with guard down, revealing the soul within. Irresistible.

Despite the paucity of known paintings attributed to Vermeer, it is possible to lose yourself in the study of his work. To study Vermeer is to study the human condition and its link to the divine. A wonderful website, The Essential Vermeer, has been devoted to the study of all things Vermeer. The site includes a catalogue of Vermeer's known works, summaries of his life and times, a discussion of his techniques, an extensive bibliography and much more. It is highly recommended and here's a link:

http://www.essentialvermeer.com/

There's also a very interesting book out, authored and published by Jonathan Janson, entitled How to Paint Your Own Vermeer: Recapturing Materials and Methods of a Seventeenth-Century Master. I haven't read it yet, but I plan to! Here's a link to a site where you can find the book: www.lulu.com/content/388584

How I Got Started Oil Painting

I studied oil painting for a single semester when I was a Senior at DePauw University in 1981. My teacher was the artist Robert Kingsley. At the end of the semester, when Kingsley met with me to discuss my progress, he glanced down at my file and said "you took this class pass/fail, right?" When I responded "yes," Kingsley said "good."

I respected Kingsley then, and still do. I was, without doubt, at the bottom of my oil painting class that semester. On the other hand I had an honest interest in painting and an earnest desire to learn. I loved the class and had a great time, and after graduation I repaid Kingsley's courtesy by continuing to try. Slowly I improved. I'm still no Vermeer, but I'm passable -- a sort of bogie golfer of the art world.

I learned more from Kingsley than I realized at the time. I'm still working on and learning about painting, and the discipline has given me endless pleasure and stretched my powers of observation in ways I never anticipated when I started out. Thanks, Kingsley!

Kingsley, as artist, is the real deal and a very nice guy. Check out his website at: http://www.artistkingsley.com/.