All Things Fine Art

I've always been guilty of having a good dose of wonder lust in my psychy and a healthy love of deserts, mountains. and marshy creeks.  Unfortunately, these don't exist in the flat farm oriented county where I live in central Michigan. Obviously, mountains and deserts aren't an option for me to paint but by traveling to nearby counties I can and do find lovely marshes and lowland creeks that put a smile on my face and a brush in my hand.  Recently, a landscape artist friend, who feels much as I do about the need to travel for painting subjects said to me "I feel that God played a trick on me".  I couldn't have put it better. How can an artist, passionate about the landscape find themselves living in the flatest part of a beautiful state like Michigan?

"Cloud Burst", 40x30", oil on panelli linen panel

 I could feel sorry for myself and not paint but, I've never been known to be a quiter and I'd be awfully hard to live with if I couldn't have a brush in hand on a regular basis.  So, what does a misplaced plein air painter do to satisfy that daily need for paint and canvas?  For myself, I learned to look at my surroundings with a fresh eye and discovered the less dramatic landscape. It's certainly been a learning experience but I find now that I am quite happy painting scenes using trees and sky as a major factor of expression.  I'm sure I'll always long for the watery scenes of marshes and the majesty of mountains and deserts and there will be a time for them here and there. But, I can also see the beauty of the ages as seen in a weathered tree and the magnificence of the ever changing sky.  

"Winter Tracks", 11x14", oil on canvas.

A turning point for me a few years ago was looking at the art of artists like Richard Schmid and Marc Hanson.  Each of these artists have found beautifully unique ways of creating fabulously rich and dynamic paintings of humble subjects. Just look at Schmid's old farm scenes and Hanson's atmospherically breathtaking scenes.  These artists all chose to make the most of less dramatic subjects but with sensitivity painted them with their uniquely personal vision.

So, maybe there wasn't a trick played on me after all.  Perhaps it matters that I've been forced to really take a good look around my homeland and see the beauty that abounds in it's simple pleasures. It's up to me to see that they are special and to present them in my conversation with viewers as special in an artistic sort of way.