FROM AMATEUR TO PROFESSIONAL PLEIN AIR PAINTER

Gina Brown is one of two local artists participating in the Southeastern Plein Air Invitational. The other, Craig Reynolds, was Gina teacher and mentor as she developed her art career. Gina participated in the first two plein air events hosted by the Gadsden Museum of Art as a gifted amateur but she was ready to join the cadre of professionals for this year’s event.

Gina, like many of the professionals in the event, showed early talent by sketching and painting as a child. And, also like many, life put those inclinations on hold while she attended to the demands of education, career, marriage, and motherhood. In 2009 she began studying with Craig and reconnected with what had been missing, the desire to create and share her art. Because she had worked as a graphic designer, she already possessed an understanding of composition and color and now applied those skills to oil painting. She began to paint often, almost every day. That commitment led to a rapidly maturing and distinctive style featuring lush colors, bold brushwork, and a ‘juicy’ look that jumps off the canvas. Gina’s selection of subject matter is also distinctive—like most plein air painters she focuses on landscapes but sometimes switches to more of a still life aesthetic by painting an interesting garden feature or flower-filled container. More than technique or style, Gina seeks to make her work personal. As Gina says, “Every painting has a story that I must share.”

In just a few years Gina went from being a workshop participant to a professional affiliated with the Oil Painters of America, American Impressionist Society, Women Painters of the Southeast, Alabama Plein Air Artists, and 10 Everyday Painters. Her work is represented by the Shelby Lee Gallery in Charleston, South Carolina and Renaissance Gallery in Northport, Alabama.

Thirteen artists come to the Southeastern Plein Air Invitational from other towns in Alabama or from other states. Craig and Gina know Gadsden and the surrounding county intimately—its history, ambience, light, and atmosphere. How will that connection become visible in the art they create during the event? See the artists on location (April 25-29) and enjoy their art in the galleries of the Gadsden Museum of Art through June 3.

A PAINTER WITH ARTISTIC CONNECTIONS

Not many painters can trace their artistic ancestry but Katrina Weber is an exception—her great-uncle Erich Heckel (1883-1970), was a founding member of ‘Die Brücke’ (The Bridge), an influential German Expressionist group known for the vivid color and emotional content of their work. Katrina says she was influenced by early exposure to Heckel’s art. Today she paints in oils, watercolor, and pastels. Her work has been featured in six solo exhibits and over a dozen group shows in the last five years.

Katrina is returning to the plein air event hosted by the Gadsden Museum of Art for the second year. Last year she attracted attention with an unusual depiction of Noccalula Falls, a view that cropped out almost all the surrounding landscape to focus on water cascading off the sharp rocky edge and falling into the pool below. She captured the movement of rushing water with subtle and changing color and solid rock with brushstrokes that sculpt the ridges and striations. This painting perfectly exemplifies Katrina’s goal to “transcend the literal without losing touch with reality.”

Visitors to the galleries at the Gadsden Museum of Art will be treated to two chances to view Katrina’s art. Upstairs in the third floor gallery she is exhibiting with Huntsville’s Sanctuary Artists in ‘The Art of Nature’ through June 13. The exhibit highlights the beauties of a nature preserve donated to the city to save it from encroaching development. Downstairs she will be showing with the artists of the Southeastern Plein Air Invitational. In both venues take delight in Katrina’s arresting compositions, masterful color blends, and expressive brushwork.

PAINTING IN OIL & PASTEL

Greg Little discovered his natural talents for drawing and painting as a boy growing up in north Alabama. Now living in Florida, this self-taught artist uses intuition and observation to capture a moment in time and a sense of place. As he puts it, “The light in my paintings reminds us that even sitting still, time is moving, life is changing, and we are both a witness and a participant.”

All plein air painters deal with the difficulties of changing light and the challenge of sun, wind, and transporting equipment on location. But Greg sometimes takes on the challenge of working in pastels. In a pinch an oil painter can take everything they need in their hands--one or two brushes, a lightweight panel, a jar of mineral spirits, and a small palette loaded with a few colors. A skilled painter can mix every color they see from the three primaries of red, blue, and yellow plus white—even an approximation of black can be created by combining colors. Pastel painters must take the colors with them in the form of sticks of almost pure pigment; fragile sticks that can shatter into dust unless they are protected in foam-lined trays. Because of the difficulties relatively few plein air artists work in pastel. Discriminating collectors understand how rare the works are and appreciate the colors and textures that belong exclusively to pastel paintings.

In the past two events Greg Little has created works in both oil and pastel. He is also well-known to Gadsden Museum of Art staff and volunteers for going to hard to reach locations. While painting at Noccalula Falls during the first plein air, Greg disappeared under the Falls and came back with views of the gorge that no other painter captured. Watch for Greg on location (if you can find him) and see his paintings on exhibit in the museum galleries. Look especially for his vibrant pastel paintings and appreciate the special difficulties required to make them.

PAINTING IN GADSDEN FOR THE FIRST TIME

Discovering a new artist whose paintings attract your attention and captivate your interest is a great thrill for an art collector. This year’s Southeastern Plein Air Invitational hosts five artists new to the event—Jill Berry (Pensacola, Florida), Millie Gosch (Roswell, Georgia), Becky Joy (Phoenix, Arizona), Ralph Parker (McKinney, Texas) and Beverly Ford Evans (Nashville, Tennessee). Artists by definition are sensitive to their environment whether is it is the dearly loved scenery of their home turf or the new, unfamiliar, and different. Meet the artists who will be experiencing locations around Gadsden for the first time!

Jill Berry paints most often along the Gulf Coast and her favorite subject is the interaction between land, sky, and sea. She values plein air painting for the spontaneity required whether it comes from wrestling with an easel on a windy day or trying to capture the constantly changing light.

Millie Gosch finds inspiration in the lowlands, rural fields, marshes, and waters of coastal Georgia. She explains, “For me art is an expression of my love of nature.” She seeks to capture the serenity of the landscape offering the viewer a glimpse into a special moment and the opportunity for quiet reflection.

Becky Joy feels both calm and euphoric in the outdoors and seeks to relive those moments in her paintings. At each location she finds a connection to nature and translates that into the color, texture, and mood of her landscapes. For her, “painting is like solving a puzzle” where each location challenges her to “put the pieces together into a cohesive whole.”

Ralph Parker wants to stir the viewer’s curiosity about “the quiet drama of everyday life” and invite memories of special places and peaceful scenes. By “combining just the right consistency of paint with the right brushstroke” he brings out the colors that describe a quiet creek bank, an open field, or an old barn.

Beverly Ford Evans combines a love for nature and history with wanderlust. As she explains, “Through traveling I create memories for myself as well as have the pleasure of creating paintings that can evoke memories for others.” While steeped in the beauty of her home state of Tennessee, she loves to pack her paints and get “inspired by the diversity at every turn in the road.”

What will these artists see in the locations around Gadsden? What will they notice that we who live here have overlooked or failed to appreciate? Come join the artists on-location daily and visit the galleries of the Gadsden Museum of Art to see the paintings, still wet, but ready to evoke the memories of a day spent out-of-doors.

ARTISTS' LOCATIONS, April 25-29

Artists and spectators at the Southeastern Plein Air Invitational will be treated to several new locations this year. Each location offers a completely different challenge to the artists but every site offers variety, drama, and beauty. Spectators may visit the locations between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily but the best time to see the artists working is before 11 a.m. and after 2 p.m. because plein air artists find midday light less interesting. For help on site, look for the Blue Umbrella where volunteers will be on hand to assist you.

LOCATIONS

Monday / April 25 COME TO THE CLUB

The Gadsden Country Club has kindly offered the use of the golf course on a day when the premises are usually closed. Only artists will have use of golf carts so spectators can expect to do some walking.

Directions: The Gadsden Country Club is located on U.S. 411/Rainbow Drive. The entrance is marked with brick columns and red roses (no traffic light). Proceed up the hill to the 2^nd parking area and look for the Blue Umbrella.

Tuesday / April 26 UP ON THE FARM

Stone Arches Farm in the Little Wills Valley community offers artists bucolic scenes much like those favored by the first Impressionists in France over 150 years ago--fields and meadows, flower gardens and fish ponds, blue hills and stately trees. Directions: The farm is located on U.S. 11 about 10 miles north of Attalla. Look for the Blue Umbrella.

Wednesday / April 27 THREE HISTORIC DOWNTOWNS

Artists have a choice of three downtown settings—Gadsden, Alabama City, and Attalla—each with its own flavor and character. Spectators are invited to visit each site, call the museum during the day for information on where artists are located, or come by the Blue Umbrella at the Gadsden Museum of Art. For spectators with limited mobility, this day offers the chance to see artists at work with little walking required.

Thursday / April 28 DOWN BY THE RIVERSIDE

Artists will be painting on both sides of the Coosa in the area of the Southside Bridge—Rainbow Landing, Buck Island Road, and the causeway on Hwy 77. Look for the Blue Umbrella at Rainbow Landing.

Directions: Take Rainbow Drive (Hwy 411) to the intersection with Hwy 77. Turn left. Proceed past Regency Point on the right. Turn right just before the Southside Bridge. The entrance to Rainbow Landing will be on your left.

Friday / April 29 GADSDEN HISTORIC DISTRICTS (morning only)

Historic homes, tree-lined streets, and beautiful gardens make this residential neighborhood near downtown Gadsden an ideal location for plein air painting. Artists will have their choice of painting on Turrentine Avenue, Argyle Circle, Haralson Avenue, Reynolds Street, or Walnut Street. For spectators with limited mobility, this day offers the chance to see artists at work with little walking required since most will be visible from the street. The Blue Umbrella will be located at the corner of Walnut and Turrentine.

Friday night, Gadsden Museum of Art, 6-8 p.m.

· Wet Paint Silent Auction (2 specially chosen painting from each of the 15 artists)

· Artists’ Reception (refreshments will be served)

· Artist Recognition and Awarding of Prizes

The public is invited to view over 150 paintings created during the Southeastern Plein Air Invitational and to meet the artists.

PAINTING & PROVENANCE

Provenance for a painting means its history—who painted it, who has owned it, and where it has been exhibited. The provenance of a painting adds value for the art collector. A painter can’t have provenance like a painting but sometimes knowing about the artist enriches the experience for a collector. Craig Reynolds participated in both years of the plein air events in Gadsden and is scheduled to be one of the professionals at this year’s Southeastern Plein Air Invitational. Craig’s late father was also an artist whose watercolors are avidly collected. Now Craig continues the tradition but in his own style—oil paintings with the loose brushwork and soft edges of Impressionism but with strong contrasts and color combinations that are uniquely his own. Look for Craig’s work at the Shelby Lee Gallery in Charleston, The Gale Gallery in New Orleans, and The Renaissance Gallery in Northport, Alabama. But for the week of April 25-29 look for Craig on location in Gadsden and his painting in the galleries of the Gadsden Museum of Art until June 3.

I was lucky to buy one of Craig’s painting at last year’s plein air event—an evocative study of late afternoon in the James Martin Wildlife Park, an urban greenspace bounded by busy streets and a shopping mall. I was immediately attracted to the sense of peace it captured, a meditation on the beauty that is all around us if we only take the time to see. Notice the many shades of green in the trees and the water? Green is the hardest color for artists to mix but Craig is a master of this difficult task. Still, would the painting have any impact without those hints of red and orange? In the art world this effect is called simultaneous contrast—opposites placed close together intensify each other. Since red and green are opposite on the color wheel and opposite in temperature (warm and cool), the addition of touches of red to a mostly green painting makes it glow with an inner radiance. I enjoy the painting everyday not only for its beauty but also in appreciation of the highly developed skills of the artist.

In the next blog I’ll preview the locations for this year’s painting days.

A PAINTING CAPTURES A MEMORY

The railroad bridge across the Coosa River has been a landscape feature in Gadsden since the late 1800s when it was the only bridge. Vintage photos show pedestrians and horse and buggies using the bridge between scheduled trains. More recently citizens and city officials declared its rusty girders an eyesore and began looking for grants and contractors to paint the structure. But artists look with different eyes and many plein air painters at the 2009 and 2010 spring events hosted by the Gadsden Museum of Art made paintings of the bridge, rust and all.

At the 2010 event Dmitriy Proshkin used the location as the site for a workshop attended by aspiring plein air painters. His demonstration painting shows the thrust of orange girders against a blue sky, beautifully crafted stone supports, the wide Coosa, and steep river banks. I was lucky enough to buy this painting and it became the focal point of my dining room. Everyday I’m struck by the sensitive brushstrokes, color contrasts, and light effects—notice how the girder structure is lost and found against the bright sky, just the way the eye sees but most of us never notice.

Dmitriy brings an international touch to the Southeastern Plein Air Invitational because he was born and received his art training in Russia. He admires famous Impressionists like Monet, Pissaro, and Sisley and Russian Impressionists Shishkin, Savrosov, Vassilev, and Levitan. He explains that the Russian School of landscape artists seeks simplicity, to bring out the richness and poetic beauty of ordinary sights. I can see this approach in his painting of Gasdsden’s railroad bridge. As Dmitriy puts it: “I feel one of my most important tasks in painting landscapes is to express and bring out the true reflection of the mood of the moment.”

What will happen this year at the Southeastern Plein Air Invitational? What surprising subjects will artist choose? Will some once again choose the railroad bridge? Since last year the rust has been scraped off the bridge and it is now pristine silver. Will artists still find it appealing as a subject? I’m so thrilled to have a painting of the bridge as it was during my lifetime and will not be again. A good reason to buy a painting is that it captures a moment in time that will never return—a memory in paint.