Hints 'n Tips
Setting Up Outdoor Gear
10 things to remember when painting on location
One of the beauties of painting on location is the excitement of being out in nature, capturing a fleeting moment that will never come again in exactly the same way.
There are days when the light is near perfect, the air is clear with the aroma of fallen leaves and the artist savors it, in a reverie of pure enjoyment. Those are the days that memories are made of. Looking back, one can get lost in the moment, re-experiencing a dream-like time when life seemed to stand still. Of course, there are those "other days," you know, those days when the air is not so clear, the cold is bitter, or the mosquitoes are out in droves and you can't seem to concentrate due to all of the distractions! Sure, life isn't perfect and there are situations like these that just have to be dealt with. Preparation is usually the key. Warm clothes, rain gear, bug dope, sunscreen and a hat are the usual remedies. The main thing, as my old painting buddy Dick Heichberger jokingly used to say, is: "Plein air painting isn't for sissies." "That's right pard," I would grunt and nod. We always had good times painting in the San Bernardino mountains! Joking or not though, you do have to have a little grit to stand out there on those "other days". For that reason, a plein air artist needs to be prepared for any situation. While we can't change the weather and other natural obstacles, we don't have to make the process any harder than it already is. Through years of teaching students out in the field, I have come up with a list of dos and a few don'ts to help artists make their job easier while on location. Most of these ideas were passed down to me and only a few are mine:
1- Paint with your canvas or panel in the shade. That might mean finding a convenient tree to stand under, use of an umbrella, or hiding under the hatch of your SUV; but most often I just turn my canvas away from the sun even if it means that my subject will be behind me. The reason for this is painting in direct sunlight causes you to misjudge values and you will usually come back to the studio with a painting that is keyed too dark. Be sure and wear a hat with a good brim for this.
2-Keep your brushes, palette knives and paint scraper (when working on glass) within reach, clean and ready to go.
3-Have a can of thinner that has a lid, hanging on your easel. Be sure it is big enough to do the job. There are several good ones out there that can be purchased through companies like, Utrecht and Open Box M. Also, bring some extra thinner in a fuel can to top off your main brush cleaner. These can be purchased at any camping/hiking store.
4- Fasten your palette to your easel in some way to keep it from becoming airborne on windy days. Don't use paper palettes outdoors; they blow around and are generally a pain to work with! A wood or glass palette work best.
5-Secure a trash bag to your set-up so that it is easily within reach: large binder clips work well here. You can even clip two of them to the bottom of the bag secured to a bungee cord to keep it from flipping up on your palette.
6- Start on a clean palette and put out enough paint to do the job: a stingy palette rarely produces art worth looking at. Also, if you are going to save paint for next time, shovel the leftovers into the corner of a sandwich bag and tie it off. Keeping those dried up piles of paint on your palette might look "artsy," but it does nothing to improve your field work. In addition, it's a time waster, when you are forced to scrape it off out in the field, where light is fleeting and shadows change quickly.
7- Keep your mixing area in order. "Don't throw bad paint after good." In other words, clean the mixing area occasionally: it's difficult to get a good painting from a lousy looking palette. What you see is what you get!
8- Have your panel securely fastened to your easel. Even the best plein air painters aren't jugglers and would have a hard time doing anything on a panel that kept moving!
9- Have a roll of paper towels handy. I prefer a box of tissues, a habit I formed years ago after watching my paper towel roll make it to the bottom of a large hill, marking my location from the air!
10- Lastly, don't tackle a canvas size that is larger than you can handle in the time allotted. Most plein air artists work small enough to complete a study in an hour to two hours. Seasoned painters can and do larger pieces in the field, but most often smaller is better. I suggest starting out with sizes ranging anywhere from 6x8 to 12x16. The sheer act of covering the canvas with paint will be eliminated and you will be more likely to finish the painting in one go.
In the end, it's all about working smart, forming good habits and being organized. When in doubt, set up your gear at home before going out, to see what it can or can't do in the field. You'll be glad you did.
Check out the accompanying photos to see how I set up my plein air equipment. Everything is right there where I need it. I don't even have to think about it most of the time unless I change boxes for one reason or another.
In a future issue I will cover the different types of boxes out there for painters, their pros and cons and where to get good quality panels and brushes. Until then, enjoy the autumn light and all it has to offer.
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Public Issues
Art for a Cause?
Do fundraisers hurt or help artists?
Need to raise money for your favorite cause or charity? Hold an auction! And always include lots of art work. Utah nonprofit organizations facing financial woes, needing to meet operational costs, or financing projects and programs seem to rely more and more on this practice.
Auction sponsors and donors sometimes don't realize, however, that unintended consequences often accompany charitable acts that are planned with good intentions.
In a typical auction, up to a hundred works by several dozen artists could be displayed. For small organizations, even $10,000 netted by an art auction makes a big difference in its ability to carry out its programs. And, since I first wrote on this subject for The Salt Lake Tribune in 1995 ("Art for a Cause: Fund-Raisers for Charity Help...and Hurt," September 3), the practice hasn't let up. Elbert Peck, former director of the Sunstone Foundation, summed it up: "We'll continue having it as long as it makes money."
SPLORE recently asked me to donate artwork for a fundraising auction, and I contributed works from my collection by Allen Bishop, a local artist who now lives in Missouri. I serve on two boards, Art Access/VSA art Utah and the Entrada Institute, both known for their fundraisers that use artwork as the centerpiece. The 300 Plate Show put on by Art Access is now a local institution. Like Art Access, the Entrada Institute supports artists as well as humanities scholars and scientists in developing new work, usually inspired by the people and geography of the Colorado Plateau. This month, the Catalyst Magazine editors, writing about the October 24th Entrada fundraiser, noted that they "go to quite a few of these gigs and will say Entrada always has the most "artistic" of fund-raisers, with real artists, authors and musicians present along with their work."
In my 1995 article I listed several organizations that held art auctions—and almost 15 years later, they still do. I also stated that "more causes are lining up." And they still are. While organizing his first art auction back then, Delmont Oswald (now deceased), executive director of the Utah Humanities Council told me, "Like everyone else, we're damned desperate."
Motivations
Most people participate in charity fundraisers, especially art auctions, for essentially two reasons: altruism and smart shopping. Many participants attend to give and would probably give anyway. Others need incentives. Still others are simply looking for a good deal.
Perhaps a third reason is the lure of tax benefits. However, according to fine arts appraiser and respected arts administrator, Allen Dodworth (and the Internal Revenue Service); "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch."
Just how real, he asked, "is the tax write-off when the artist, by law, is allowed to deduct only the cost of materials used in producing the piece [unchanged after all these years!], and the charity buyer is, by law, allowed to write off only what they paid over and above the 'fair market value' of the work they buy?" Ask your accountant what "value received" means, he advised.
Hearing the rattle of a few more coins in a strapped organization's coffers may bring sighs of relief to its supporters and beneficiaries, but it causes fire to spew from the mouths of a few art dealers who feel their hard day-to-day work is undermined.
One of the reasons I blew the dust off my Tribune opinion piece of 1995 (I was the Tribune's art critic from 1994-1997) was because of a conversation a couple of days ago with a gallery owner who, although complimentary of Art Access and its successful 300 Plates fundraiser, said his heart drops when potential buyers of works in his gallery tell him they "really got a good deal on a Brian Kershisnik painting, or one by this or that artist that I've represented." He sympathizes with this organization that helps the disabled and others, but believes the auction has damaged his business.
In fact, my 1995 Tribune column featured a couple displaying Kershisnik's handsome "Jonah" painting which, I believe they told me went to them for about $500 at the Sunstone Symposium art auction that year, an absolute steal for those who know the market value of his work. (In a truly philanthropic world, "Jonah" would eventually be sold at fair market value and the proceeds donated back to Sunstone or another charity.)
Other echoes from the past are alive and well today
Former Salt Lake gallery owner Dolores Chase told me art auctions were "killing us." She said it was "hard to keep our optimism up and pay the bills with the art market being so small. We feel compromised by nonprofits using [visual art] regularly and almost exclusively."
"Some galleries are extremely concerned about the number of art auctions," said Clayton Williams of Williams Fine Art. "They look at it as taking away their business."
It's not such a cut-and-dried issue as these two gallery owners described fifteen years ago.
Chase closed her gallery, in part she may say, because of competition from art auctions.
At Clayton Williams Fine Art, however, other dynamics are evident. Williams' partner, Tom Alder, sits on the Art Access board of directors and is instrumental in assisting the organization's continuing success with the 300 Plates event. He also helped Art Access arrange a one-day sale of Francis Zimbeaux paintings and drawings generously donated by his estate, as did a staff member from the Phillips Gallery that represented Zimbeaux for many years ("immensely successful," claimed Ruth Lubbers, executive director of Art Access). Even Williams has been involved for years as a board member of the LDS Hospital's Deseret Foundation that hosted one of the biggest art auctions in Utah during the 1990s.
So, although the core criticism of commercial galleries remains, something has changed in the intervening years to ameliorate concerns for some dealers and organization leaders to become more involved in art auctions—or has it?
Part of that change was foreshadowed years ago by Williams when he explained that as a gallery owner, he was asked almost every week to donate art work to an auction, a tale repeated throughout the state by many artists. When he was first asked to help his board organize an art auction, he knew he had the artist-as-donor fatigue barrier to overcome, including his own, he said. How did he leap this high hurdle?
Let's take a step backward and glance at a gallery's financial life and how art auctions have the potential to erode value.
Chase said charity art auctions undermine the retail value of fine art. "They take away from a very small and fragile industry," she said. "All of us in the art world support these nonprofits in many ways and really believe in their causes. It's not an adversarial relationship. It's just that there is little money available for products considered by some to be a luxury. So, even a 5 percent loss of a small gallery's market share makes a big difference."
And this interview with Chase was conducted long before the current financial meltdown!
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