Overcoming Produces Reward
The "Paint the Peninsula" silent auction took place this year at the Blue Hill Library on July 16th, 2016. The fundraiser benefits different key programs of the library through the sales of auctioned off works of 86 artists who participated. It was well attended and was catered by Lucy Benjamin & Friends with David Reinkeon on piano. The library was sectioned off into three main rooms on the first floor that were transformed into gallery spaces. The blue room, the Wilder Room and the Main room was well attended with art patrons and supporters who generously placed silent bids on sheets before the paintings they admired. There were many artists who had participated before and others for the first time like my good friend Eric Glass who sold both of his pieces.
I painted two small 11 x 14 inch oil paintings on cradled wood panels of two very different views of Blue Hill. The surface of these panels were prepared with a traditional gypsum gesso. I prepared them with several stone coats of gesso on my birch wood panels to achieve a highly prized painting surface to paint on. I enjoy this surface because it absorbs the oil paint into the panel causing it to stick like a stucco. And even in damp or misty weather the paint still sticks to this surface. I also use my own formulated Black Oil Wax medium that the old masters used such as Titian and Rubens. I mix this medium with my paint to enliven color and create a luster appearance to the paint. My paintings always look wet, even though they are dry.
But even with all these preparations that I do before a wet paint auction like this, I am still not assured to sell any of my works. I think it is because painting sales have very little to do with crossing off preparations on a check list that involve technique, composition and concepts. Painting has to do with following an inspiring vision and achieving a higher state of order in the painting execution that gives you the ability to overcome the adversities that are experienced in painting plein air.
I began thinking about this because of what an artist spoke to me about at the auction. She was visibly upset, had invested a far amount of money, and was discouraged because her two paintings didn't sell. All I could think of telling her at the time was to "not give up". But later as I thought about it more, I wished I would have shared with her that the secret of selling works in an event like this might have more to do with overcoming physical adversities that arise when pursuing an inspiring and original idea, and less to do with fulfilling requirements and formulas within our own comfort zone.
For example, the painting above, "View From Blue Hill Summit, Maine" was painted on a muggy, hot and humid day with temps reaching in the 90's. Most painters would not have attempted what I did, starting out on the Osgood Trail by 11 am to reach the summit of Blue Hill mountain by noon or afternoon as it turned out. With my pack studio on my back that weighed over 35 plus pounds, and a camera and wet paint carrier box around my neck, I signed in at the trail head and started out. I remember the air was hot making it difficult to breath and there was no wind on this sticky day. But I forged ahead stoping two times before reaching the summit. When I reached the summit I was rewarded with a constant wind that dried my completely sweat drenched shirt. I found a makeshift bench made of a plank of wood across two rocks and just sat admiring the awesome view as I cooled down and dried off. I savored the painting as I spent a longer time rendering color exactness and the delight of the shapes that led the eye down over the mountain. I really felt the presence of God through the beauty of the mountain as I pondered the cost it took to reach this destination and considered it worth the effort.
The painting came out better than I could have imagined it because I could never have predicted what I might see on this hazy summer day. This was the first time I ever climbed this mountain. And now, after finishing the painting, I was faced with hiking down the mountain into a dead heat with no wind at all. When I hiked back down the mountain and reached my car my shirt was once again soaked with my own sweat. My wife had the air conditioning blasting, and I remember that I couldn't lean back on my seat because my wet shirt was touching my skin like ice. But I counted it all as joy because deep down inside I knew I accomplish something wonderful.
I share this story because this painting sold among the highest in the silent auction with two bidders. I even sold the other one I painted the following morning of the day of the art auction. But this one sold for more because it had a distinct opposition for me to overcome in order for me to complete the work. I had to overcome the heat, tiredness, discomfort and even the fear that there would be open sun with no wind at all atop the mountain. But in the end I was rewarded with a painting that was unique and different. The first bidders, a brother and sister, told me a story of how their father's ashes were spread at that same place I painted my view from and how they went there often. This added to the sacred feeling I felt when I experienced this place.
But in the end it actually sold to a buyer and friend that was instructed not to buy from me this year by his wife. The wife of the buyer instructed her husband that I would be selling paintings at the auction this year and that he was not to buy from me. That's right, she instructed him not to buy because they already owned one and he was disappointed trying to buying one in various auctions in the past. He later confided with me that when she saw the painting she changed her mind and informed him that he could buy the painting because "View From Blue Hill Summit, was a good one!" And so he won the painting that night.
So as I ponder why paintings sell and other don't, it could be size, could be subject, some paintings more finished than others, having a better composition, or technique and inspiring formula better than others. But I'd rather entertain this idea that the artist was in pursuit of something inspired by a higher state of Godly order. That there was an obvious opposition to overcome. The artist had to work through it to accomplish the painting that became a joy, but was a perfect battle in the making. That, somehow, through the inspiration of engaging in the battle and eventually overcoming, the artist received a reward.
For me, I recall many paintings that have sold and won awards in the past that have connected to buyers and judges. Paintings that I have made at 5 am in the morning at sunrise, or began at 1 am in the morning of a moonscape; skiing out to the middle of a lake with 18 inches of snow to capture the first rays of the morning's sun on a mountain, or like this painting climbing a mountain for 1 mile to reach the summit at 90 degree humid temperatures. I believe there is a reward for these experiences if: 1) There is a passion of the idea inspired by God that challenges the artist to reach for a higher state of visual order, 2) the artist overcomes by working through obvious adversities and difficulties, which seems to always be the case when attempting these paintings out of our comfort zone, and 3) If you can hold out to the end and finish well, Which usually means unexpected mishaps and setbacks after the work has been completed, will occur that the artist must also work through in order to finish well, such as running into a difficulty with the frame.
So the next time your mind tells you that it's a crazy idea, and you might want to consider an easier painting site, or to relax and be more comfortable, remember this. The obstacle that is in your way might have been put there to give you the opportunity to overcome. Because those who hold on to the end and overcome, will receive a reward.
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