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THE PLEIN AIR CONNECTION NEWSLETTER March 25th, 2014


"Feeding The Gulls Lobster Shells" a watercolor 20 x 26 inches by Michael E. Vermette

There was a crisp chill in the air but encouragingly bright and sunny when we all met at the parking lot of the original Dysarts truck stop and restaurant in Hampden, Maine. Becky Whight, Kay Carter, Linda Stearns, Anne McKay and myself all car-pooled together to Waterville to take part in the Maine Open Juried Show sponsored by the Waterville Area Art Society and Waterville Main Street. With the exception of Ann who joined us for the first time, we all entered two paintings each to be juried into the show. They had an amazing group of judges selecting the pieces having over 84 pre-registered artists and over 168 paintings if you count the walk-in entries for that day.  Robert Drewal, Helena Farrar's, and Patricia King were the judges and between them they either taught art for over 40 years, had multiple master degrees in Fine Art among them, or held the distinction of the assistant Director of the Colby College Art Museum. Our plan was to take advantage of every moment we had waiting for our paintings to be either juried in or out. So I e-mailed the people who were putting on the show and the Colby College Museum of Art to see if we could get a room in the museum to have our Plein Air Connect Book Discussion and if the Waterville show organizers would be willing to invite members to attend. I quickly found out that the Museum and the Open Show were very supportive of each other and very willing to help us out. 

  So we arrived in Waterville with paintings in hand, and were in and out in no time because of their express registration done by three or four registrants in alphabetical order. This year, because we all pre-registered, they had given us the option of e-mailing the information of the paintings we were entering so that they could make up in advance pre-cut labels. So needless to say, there were no congested lines, just a real nice flow of artwork that was taken to another floor to be judged. As is always the case in this sort of process, very little talking is ever going on, just artists checking each other's artwork out to consider their odds. So after we all entered our works by 9:30 am in the show we quickly traveled to the Colby College Art Museum to set up the classroom for the discussion. On our way out we were please to meet our fellow plein air painting friend and author Alison Dibble. So we waited for her to enter her work and went out of the Waterville Public Library together using the stairs instead of the elevator this time.  We pretty much ran about a half hour early all day and we were early for the museum, but they welcomed us and showed us to the educational room down stairs in the museum. How humbling it was to be in the presence of such great master works in this new Lunder collection and to think that entry is free. There was a long table in a very clean room and we all claimed our spot for the discussion and waited only a few minutes before we all explored the museum while we waited for people to arrive. Kay and I quickly went in search of the Robert Henri portrait that she said was in the Lunder collection. When we found it we spent a long time studying the brush strokes and looseness of his orderly construction. In fact one of the things we noticed was how he dared to leave white canvas in many places in the painting and yet it didn't affect the wonderful order it held. It was there, in that very gallery amongst paintings of Henri and his students: Gergia O'Keeffe, Rockwell Kent, George Bellows and even a Nicolie Fetchen, that we meet a wonderful couple, Mr. ans Mrs. Hans Haase (haasefineart.com). They were specificially there looking for our book discussion on the Art Spirit written by Robert Henri. After they joined us in looking at the Henri Painting we all went back and began what would be a very amazing discussion. 


Kay Carter and Michael E. Vermette at the Colby College Art Museum viewing the Lunder collection.

In these book discussions I usually facilitate and am willingly to  invite others to respond and even take the topics into many different avenues. I love how our book discussions use books like "The Art Spirit" as an in-point to a deeper discussion on how we choose to respond or express ourselves as artists. So it is that I can't write to you all the things we discussed but I can highlight three topics that made the discussion a very rich experience.

We began with what we were struck with in Robert Henri's oil painting of a portrait of a young boy and how it had canvas exposed. Henri say about this, and I quote:

" Probably it would be good to say to you; Consider the whole space of your canvas as the field of your expression. A fine adjustment must be made within its limits. Your ideas must not wander, anywhere, within the confines of the canvas, but they must fill it completely.
A space may be left bare, but that bare space must become meaningful. It is a part of the structure nevertheless."  -Robert Henri p. 181 The Art Spirit.
 
So then the question put to the group was is it appropriate to leave bare canvas and what do we all tend to do? We decided that of course leaving exposed canvas is fine to do, however, it must be considered as a part of the composition of the whole canvas. In Henri's painting that we examined he did leave bare canvas, in over twenty-five different areas. But each place he chose to leave bare canvas it became a critical highlight on the figure's coat or the wall in the background. We decided the real issue is not whether we leave exposed canvas or not, but that if we do, we consider it a highlight the moves forward and how it will that effect the other shapes in composition as a whole.

Then we talked about what that thing is that charms us in nature.  On the same page Henri says and I quote:

"Courage to go on developing this ability to see in nature the thing which charms you, and to express just that as fully and completely as you can. Just that. Nothing else. Not to do as any other artist does. Nor to be afraid that you may do as any other artists does. Do not require of your work the finish that anyone may demand of you, but insist on the finish which you demand."   -Robert Henri P. 181 The Art Spirit.

The conversation then moved into the area of the pressure to "finish" a painting the way we feel others want us to. This is sometimes experienced when painters paint for the judges' tastes and finishing a painting to impress for the glory of winning a prize rather than being true to oneself. It could be a teacher, a spouse or anyone with whom we hold in high esteem. The truth that Henri is revealing is that we will never be able to fully realize our ideas to their completion if we don't get in touch with that sense of rightness in our own judgement. Just as we must love ourselves before we love others, we must also be grounded in painting for ourselves before we paint for and even receive a reward from others. It is hard to know yourself, it is a humble self-acknowledging process.  But we must try to value our ideas over people who set themselves up as our judge and fail to make us as excellent as we can be. Robert Henri elaborates and makes the point:

The only men who are interesting to themselves and to others are those who have been willing to meet themselves squarely. The words of the masters are what they are because they are evidences from men who dare to be like themselves. It cost most of them dearly, but it was worth while. They were interesting to themselves, and now they are interesting to us.   - Robert Henri p. 187 The Art Spirit.

In the light of what we just did in entering our paintings at the Maine Open Juried Show we all laughed at ourselves admitting that awards are really not the most important thing to gain in our work. They are nice and sometimes validating, but lets be honest; they are not everything. The greatest thing we can get for our effort it to own a visual idea given to us that is so interesting, that when we do have the courage to share it, we will value our own whimsical intrigue over the response of an other. 

For example. I will never forget the story Ann Hubert told me of how James Fitzgerald's painting hung near the door of the dining hall at the Island Inn on Monhegan, Island. Every person going to dinner that night had to pass by that painting and many had responses. And Jim would watch to see how people responded. Then a man came up, looked at the painting, looked at Jim and asked him, "Did you paint that painting?" Jim answered him, "Yes I painted that painting." And then the man stated boldly, "I don't see Black Head That Way!" at which Jim replied, "But don't you wish you did?"  For years I wondered why Jim sat there listening to all of their remarks about his paintings in the first place. Then I came to one conclusion that I think is so great about Jim that is more than his response to that man. Jim knew who he was and how intriguing his ideas were. He valued, guarded, and defended the thing in nature that excited him most. He even admitted near the end of his life to his good friends Ann and Ed Hubert that it was worth suffering for. And the revelation to me was that he so valued what charmed him most in nature ( and how his own ideas that intrigued him) that he found it worth the struggle of being misunderstood, even by the great critics around him.

What an awesome attitude to have when entering a contest, a show or mounting an exhibit. To do it to connect with others spiritually and sometimes give a revelation to them of what is possible. But if they do not get it we take the position of wishing they did rather than get offended. Many people have a difficult time experiencing the art spirit in art. In fact I find it interesting to witness a person moved to tears as a response to a painting while another only a few feet away is completely unaffected on a cell phone calling for where a good restaurant is located.  

Henri Puts it this way and I quote: 

The greatness can only come by the art spirit entering into the very life of the people, not as a thing apart, but as the greatest essential of light- a spiritual influence. It is to enter governmental influence, and it alone will keep government straight, end wars and strife; do away with material greed.
When America is an art country, there will not be three or five or seven arts, but there will be the thousands of arts- or the one art, the art of life manifesting itself in every work of man, be it a painting or whatever. We will then have to give in kind for what we get, And every man will be a true enrichment to the other.  -Robert Henri, The Art Spirit p.188-189 The Art Spirit.

In conclusion, If you are one of those people who have entered your work into a juried show and didn't win an award, or didn't get both paintings into the show or didn't even get any at all in, take heart and consider this: That the true paradox that Henri and Fitzgerald knew is that in the times of rejection and suffering, at these very times of even verbal rejection, is the very moment the art spirit enters into you and even multiplies in you! But most of us don't see it that way because we are so preoccupied in identifying with the rejection we fail to see the value in our own ideas. Being a judge myself, I have witnessed the truth about why the judges reject some paintings and include others.  Time and again I've seen paintings with rich ideas and potential rejected because they didn't reached a point where the idea filled the canvas or parameters of the page as a whole.  It could even be that the artists has grown exponentially over the year. But the way paintings are chosen in shows is by the way the look "complete" or work as a "Whole" experience.  Judges are expected to use their experience to mount a show that speaks of the excellence of the conclusion of ideas, not necessarily works in progress. I'm willing to bet that if you went to these highly qualified judges and point-blank asked them why your painting didn't win an award or got juried out of the show the response would be that the working idea didn't go far enough or didn't reach its conclusion as a whole. I did that once with Tom Lynch who told me that my painting was too finished and detailed, leaving nothing for the imagination. Then he goes on to say, "Otherwise It would have judged it Best in Show."

I wonder how many artists walk away without knowing how close they were to winning Best In Show. You see, just because you are rejected doesn't mean that you are not on the right track. In fact when a painting is rejected, in reality it could mean that you are in a prime place to receive the art spirit that always accelerates and multiplies your understanding to a new level. How does the art spirit multiply in a rejected piece? By inspiring the artist to make adjustments that can only come from living an art spirit life. A lot of the comments and suggestions we receive are external. But the true multiplication of excellence in painting comes from living a life in the arts that is vital and meaningful. It's not a matter of tweaking a thing or two to make them more of a complete idea. It's a life style.  All of us need to sometimes take our critical hands off our work and realize that we are not rejected because of our art being inadequate and therefore have to fit it. No, we were rejected because we are in the process of making art in the art spirit of a Creator that is multiplying our work. And sometimes that can be messy. But it always leads to others finding what we do incredibly interesting. I have no doubt that all of us have it in us to win awards and the praise of others for our paintings. It's just a matter of how we perceive rejection and a matter of timing. 
 
  We ended our discussion with agreeing that rejection in the art life is the prelude for multiplication of the art spirit in our paintings. So if you have been rejected, don't worry, this is part of the cost we pay for living the art life. But get ready! It means you are about to expand exponentially through the art spirit. It's the ultimate paradox artists face and when realized is can be a very exciting motivation that leads us all to admit, it's gonna be worth it.

The Bangor Art Society Meeting is tonight at 6PM. We will be having a model to draw from so please bring your art supplies.  the meeting is always open and free to the public so please come and take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to create with others who are living the art life. 

Also the Waterville Art Society is having their opening reception and presentation of awards tonight at 6 PM at the Waterville Public Library. 

May the Art Spirit multiply in all of us this week!

Michael E. Vermette
Coordinator of the Plein Air Connection