Archive of President's Message

President's Message

April 2010

As the days grow longer and warmer and sunnier, many a painter’s fancy turns to plein air! Plein Air Chair Eva Butler has been busy scouting the region for good locales, and I’m rearing to go!

The phrase en plein air is a French expression meaning “outdoors.” Painting in the open air gained popularity during the 19th century, especially when the invention of tube paints allowed for easy portability. For landscapes painters such as myself, painting on location is essential. You can create a credible landscape in the studio, but only if you have trained yourself to see how light falling on natural forms affects their value and color.

Painters specializing in portrait, figure, or still life normally work indoors but can also benefit from plein-air painting, which puts a premium on quick judgment and rapid execution. These skills, in turn, increase spontaneity and what painters commonly refer to as “looseness,” that painterly quality characterized by lively brushwork and the merest suggestion of detail.

Many painters, of course, prefer a higher degree of finish in their studio work, but even they can benefit from painting on location, where the small window of time available to complete a work requires them to focus on composition and values rather than the exquisite rendering of detail. Having to work broadly and abstractly will only strengthen their studio work.

If any of you have been reluctant to paint en plein air, make this the year you give it a try. Once each week, from late May through September, EAFA’s plein air group travels to various locales throughout the area. The group includes painters of all levels and provides a secure and supportive environment for making art in the great outdoors. Look for this year’s schedule in the May newsletter.

See you on location!

From your President,

Steve Whitney

President's Message

March 2010

Dear Fellow Members,

As I have mentioned more than once, the great quality that for me distinguishes EAFA from many arts organizations is the support, mentoring, and exhibit opportunities it provides beginners. In that spirit, I would like to offer some tips on learning to learn how to paint, based on my own personal struggles and my experience as a teacher.

Teachers: Find one. There is no substitute for working with a teacher whose paintings and teaching style you admire. Workshops are great. Weekly sessions are even better.

Workshops: Take as many as you have time and budget for. Take from as many different teachers as you can. And when you’re in a workshop, paint like the teacher. That’s why you’re there: to learn what that particular teacher has to teach. Don’t attend a workshop simply to continue doing what you’ve always done. You can do that for free.

Books: Novice painters typically buy one or more books in the hopes of shortcutting the learning process. Alas, there are no shortcuts—there really aren’t—but the books are still valuable as inspiration and reference. You may find the paintings in a book turn out to be more useful than the text. In addition, some of the text may sink in only months or even years later.

Materials: Buy the best you can afford. Painting is hard enough to learn without using inferior brushes, paints, and grounds. Still, don’t expect even the finest materials to shorten time spent at the easel. (New paints and brushes will not improve your painting, but they’re fun anyway.)

Focus on Design: The most important single factor in a successful painting is design. If your design is solid, then your painting will work even when your drawing or colors are not. If your design doesn’t work, then your beautiful drawing and colors are simply wasted. This is true whether your painting is purely abstract, wildly fanciful, or representational.

Forget Detail: Focusing on detail when you’re trying to learn how to paint distracts you from basic issues, such as design and values. Save the details for when you have the skill to do them justice.

Practice: There is no substitute for practice. Paint as often as you can. Once a week is better than once a month. Every day is best of all.

Choose Simple Subjects: Beginning painters often choose subjects that are far beyond their abilities. Choose a pear or a set of blocks or a very simple scene, not your grandchildren or market day in Guatemala or Custer’s Last Stand.

Give Yourself a Break: Beginners often get discouraged because their paintings aren’t as good as their teacher’s or those of the more advanced student’s in class. Compare your current work only to your past work to see the progress you are making. Never compare your work to that of other students or your teacher. Also, get over being embarrassed. If you’re a beginner, no one expects you to paint a masterpiece. No one but you, that is!

From your President,

Steve Whitney

President's Message

February 2010

Dear Fellow Members,

A friend admires your artwork and exclaims, “You’re so talented!” I don’t know about you, but I never know how to take this. I am flattered that they like my work but a little put out that they don’t seem to recognize the years of dedication and practice that went into its making. I wasn’t born being able to paint a credible landscape, after all! Richard Schmid has remarked that we don’t recognize “talent” until after the fact, at which time it is indistinguishable from the results of persistence and hard work.

Former world chess champion Gary Kasparov, discussing chess “talent,” points out that what is taken for a single talent for chess is actually numerous talents—a talent for extensive research, a talent for memory, a talent for practicing, a talent for spatial abstractions, a talent for persistence in the face of difficulties, and so on. Similarly, a talent for painting is actually a talent for visual acuity, a talent for simplification, a talent for blending colors, a talent for design, a talent for doggedness, a talent for manipulating brushes, and the like. The list is very long!

For both Schmid and Kasparov, the idea of talent is a meaningless concept that should be tossed aside. This is good advice, particularly for beginners, who often take their failures for lack of talent, whereas they are actually signposts along the road. Becoming a competent artist has almost nothing to do with talent and everything to do with being so passionate about your painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, printmaking, or collage that you are willing to suffer numerous failures in your quest for mastery.

Mastery, of course, is itself an illusion. There is hardly an artist alive who believes he or she has mastered their medium. Those who do have ceased to be artists because in them the spark of discovery is dead. Besides, that’s what’s so great about art: it is inexhaustible!

I like to imagine all of us walking along a broad path. Some of us are just beginning the journey. Others are at various stages along the way. But the path is endless, and it is the journey that matters. The point is to keep going!

From your President,
Steve Whitney

President's Message

January 2010

Dear Fellow Members,

I am writing this during the week of the winter solstice, when short, dark days are relieved by bright lights and celebration. You will be reading it in the bright promise of January, when everything seems possible. New Year's resolutions are personal expressions of possibility, and I would like to share a few pertaining to my art that may also pertinent to yours.

I will be adventurous! I will try new media, new techniques, new subjects. I will give myself new opportunities for failure.

I will not judge my artwork by unreason-able standards. I am better than I once was, and that is enough.

I will set aside time each week to make art. If I do not, I will not make excuses for avoiding my art.

I will find ways to make art with my artist friends.

I will not fear failure because, when making art, there is no failure. The act of expressing myself is my art! The paintings I produce are merely artifacts of that process.

From your President,

Steve Whitney

President's Message

December 2009

Dear Fellow Members,

The recent Open Show reminded me of the great range of styles represented by EAFA artists, from detailed realism to pure abstraction and fanciful conceptual designs. Each of these genres is ancient and universal. Each has been found in the earliest traces of art and has persisted throughout the millennia since. Each is represented today among cultures around the world. This is why debates about the validity or legitimacy of one or another of these three approaches to making art are pointless and, frankly, uninformed.

Many cultures have favored pure abstraction. This was true, for example, of the ancient Celts as well as the Islamic Caliphate during the Middle Ages. It is also true of many, though not all, African and Amerindian peoples. European art embraced abstraction in the late 19th century, influenced in large measure by the popularity of African art and highly stylized Japanese prints.

Conceptual art, the rendering of ideas or states of consciousness in original and often provocative ways, is also both ancient and universal. Ceremonial masks, Medieval Christian iconography, Eskimo carvings, Navaho sand paintings, Hindu temple art, and the works of European painters such as Bosch are all examples of conceptual art, where the goal is not to depict physical reality but, rather, spiritual or psychological realities as filtered through the mind and hand of the artist.

Pure representational art, whose goal is the depiction of physical reality, whether the subject be figure, still life or landscape, dates back to Neolithic cave paintings and at various times has been a prominent form in both European and Asian cultures. It reached its climax perhaps in 19th century Europe, when the French Impressionists began pointing the way to modernism, but it remains a lively, increasingly popular genre in these post-modern times.

My point is that all these forms of art have long histories and are all valid, vibrant expressions of human aspiration and originality. Each of us is drawn in our own work mainly to one or another of these genres, but all of us should appreciate that what we personally consider to be fine art is not a universal preference nor one blessed by the evidence of history.

From your President,
Steve Whitney

Sandra Glazer Lake
Hong Kong Junk

President's Message

November 2009

Dear Fellow Members,

Wow! I am hugely impressed by the quality of the work in this year's "Open Show"! I have been entering EAFA‘s shows for about 10 years now, and this year is the strongest in memory. This is what happens when you get 287 entries out of which only about 120 can be displayed. I'm glad I wasn't the juror.

I had an opportunity to preview images of the show entries. Many, many worthy pieces of art did not make the cut; simply there was not enough space to show all that might be deserving. None of you who failed to get in the show should be discouraged. The level of competition was very high. And that is good for EAFA and for all of us who strive daily to improve our work.

One of EAFA's strengths is that it provides a wide variety of venues for artists at all levels to display your work. The Open Show lets you compete against many of the finest artists in the region. The Member Show provides a somewhat less difficult, but still significant challenge. Other exhibits, such as the ongoing Plein Air Show and upcoming Volunteers' Show, are open to all members who have participated in these respective activities. The Public Art program provides a variety of attractive venues for an even larger cross-section of EAFA membership. And finally, the monthly competition allows members at all skill levels to share their art-work in an open, friendly setting.

I know of no other art group in the region that provides so many opportunities for beginning and experienced artists alike. It‘s what makes EAFA special!

From your President,
Steve Whitney

President's Message

October 2009

Dear Fellow Members,

This past summer has been the best in memory, and a spectacular gift for plein air painters in general and the EAFA plein air program in particular. With only a couple of exceptions, EAFA plein air painters enjoyed a succession of sunny Tuesdays. Participants ranged in skill from novices to experienced plein air specialists. The variety of work was remarkable in both quality and originality. The fellowship was even better!

Plein Air Chair Eva Butler did a great job of organizing the program, assembling a great slate of venues, and creating a supportive, congenial atmosphere for participants. She and her assistant Helen Todd deserve a round of applause.

EAFA’s plein air painters opened the summer season Tuesday, May 26, at the Washington Park Arboretum in Seattle, and finished Tuesday, September 15, at Country Village in Bothell. Other venues included Snoqualmie Falls, Bellevue Botanical Garden, Mt. Si Overlook, Greenlake, and Kubota Gardens to name only a few.

Each session began at 9:30 a.m. and finished around noon, at which point all the painters gathered for lunch and critique. We lined up our paintings and then, one by one, described what we were trying to accomplish. Comments were generally supportive, picking out the best features of each painting for praise. Criticism was useful and both well delivered and received.

EAFA’s greatest strength as an arts organization is the support it provides for painters at all levels. The plein air program is a perfect example. Beginners who might be timid to go out by themselves get both encouragement and useful tips from more experienced painters, along with the safety of numbers, which for women painters in particular can be a factor inhibiting plein air work.

The work of this year’s EAFA plein air painters will be on display from October 2 through December 4 at the Old Redmond Schoolhouse, 16600 NE 80th St., in downtown Redmond. I encourage all members to take the time to view the work on display.

Next year, you might even decide to try it yourself.

From your President,
Steve Whitney

President's Message

September 2009

Dear Fellow Members,

The upcoming 34th Annual Juried Exhibition reminds me that many artists, particularly beginners, are hesitant to enter juried shows for fear of being rejected. It’s a reasonable fear because if you enter juried shows you will be rejected, probably several times. As your work matures, those rejections will be less frequent, but they will still happen from time to time. As your own standards become higher, you will enter more competitive venues, only to be disappointed once again. Or you will no longer be satisfied with being juried into a show; you will now be happy only if you win an award. Or perhaps only if you win one of the big awards, or perhaps even the best of show.

I want to encourage all EAFA members, but especially beginners, to put fear aside and enter the 34th Annual Juried Exhibition. Yes, the competition will be stiff because the show is open to nonmembers as well. That reduces the chances for all of us in EAFA, but those who make it will have all the more reason to be proud of their accomplishment.

“But I can’t possibly get in,” you say. “I’m not nearly good enough!” I say, “Don’t be your own juror!” EAFA has hired a qualified juror who may have very different ideas from yours. Let him do his job. Your job is to enter the painting you are most proud of and see what happens. There is hardly a show where each one of us does not shake our head that one or more pieces that we dislike were accepted or even won an award. That just means that our taste, our experience, our sense of beauty and creativity are not identical to the juror’s. SURPRISE!

Several years ago, I chaired a juried show for the Northwest Watercolor Society. In that role I had an opportunity to view every entry. When the juror finished his selection, I was amazed that some paintings were admitted and dismayed that others were left out. I told those who were accepted and those who were not the same thing: “You are in good company!”

The point of entering a show is not so much to get in as to validate your own standing as a creative artist. It is a way for each of us to spit in the eye of fear and overcome our embarrassment that our work is not as good as that of Sargent, Rodin, or Arbus.

Bring your artwork to the general meeting on September 24th. We will photograph your work and assist you in entering the show. You will feel great about entering, and once you have, you never

President's Message

August 2009

Dear Fellow Members,

Like many of you, I am at an age when remembering names is a challenge. Movie stars, candy bars, people I met just a minute ago and, yes, fellow artists — all have an equal chance of being mislaid in the vast, dusty attic of my short-term memory. Even the names of people I know well may be forgotten if I meet them out of context. And I know I’m not alone!

As your new EAFA president, I already know many of you (which doesn’t mean I won’t forget your name at the most inconvenient moment, like when I’m with my wife). But there are even more of you whom I don’t know but hope to over the next year and beyond. I may have to ask you to tell me your name more than once. It’s not personal.

Meanwhile, the least I can do is tell you a little bit about myself.

I didn’t take up painting seriously until late 1993, and that was by chance. A friend mentioned in passing that she was going to take a watercolor class with Jan Hart. I thought, what fun, and after the first class I was completely hooked.

A few weeks later, Jan moved to New Mexico, and I among others was left without a teacher. I had the great fortune to find Cathe Gill. During that first workshop, Cathe came up to look at my crude efforts and told me, “You must retire and do nothing but paint.” When I went home and told my wife, she said, “You must never see that woman again!” She was joking.

Unfortunately, Cathe did not teach a weekly class, so she pointed me to Deanne Lemley. I studied with Deanne for seven years, mostly in watercolor, finally in oils. I have had many fine teachers over the years, but I consider Deanne the one who taught me how to see and think like a painter.

I have thoroughly enjoyed serving on the board this past year. Charlette Haugen was a great mentor in my new job, and I am grateful. I am excited about the year ahead and look forward to working with you all.

Now what was your name again?