"Rio Chiquito"
Painted on location near Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico in 1988.
”Rio Chiquito” 18”x20” (#813) oil on canvas by Lee Gordon Seebach
Looking downstream, I set up my Julian French easel along the river and painted this from life, or "en plein air" as they call it now. I sort of have to chuckle at the use of "en plein air" because it strikes me as a fancy, cool marketing gimmick to make people think there's something exotic about it. Everybody and their uncle, it seems, is painting on location nowadays. That makes me chuckle, too, because I was doing it long, LONG before it was cool. The idea that painting outside makes your work somehow special just because it's painted outside is absurd. A good painting is a good painting not because it's painted "en plein air," but because it's good. It doesn't matter where it's painted. Real, serious students of painting don't need fancy marketing terms or to be doing something just because there are tons of one-week-wonder workshops for it. That's superficial, fast-food stuff. It's too easy. I don't do something because it's cool, I do it because I believe in it deeply. And painting on location was something I did seriously to study and commune with Mother Nature, and to try to unravel her beautiful secrets. When all the hub-bub dies down about how cool it is to paint "en plein air," how many will still be doing it?
Nowadays, I've moved to doing watercolors in my studio from photographs I take myself. I feel I've earned the right to do this now after decades of studying from life. I've learned that painting is really designing, so I've taken all the experience I've gained from painting from life and now spend weeks rather than hours working up my designs and crafting my pictures.
I'm very proud of the work I've done from life over all those years, but having evolved to a higher level in my artistic journey, I now see that more can be done through planning and contemplation.
This painting is a blast from the past, when I was seriously studying outside.
I hope you enjoy seeing this painting.
More to come,
Lee
My website: Seebach Fine Art
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Great! Love it. :)
@joanaltres...thank you!
Your or shows real life experience ;-)
Yes, I've been around the block a few times. 😉