You think you know Art pretty well?  You say you’re familiar with artist names like Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir?  Good.  Then you know what plein air expressionism is, right?  Briefly put, without all the fancy art critic and art historian adverbs and adjectives, en plein air refers to “painting in the open air.” After 1870, with the growing popularity of paint in tubes (like toothpaste today), artists began toting their box easels outside the studio to try to capture the elusive qualities of sunlight and shadow on what they saw in Nature, village, and city.   What followed was a cornucopia of paintings that introduced viewers to the spectacular views of southern France, Tuscany, and… Southern California.

The quality of light, unusually good weather, and the panoramas of southern California attracted those with painterly urges no less than the gold strikes of ‘49 had for miners and get-rich-quick folks.  From the 1870s onward, Orange County places such as Laguna Beach and the picturesque ruins of San Juan Capistrano Mission, the exquisite bays and the dramatic cliff sides competed on canvas and watercolor paper for artists’ attention just as they do today.

Our current time often seems to reflect that digitalization and computer-generated Art reign supreme, but there is one place here, in our county, the only museum in the state, in fact, dedicated solely to the preservation and display of California Impressionism or Plein-Air painting: The Irvine Museum.

I spoke with Judy Thompson, Director of Media, recently about The Irvine Museum and its current exhibit, “The Good Life.”

William Dean:  Briefly, how did The Irvine Museum come to be?  How was it funded and what was the driving force behind its goal to preserve and display California Expressionist paintings?

Judy Thompson:  When Joan Irvine Smith began collecting historic California plein air paintings, she decided to create a museum in order to show the art and to publish books about it.  She not only wanted people to enjoy the beauty of the paintings, but also to make people aware of how much of our fragile California environment has been lost and how necessary it is for us to protect what remains.  In 1992, Joan Irvine Smith and her mother Athalie R. Clarke founded The Irvine Museum, which is dedicated to the preservation and display of California art of the Impressionist Period (1890-1930).

WD:   Certainly, we know that southern California has been compared countless times to Tuscany and southern France for the quality of its light and color.  To you, personally, what are the qualities of California’s plein air artists which set them apart from, say, their European counterparts, such as Monet and Renoir?  Is it just the choice of what they illustrate or are there deeper considerations?

JT:   All visual experiences begin with light.  The intent of representational art is to render physical objects, and that, in turn, is solely the portrayal of the effects of light on those objects.  Color is the way light is either reflected or absorbed by an object.  The land became the principal subject of this style, and it was represented as clean and unspoiled, with strength and grandeur.  California was ideal for painting out of doors (plein air) with its seemingly endless summers, perpetual sunshine and favorable weather conditions.  The state offered such varied terrain stretching from the mountains of the High Sierra to the shores of the Pacific Ocean.  Only in southern California, could an artist, travel from the seashores, to the desert, to the magnificent snow capped mountains, in just a few hours.  While the French Impressionist yearned to capture the immediate moment, or the temporal fragment of societal activity, California’s Impressionist instead sought to catch the fleeting moment of specific natural light as is the true subject of California Impressionists.

WD:  The current exhibit, The Good Life – California Watercolors 1930-1950, seems to present such a vibrant — if nostalgic — portrait of southern California life in that time period.  Apart from preserving visions of that past, what are the qualities museum visitors might want to pay attention to?  What kinds of emotions are evoked by the artists’ works?  What is the power of the artists’ choices in color and image on viewers?

JT:  This was a new path, completely uncharted.  These artists were not looking to France or Europe for inspiration, perhaps their greatest contribution was giving to California its first native, homegrown painting style.  This group’s main tenet was to experiment, push boundaries: “We didn’t know what we couldn’t do, so we did what we wanted.”  Our visitors are surprised by the bold styles, vibrant colors and exalted presence given to ordinary subjects such as train yards, freeways and pedestrian locales.

WD:  In your opinion, in these times of economic hardship for many, how important are free exhibits such as those presented by The Irvine Museum to the community?  And how might, for example, parents easily explain and interest their children in such Art?

JT:   During the economic downturn, families are staying close to home, looking for either free or inexpensive ways to spend time with their families.  Our museum is free and it gives parents a wonderful opportunity to explore and learn with their children about California’s rich environmental and artistic history.  Many of the local school children that participate in our school educational programs will proudly bring their parents to the museum on Saturdays to share their experience.

WD: Although we still frequently see “weekend painters” with their easels at various locations throughout Orange County, the life stories of many of the earlier California Expressionists were far from “leisurely”. From your knowledge, what were some of the challenges and life obstacles these artists overcame to produce such masterpieces of Art?  And do you think our modern plein air artists face similar challenges?

JT:   If one was not from California, it wasn’t an easy task to get here.  California was a distant, isolated region and time-consuming to reach.  The initial transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869.  Prior to that the only ways to reach California were overland through hostile territory or by ship around South America.  Once in California, they were free of the tight restrictions of the eastern art world, especially for the female artists.  Art stores were not available at that time and the artists had to make their canvas’s and mix their own paints.  Some of them learned how to make frames.

I think that today, the plein air artists are facing vanishing landscapes and rare open spaces, and unfortunately, it’s not going to get easier to find.

WD:  Finally, in relation to The Irvine Museum, what new exhibits are in the works, so to speak?  What can we visitors look forward to in the near future?

JT:  Following our current watercolor exhibition “The Good Life”, which will continue through May 16th, will be “The Outsiders”, Modernism in California, 1920-1940.  This show will continue in the same vein, primarily with oils, on the modern approach to California landscape painting.  The fall season will see a return to our hallmark of Early California Impressionist painting.

The Irvine Museum
18881 Von Karman Avenue Ste. 100 (Ground Level)
Irvine, California 92612
www.irvinemuseum.org
(949) 476-2565

Museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 AM to 5 PM. Admission and parking are free.

Photos:
Stan Backus (1910-1984) San Bernardino Train Yard, 1939
Arthur Riley (1911 -1998) Clam Forks
Frank Meyers (1899 – 1956) Cash For Your Car

1. Please tell us more about yourself, your background, education and what you do as an artist.

I am a fine artist living in Laguna Niguel, CA. I was born in Binghamton, NY. I knew art was my calling at a very early age in life. Throughout school I focused on that subject and was awarded for it. My formal college studies were in architecture for a year, then I studied fine art for another year in TC-3 in Dryden NY. I studied fine art and fashion history in Hood College, Frederick, MD. I switched to Fashion Design at FIDM in LA, CA. I had to stop just short of a Bachelors degree to return to NY. I was pursuing my art studies independently while trying to raise a family. I wanted to learn impressionism, so I studied the French masters through books and museums. That’s when I discovered several art organizations in the OC and became a member. I naturally liked to paint out in nature, so I tried en plein air. En Plein Air is taken from the French and means “in the open air” or painting outdoors in natural light as opposed to a studio. The French Impressionists such as Claude Monet and many others introduced this style of painting back in the mid 1800’s. It has remained popular to this day to artists and collectors of art. I paint with fellow artist outdoors every week, but also do work in my art studio at home.

2. How long have you been painting?

Since I was three years old I was caught drawing all over the walls and floors. I was wild, I loved seeing colors all over. I am from a family of 10, so we weren’t affluent. My father would come home with clean butcher paper back in 1959, so I could continue my craving, it saved them a lot of scrubbing. By the time I was eight years old, I was painting in watercolors and continued to sketch. I was given an award for a poster I drew for the DMV in California, it was first place. In high school I won several more awards and was given a scholarship to go to the College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. I didn’t attend, I married instead. I spent the first four decades of my life not quite getting serious about an art career, but I enjoyed my life never the less. Then in the year 2000, I made a vow to get really serious about a career as a fine artist and haven’t stopped painting since. Plus, I am still enjoying life.

3. Where do you get your daily inspiration from?

I wake up each day with an inner sense of what I want to do as far as painting outdoors or inside, I sometimes feel overwhelmed with all the choices to paint around this beautiful region. I meditate everyday to keep centered and go deep within my soul for inspiration. I also rely on our grand nature to show me beauty, it never steers me wrong. I feel lucky to be given this ability to make art.

4. Who are your top three biggest influences?

I would have to say Claude Monet, Van Gogh and Leonardo da Vinci. In my early years, it was da Vinci because of his incredible drawing skills, I used to draw realistically. I have to add Picasso in there too, we studied him so much in high school and went to NY City to see his works. When I really began to paint in oils, I started to read books on Monet and Van Gogh, then go to any museum exhibition of their works. There is nothing like going to see their art in person, a metamorphosis would occur in my every time and I would have to paint when I got home. Lately I have been studying the early California Impressionists, like William Wendt, Guy Rose, Alson Clark, Maurice Braun and many more.

5. Who is your target audience?

I would say the OC and then around the globe. I have most of my works sold here but there are a number in different parts of the world.

6. How would you describe your art to people?

I am an impressionist. I do love plein air and that is a style of impressionism. I like to paint seascapes, landscapes, figural, floral, animals and still lifes in the impressionistic style using oils on canvas. Impressionism can be representative of the subject being painted but it can be abstracted and changed to suit the design of the painting. It allows an artist to have free range of creativity. I do studio works of art that require more detail.

7. What is a typical day of work look like for you?

I spend my mornings sipping my café latte while reading emails or visiting blogs and art websites. I take many images of my locations I paint at, so there is a lot of Photoshop time. I have a family so there is some juggling with two teenagers. I also have a lot of pets, I love animals, they take time. My art hours are squeezed in at anytime I can find the time. I like to paint in 3 hour stretches, either at home or on location. Sometimes the housework or dishes do not get done. I keep very busy and multitask as any mother learns to do. It’s amazing how everything seem to fall together and I get to enjoy creating art. Focus is my mantra.

8. What are your favorite tools of the trade? Mediums, supplies, etc.

I like painting in oils of course, but I still like watercolors and do some once in awhile. I always loved the pencil and sketch like a maniac sometimes, that has always stayed with me since I was a pre-schooler. I have tried many mediums in my 50 years of creativity since I was three. Oil paints are rich, luminous and I can almost sculpt them into shapes on the canvas, I like to paint thickly sometimes. It’s all those wonderful saturated colors I can make from blended red, blue or yellow on a palette and see a new color emerge.

9. What is the biggest piece of advice you would give to an artist that’s just starting out?

From my experience, I would say learn to draw, and most of all, learn the fundamentals of good art like your existence depended on it. Learn the elements of art, line, shapes, values, textures and color. Each and every one of these can be studied independently, but they all depend on each other to make a work of art succeed. We never stop learning as artists.

10. Finally, where can we see your work?

Actually, I am looking for gallery representation at this time in southern, CA. I removed my art from several places it was and would like to be in a fine art gallery or two. I often have art in the San Clemente Art Gallery in downtown San Clemente. I belong to four art associations in the OC and have just entered several juried exhibitions that will take place in the next few months and year. I am with the Southern California Plein Air Painter’s Association, Southern California Artist’s Association, San Clemente Art Association,  and Laguna Plein Air Painter’s Association. On each of their webpages you can click on the member’s page to see my info, each of these groups have shows during the calendar year and you can go to each website to find the current exhibition.  I can be contacted at ew@visions2art.com.   I accept commissions.

I have an outdoor fine art show coming up April 3-5 at the Mission San Juan Capistrano. You can reach me through my website (still under construction) http://www.visions2art.com or my art blog at http://estherjwilliamsart.blogspot.com. I actively add my new works on the blog. I sell my smaller paintings and work sketches on eBay under the name visions2art sometimes. On Twitter you can follow me, @EJWilliams.

Every Monday, we feature a different local artist.  If you or someone you know should be featured, please let us know.