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.
As one would guess, learning more about opportunities in Orange County related to environmental protection, wildlife preservation, and habitat restoration require getting to know the individuals who are aware of what’s going on, when, and via which organization. Becoming one of those individuals is another post entirely. There are quite a few organizations in OC which focus on all of the above with a team of volunteers of all ages and backgrounds, biologists, botanists, and folks who know what they are doing due to years of experience and a passion for the natural world. All individuals involved were and still are volunteers in some capacity. There simply is no way to make the natural world in Orange County function and thrive without volunteering time. Period.
