August Musings
View from our cabin at Playa.
Playa Light and Color
My partner and I spent the hottest days of this summer on the western edge of the Great Basin on a self-directed artist/writer residency at PLAYA Summer Lake. After getting settled, I wondered how anyone could get anything done besides staring with jaw-dropped-open awe at the ever-changing enchantment of the light and colors moving across the Playa. The next morning I rolled up my sleeves (figuratively; it was actually too hot for sleeves) and got to work. Having always worked in the corner of a multi-purpose room at home, it was a delight to walk into a 10x20 foot studio and close the door.
My first project was to complete one final canyon painting for an October show as featured artist at Tumalo Art Company. This series of images gives a glimpse into how I select a limited palette, layer to build rich colors and values, and scrape to incorporate line and detail through mark making. You can see that I was able to staple the canvas directly to the soft homasote gallery walls. The soft texture became embedded in the painting’s surface from the very first layer of gesso. I enjoyed using this backing so much, we’ve already hung some in my living room/corner studio back home. The final finished work will be wrapped on 1.5 inch stretcher bars and measure 54x30 inches.
On my third day in the studio, I made five small color studies in response to that first night of dazzling light and color. Since I usually work large, with my biggest palette knives and spatulas to spread pigment across the canvas, I was challenged by the small format, using my smallest knives, working quickly, and resisting adding detail. The results had a spontaneity that I hope to maintain in larger pieces.
Over the next days, I completed three more horizontal studies and decided to begin four large-scale canvases while I still had the time and space to block them out: two vertical, two horizontal. I’ve managed to hold to my goal of working just from the sketches (rather than my source photos) to develop the larger paintings. I’m letting them abstract more than usual and hope they are more about how color evokes light and the beauty of the pigments and how they interact. The shots below show the studio walls on our last day, before I reluctantly rolled all the canvases up. Next week, I’ll be able to start tacking them back up at home to resolve each one. Please watch my IG and FB to see how they are finished.
“Can you paint a Three Sisters/Cascade Mountains panorama for me?”
More than one collector has asked me this over the years. I explain that I work almost exclusively from my own experience, my own photos, and my own feelings. I find it’s extraordinarily difficult to capture a powerful, meaningful view of these iconic peaks that hasn’t already been painted hundreds of times by talented artists. But I have been returning over and over to a series of photos that I took several years ago, from a favorite hike up Bessie Butte. I found myself alone one New Year’s Day and hiked up for the sunset. It was followed by the rising of the full moon in the east, which became my view for the hike down. These paintings, The Passage of Time I and II, were finally completed this summer. And they happen to feature some splendid Cascades.
The Passage of Time II – Bessie Butte, acrylic on canvas, 24x42 inches (available soon)
Looking Forward
As summer wraps up around these parts, I find myself hopefully anticipating my favorite months in Central Oregon. I am so grateful for the hard work that western firefighters have done this summer and am looking forward to savoring the dazzling indigo skies, sunny days, and crisp nights that should fill September and October. And I will have more information about my October show soon. Thanks for visiting.
Topophilia : Canyon Paintings by Anne Gibson
First Friday opening from 3–7 pm on October 7 at Tumalo Art Company and on view through November 1, 2022.