Artist Statement

By

Fred Gibbons

Portrait of Fred Gibbons painting on the street by his instructor Kim English

“Painting as a Pastime” is the title of a small book by Winston Churchill and a source of inspiration. Churchill carried an easel and paints where ever he traveled during the decades surrounding World War II. Painting out doors gave Winston a chance to pause, observe, reflect, and record his surroundings in paint. So too my paintings record the surroundings of the San Francisco bay area and many trips through out the world.

The paintings are also inspired by my teachers. Charles Sovek (www.sovek.com) writes a short piece called “Why I paint from Life”. In it he describes the limitations and opportunities presented by painting. “A Painting is a flat piece of canvas with brush loads of color piled on top.” But it is also an invitation to adventure on the street or where ever you set up an easel and layout your colors. The adventure comes with meeting the people, passers by who stop to watch and critique or the homeless man who offers to model for $20. The subject itself is an infinite stream of fascination like the moving fishing boats at Half Moon Bay harbor or the ebb and flow around shops on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence. And there’s always the weather.

My artistic training consists of identifying artists whose work I enjoy and finding their workshop schedule then traveling to Mendocino, Petaluma, Taos, Cape Cod or my own back yard of Palo Alto. The first teacher was Hope Stevenson (www.hopestevenson.com ) who I met by chance as she was painting a cottage street scene in Mendocino using only a palette knife and a small portable easel. The inevitable “I’d like to do that” response lead to the first workshop using the minimalist tools of a palette knife, 7 tubes of paint and an easel. The class moved out doors the second day and the association of “painting as a sport” began. The sport of painting involves picking a location or terrain, setting up the equipment, establishing a game plan for capturing the light and theme, then executing with simple quick gestures of the brush. All before the light moves on. You compete with nature using your brain and bare hands.

People are a frequent element in the paintings. They bring the scene to life often letting the viewer see more in the painting than the artist. Kim English www.totalartsgallery.com/artist/Kim_English.html ) teaches rapid fire painting of people moving while performing everyday tasks like hanging up laundry or eating a meal. Paintings are blocked in during a 5 minute period. The focus is on immediacy and motion. People rarely sit still at a café or on the beach for more than a few minutes so in order to “paint from life” it’s a running game to put a real person into a painting in a convincing way.

Many other teachers have been inspiring including Ron Arthaud (www.newsreview.com/issues/reno/2004-12-02/arts.asp )who specializes in plain air scenes in the rural town of Tuscarora NV. And most recently Camille Przewodek (www.przewodek.com ) of Petaluma who pushes color in nature as the moral high ground in painting. And this is a trek that lies ahead.

Fred Gibbons

May 5^th 2005