William E. Elston: Paintings, vol. 23

July 2018

A Brief History Of My Plein Air Adventure

William Elston painting en plein air in Vinegar Flats, Spokane, c.1984 (photograph courtesy Rick Graff, copyright ©1984)

I first began drawing and painting en plein air (french for outside or in the open air) when I was still in high school. Between my junior and senior year at Joel E. Ferris High School in Spokane WA, I went on a summer trip with my friend Gloria Scott. We had both been first place winners in our respective divisions at the Spokane Allied Arts Festival (Gloria was a senior). We took the train to Seattle, the Princess Marguerite (a coastal passenger vessel affectionately called "the Maggie") to Victoria, rode the bus north to the ferry that crossed to Vancouver BC and then back to Seattle and Spokane, where Gloria promptly married Louis Bunce, a 57 year old Portland artist who had been the juror of the Arts Festival.

During this trip I did charcoal and pastel studies on site, in an oversized sketchbook. I did images of the Empress Hotel and Butchart Gardens, smearing the colors with turpentine. None of these have survived.

Latah Creek (Early Morning), oil on canvas, size unknown, copyright ©1982

The following year I did similar drawings and watercolors while taking introductory art classes at Fort Wright College, through a program that they offered to select high school students as part of a recruiting effort. The drawings were done in the woods behind the art department, and on the banks of the nearby Spokane River.

I eventually enrolled as a student at Fort Wright College. In the early 1970s I returned to working en plein air, in oil, watercolor and pastel. My re-engagement with the form was inspired by my instructors at the College, W. Stanley Taft Jr. and Charles W. Palmer, both of whom had experimented with it. Although I've strayed into figure work, still life and such, I've continued to paint en plein air ever since.

This was decades before the huge renaissance of plein air work that is occurring now, a resurgence which began in earnest around 2000. I remember being shocked to see an elderly woman with a french easel in a television commercial advertising retirement plans at about this time. A few years before no one would have known what the contraption was. When I was painting in Central Park in the late 1970s, I did not encounter a single painter there, (I've since learned that there were a few early souls working in the park at the time.) When I was studying painting in Boston c.1980-82, R. H. Ives Gammell would take his students on summer retreat in Williamstown, to do plein air, but it seemed few of them took it seriously.

Moran Prairie, oil on canvas, size unknown , copyright ©1984

Preparing for my first show at Davidson Galleries I began exploring urban landscapes. Because of the rapidly changing environment of cars, people and shadows, these necessarily had to be a mix of plein air and studio work. I've developed many different methods of dealing with the fugitive nature of urban phenomena, utilizing sketches, photography, videography and plein air work, all in concert to arrive at an image.

In the past few years I've been participating in the Pacific Northwest Plein Air event, which has 40 selected painters exploring the Columbia River Gorge region, culminating in a month long exhibition and sale at the Maryhill Museum. I'll be a participant this year as well.

Throughout the past two decades I've avoided the proliferation of paint-outs, workshops and other social gatherings that revolve around the contemporary plein air movement. There is a strain of commercialism that has invaded it, and an effort to monetize the efforts of other artists for one's own personal gain by flogging workshops, videos, contests and the like. The PNW Plein Air event seems different, a bit closer to the convivial gatherings at art colonies that characterized the social atmosphere of plein air during the 19th century, as described in The Good and Simple Life: Artist Colonies in Europe and America, by Michael Jacobs.

Pacific Northwest Plein Air 2018 begins July 30 - August 2, and the opening reception at Maryhill Museum is August 3, 5pm - 8pm. The exhibition and sale will continue until August 25, 2018.

The Maryhill Museum is located at 35 Maryhill Museum Drive, Goldendale, WA 98620, tel: 509.773.3733

Vinegar Flats House, oil on canvas, size unknown, copyright © circa 1983

Sale!!! Spokane Plein Air Workshop Sessions!

Riverfront Park Apunte, oil on panel, 9 x 12 inches, copyright ©2017

Between July 10 and July 17, the Spokane Plein Air Workshop 2018 sessions will be on sale.

I will be teaching this series of plein air workshops in Spokane this summer. A total of four sessions will be offered, two at the end of Jully, and two at the end of August or beginning of September. Each two-session workshop will explore a different location in the greater Spokane area, including these potential sites; Centennial Trail, Manito Park, Latah Creek, The Little Spokane River, etc.

You can sign up for all four sessions, or for a smaller package of two sessions. If you do opt for the smaller package, you can pick and choose which sessions to attend. You can find more information on my Classes website, classes.williamelston.com . I will also be offering deeper discounts for Senior Citizens (age 65 and older.) The sale runs through July 10, ending at midnight on July 17.

The first sessions will be July 28 and 29, from 8am to 12:30pm.

There are only a limited number of openings, so please sign up early.

During this same period Greater Seattle Plein Air Sessions will also be on sale.

Rotary Park, oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inches, copyright ©2018

Please visit my painting or classes website for more information regarding upcoming exhibitions, events, classes or workshops.

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