William E. Elston: Paintings, vol. 25

September 2018

Thinking Small: Apuntes, Études, Esquisses

Off 151st (Snohomish), oil on panel, 20 x 16 inches, copyright ©2018

Painting small alla prima (at one sitting) landscapes presents an exceptional challenge, especially when one weighs the modest results against the frustrations involved. Recently, due to my participation in a few plein air events, I’ve been doing a number of these small paintings. This one was done in an afternoon, looking across the Snohomish Valley from where 92nd St SE dead ends at a WSDOT private access road, just west of 151st Ave SE.

The color and atmosphere were strongly influenced by smoke from fires in California, Canada, Oregon, parts of Washington and I’m told as far away as Siberia. I have read that the presence of smog in the air of Paris in the late 19th century contributed to the interesting color of skies in Impressionist paintings.

Grassfire, oil on panel, 16 x 20 inches, copyright ©2018

This painting depicts an actual fire. I was an artist participant in the Pacific Northwest Plein Air 2018 event, in the Columbia River Gorge. The 6 day event culminated in a month-long show at Maryhill Museum.

The four days of painting turned out to be an improvisational exercise in overcoming obstacles; 105° temperatures, 23-25 mph winds, and then this, a 14,000 square mile brush fire. The fire closed off access to many of the subjects that I had hoped to paint, even threatened to close Maryhill Museum, before it was brought under control. This painting was done in the open air, but primarily from memory.

Smokey Joe’s, oil on panel, 12 x 24 inches, copyright ©2018

Smokey Joe’s is a tavern in Snoqualmie WA, and was painted at another plein air event. The event itself was a much smaller affair than the one in the Columbia Gorge, but I had fun painting there and interacting with the community.

Paul Rand, the American designer, once said “if you can’t make it good, make it BIG! If you can’t make it big, make it RED!” The statement seems a fitting compliment to this small painting of an unassuming bar in a small town.

Mt. Hood Itself, oil on panel, 16 x 20 inches, copyright ©2018

Painted at the base of Mt. Hood, from a maintenance shed off a secondary parking lot at Timberline Lodge, this study was also done during the PNW Plein Air 2018 event.

Most of the other artists were trekking up the mountainside to find trees with which to decorate and frame their compositions of the austere mountain face. I wanted none of that. I was reminded of the movie “Quince Tree Sun,” Victor Erice’s documentary of Antonio López García’s progress painting a quince tree. At one point in the film, a visiting Chinese artist asks García why he placed the tree dead center in the middle of the canvas. Antonio López García replies that he wanted to present the quince tree as it was, without the tricks and strategies of art.

Hence, the title “Mt. Hood Itself.”

Trees Near The Klickitat River, oil on panel, 20 x 16 inches, copyright ©2018

The second painting that was produced during the PNW Plein Air 2018 event was done from the lower deck of my friends John and Joann Laney’s place on the Klickitat River. I had been unable to find a place on the Columbia that was free of the 23 mph winds that made setting up an easel impossible.

I was attracted to this tangle of trees, foliage and sunlit hillside. This was done before the wildfire that closed much of Hwy 14, but there was still much smoke evident in the air, from the many other fires on the west coast.

Snohomish Valley Apunte, oil on panel, 9 x 12 inches, copyright ©2018

This much smaller study, one of the many paintings I’ve done from the Snohomish Valley viewpoint, continues the theme of smoke filled air.

I’ve begun calling these small studies “apunte”, Spanish for “note”. It can also mean small sketch, and I began using the term first in a series of small oil on paper studies which were exhibited at Davidson Galleries in the early 1990s. I adopted the term after seeing a large Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida exhibition at the San Diego Art Museum, which had an entire room devoted to Sorolla’s apuntes.

Sorolla’s apuntes were done primarily on cigar box lids, a source of Spanish Ceder, Elm and other fine wood supports. I don’t smoke cigars, and cigar boxes are not as readily available as they were in Sorolla’s Madrid. I make do with gessoed panels of hardboard or birch, or sometimes prepared handmade paper samples.

Manito Pond Apunte, oil on panel, 8 x 10 inches, copyright ©2018

Manito Pond was a favorite hangout when I was a child, and revisiting it is always a pleasure. It has undergone some changes in the intervening years, but still affords some great compositions for plein air paintings.

This was done as a demonstration when I met with one of my Spokane area plein air students. I have to confess that the particular point of view was determined more by a desire to stay out of the sun, in other words park my easel under the shade of a tree, than any other determinant.

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

This final piece is from my November 2017 exhibition at Dodson’s Fine Jewelry, in Spokane WA. Although it is actually a quite accurate depiction of the rolling embankment at that point of the Spokane River above the falls, it appears to emulate the undulating distortion of painters like Thomas Hart Benton or El Greco.

This study suggests some of the uses that such “apuntes” can be put to. If you view painting as a language, as I do, then apuntes can serve as simple asides, comments that do not warrant more elaborate and discursive projects. They can also be viewed as akin to haiku; short visual poems that convey simple messages of connection to place and time. They evoke the play of the eye across the visual field, and the vibration of interacting color harmonies.

Many of these apuntes, studies and sketches, are for sale. They tend to be more affordable for a tight budget. Also, they do not present the kind of challenges that hanging larger more ambitious works demand, where wall space is often at a premium.

There are also aficionados that specialize in collecting such works, because of the spontaneity, immediacy and intimacy that characterize such responses to the environment.

For whatever reason, I hope that you have enjoyed seeing my recent “apuntes”. I plan to post more in the future.

Inquiries can be sent to either Dodson’s or myself.

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

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