Busman's Holiday Artist Days off Landscape Art Wildling Museum

Days off Hobby

On my days off from painting sports art I like to go out into the countryside and create these small impressionism paintings. It’s a true busman’s holiday to take tine away from painting to do other paintings.  That is what an artist’s life can be like.  What I do for a living is also what I like to do for fun. It is a good break away from the demanding large scale sports paintings that I created in my studio. 

Wildling Museum Art Exhibition

 My art is being installed at the Wildling Museum in Solvang, Ca. for an upcoming group show.  I will have 65 small, expressive and impressionistic oil paintings for the upcoming exhibition.  Quote from the Wildling Museum; “Our upcoming exhibition, 'Bio/Mass' will feature an inspiring group of eleven contemporary artists who have transformed their fascination with deep observations of their individual environments into works that help us to see the beauty in the details of our world, celebrating both quiet and dramatic moments in nature”. No date is set but they anticipate a mid to late April opening.

I live close to farm fields and rural countryside so I like to go out and create “en plein air paintings” and as others refer to my impressionistic painting, alla prima. Alla prima painting is described as technique in which the painting (usually painted from life) is completed in one sitting or while the paint is still wet. Painting in this manner is a break form the large-scale sports art created in the confines of my studio.

Landscape Art Semi-abstract Viewer Reference

Reference Point

 When painting my small semi abstract landscapes I feel a need to find a place where the viewer can access my plein air art.  Where can the eye of the viewer find a reference point to start looking at the painting?  The main way I try to achieve this is through the use of perspective.  Even when I paint abstracts invariably there is a line.

 Why the Line

 Years ago I used to wonder why I felt a need to create that line in my art – either realistically or abstractly.  Why the line across the canvas?  Even if there is disruption of the line broken up with objects or other lines, behind those intrusions there is the line.   In my case one would have thought that should be easily figured out.  I say that because since I was a small boy I have seen the ocean almost every day of my life.  I lived either with a direct view or a block or two from the beach.  Even the years when I was in the armed services I couldn’t escape the ocean as I was in the Navy.  And for seventeen years my studio had a full on, white-water ocean view. And for fifty years my home had a ocean view.

 It all seems so obvious now but one time I was sitting on the beach, looking out at the ocean and there it was.  The line I had been seeing every day.  The blue sky – the blue ocean. The horizon was right there slashed across my view.

Impressionism Art Wildling Museum Exhibition

I like to go out into the countryside and create these small impressionism paintings. It’s a true busman’s holiday to take tine away from studio painting to do other paintings.  That is what an artist’s life can be like.  What I do for a living is also what I like to do for fun. It is a good break away from the demanding large scale sports paintings that I created in my studio.  

  Wildling  Museum Art Exhibition

 Currently the Wildling Museum in Solvang, Ca. is showing 65 of my small landscapes and seascapes paintings in a group show called “Bio/Mass'” Quote from the Wildling Museum; “Our upcoming exhibition, 'Bio/Mass' will feature an inspiring group of eleven contemporary artists who have transformed their fascination with deep observations of their individual environments into works that help us to see the beauty in the details of our world, celebrating both quiet and dramatic moments in nature”. My wife, Lynn Hanson @indigopond on instagram is included in the show.  Currently the museum only has public walk-In hours: Saturday - Sunday, 11 A.M. - 4 P.M but, hopefully they will soon be opened on weekdays too. 

 I live close to farm fields and rural countryside so I like to go out and create “en plein air paintings” and as others refer to my impressionistic painting, alla prima. Alla prima painting is described as technique in which the painting (usually painted from life) is completed in one sitting or while the paint is still wet. Painting in this manner is a break from the art created in the confines of my studio