East Beach, Galveston, 8 / 30 / 2009

Details

GAS Pressure 
 
It was 6:00 AM last Tuesday morning and I was on the way to the beach on Galveston Island . I was trying to get there by sunup to do a “plein air” painting. I hoped to do a watercolor painting of a sky with beautiful early morning colors and the incoming breaking waves of the ocean coming onto the sandy beach. At least, that was my plan. “Plein air” is the new catch word in the art world for paintings that are done outdoors. Why did I want to this, it is because I have GAS pressure.
 
In July of last year, 2008, I started doing watercolor paintings again after a layoff of about thirty five years. By December of last year, I had rejoined the Watercolor Art Society – Houston, commonly referred to as WASH. I used to belong to this group back in 1975. They have monthly juried art exhibits. I started entering some paintings for these exhibits a few months ago. It is their custom to have receptions after each exhibit has been hung for about a week for the members and their guest to view all the new paintings and for the winners to receive recognition for their awards. About two months ago, at one of these receptions, one of the WASH members , a gentleman about my age named Erik --that generally wins an award-- came up to me and introduced himself. After some conversation, he invited me to join a sub-group of WASH named the Geriatric Art Society also known as the GAS group. They go on trips from time to time and do “plein air” paintings. At the end of each day, after as sufficient amount of liquid courage from Happy Hour, they, as a group, critique the paintings done by the members that day. I accepted the invitation. The next day, I began to envision my first time to present a painting, done in plein air, for their critique and began to feel some GAS Pressure.
 
The next GAS painting trip is scheduled for October 25th through the 29th in Nacogdoches , Texas . The only problem is that I have not done any “plein air” paintings since the early 1970’s. So I figured I had better start practicing to hopefully not have the first critique to be an embarrassment. I started collecting the things I need for painting outdoors such as a folding chair, something to put the palette of paints and water container on, boards to put the paper on and etc.
 
On Monday I had finished getting all the things I needed to do a plein air painting. Tuesday morning, I awaken early and decided this is the day. So I packed up and took off for Galveston .
 
On the way down Interstate 45, as I passed downtown Houston , I could see in the distance down toward Galveston lightening and storm clouds. About half way between Houston and Galveston , the sun came up and filled the sky with beautiful colors. I had hoped to already be at the beach so I was running late. I decided to go to East Beach and after some driving around, I found a place where I could park my Tahoe and set my stuff up to start painting.
 
There were still some storm clouds and the incoming waves were just right and some fishermen arrived and waded out into the surf and started fishing. So I set my stuff up and just as I was picking up a pencil to start sketching the painting outline, a voice over my shoulder said: “Hello, do you mind if I film you while you do your painting?” Startled I looked around and standing there back of me was a pleasant faced man with a camera. About the last thing I wanted was the evidence on film of a complete painting disaster. Not knowing just what to say, I mumbled a hello and said that he could film me. I finished the pencil outline and picked up a 2 inch brush and started painting. My new friend, named Ed, started filming and talking to me. As the painting progressed I learned his life story.
 
He and his wife were moving to Galveston . She had a job with The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) here in Galveston and he was looking for a job. In Dallas , he had been on the staff of Southwestern Medical School in Dallas , Texas . Well we had a lot of things in common to talk about, since I had been associated with UTMB, in various ways, since about 1968 and at one time in my life I was responsible for doing the Master Plan for the expansion of Southwestern Medical School. 
 
To do a plein air watercolor painting, you can’t mess around with a bunch of small brushes and a lot of colors. So I decided to do the painting wet in wet and use only the big 2 inch flat brush except for the final details. I wet the paper down and mixed up the paint for the first wash and took off. It was going fast, including the conversation, when suddenly I dropped my brush in the sand. Dismayed, I picked up the brush, now covered with salty sand, and wondered what to do. I decided the only thing to do was to keep on painting. Maybe the salty sand will add character to the painting.
 
Things were happening and changing fast. Every time I looked up the clouds had moved, the sun had moved, the waves had moved, cars were driving by, fisherman were standing in the way and Ed, my new companion, was telling me about a new chapter in his life and then I dropped my brush in the sand again. Now, I had a lot of sand to deal with. I tried to keep calm and keep on painting.
 
After about thirty or forty minutes, the painting was looking like it was finished. I got up and stood the painting up in the back of the Tahoe so I could back off and evaluate it. I decided that I shouldn’t touch it anymore. I looked, but couldn’t find any sand on it. I know it is there, I just couldn’t find any. My new companion commented that he wished he had the money to buy it.
 
Considering that this is my first “plein air” painting done since the early 1970’s, what are your comments? I see a lot of room for improvement, but maybe it is not a bad start. Feel free to give me your critique. It will help me get ready for the pressure of the first critique by the other artist in the GAS group that will be on the painting trip to Nacogdoches .