{"id":13329,"date":"2020-03-01T10:00:35","date_gmt":"2020-03-01T18:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=30000007795"},"modified":"2020-03-03T15:00:49","modified_gmt":"2020-03-03T23:00:49","slug":"catalina-plein-air-paintings-give-visitors-a-glimpse-of-the-island-only-locals-see","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/catalina-plein-air-paintings-give-visitors-a-glimpse-of-the-island-only-locals-see","title":{"rendered":"Catalina plein air paintings give visitors a glimpse of the island only locals see"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Catalina Paintings: Night & Day Curator and museum Director of Exhibitions Johnny Sampson stands next to marketing director Gail Fornasiere at the Catalina Island Museum. Photo by Asia Morris.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Listening to Johnny Sampson speak on the sublime beauty of outdoor painting, you soon realize the man could sell you a rock if he really wanted to.<\/p>\n

The Catalina Island Museum Director of Exhibitions clearly enjoys describing what, to the untrained eye, could seem like simple landscape compositions but are, in fact, fascinating, singular studies of time and place and, most especially, subjective truth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith plein air painting, you have to be there to experience it,\u201d Sampson said. \u201cIf you\u2019re taking a photograph of it, the photograph will record an image, but it doesn\u2019t record truth, it captures light and dark, but it\u2019s trying too hard. When you\u2019re painting in plein air, the sights, the smells, the breeze, the sun, those are what\u2019s coming into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Burgers in the Sky by John Cosby in Catalina Paintings: Night & Day at the Catalina Island Museum. Photo by Asia Morris.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sampson is referring to the 33 oil, watercolor, and pastel works that make up Catalina Paintings: Night and Day, now on view at the museum through June 7. Displayed in the John and Hasmik Mgrdichian Gallery, the exhibition is an exploration of the island through the perspective of 18 contemporary plein air painters, offering scenes from dawn to dusk, as well as a handful of rare nocturnes.<\/p>\n

There are island scenes by John Cosby, designer of In-N-Out\u2019s iconic logo, and by the near-sighted Kevin Macpherson, who removes his glasses to paint \u201cimpressionistically,\u201d and by Tom Browning, who is actually most famous for his depictions of Santa Claus for Hallmark.<\/p>\n

And though plein air is often associated with the idyllic, one of the more emotionally charged paintings is \u201cLife Goes On\u201d by artist Brian Stewart, after a fire had burned a path through the island, touching the edges of Avalon in 2007<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the winds hadn\u2019t changed and the temperature hadn\u2019t changed, Avalon, like we see it today, wouldn\u2019t have been,\u201d said museum marketing director Gail Fornasiere, standing next to the piece. \u201cI had lived here for two months at that time, and we got evacuated. It was really, really scary.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Life Goes On by Brian Stewart in Catalina Paintings: Night & Day at the Catalina Island Museum. Photo by Asia Morris.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The oil painting shows chickens pecking for food, charred trees, a burned hillside and ravaged construction site. Though it depicts destruction, Stewart\u2019s message was more positive, showing \u201chow the community banded together, both in the fear of the moment but also in this idea to rebuild,\u201d Sampson said.\u00a0\u201cI like that tribute of what it means to live here, to be a part of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most people that come to the island come in the middle of the day and leave in the evening, leaving most visitors with a parenthesized vision of what Catalina is, so, Sampson said, the concept of the show is to give viewers a 24-hour experience of Catalina, as well as a little history most visitors don\u2019t get to see.<\/p>\n

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Morning Delivery by Joseph Paquet in Catalina Paintings: Night & Day at the Catalina Island Museum. Photo by Asia Morris.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cSo as you go through the show, you\u2019re almost time traveling, in multiple ways,\u201d Sampson said.<\/p>\n

One of the museum\u2019s visitor services associates, Annie Benedict, was so inspired by the exhibit, she made a day of physically finding all 33 scenes in real life. What she found was that some look completely different now, perhaps not surprising since the earliest works on display were painted in the late ’90s. One of the pieces Benedict captured was \u201cLast Light, Eagle\u2019s Nest Lodge\u201d by artist Kim Lordier.<\/p>\n

Benedict said she had the most fun off-roading to each location, with the even more challenging task of discovering them at the same time of day each artist had been there with their brush and easel. But while the only tools Benedict needed were her boyfriend\u2019s truck and an iPhone, you can imagine the journey of the artist might require a bit more preparation.<\/p>\n

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Visitor Services Associate Annie Benedict stands in front of Kim Lordier’s “Last Light, Eagle\u2019s Nest Lodge” in Catalina Paintings: Night & Day with her snapshot of the location at the Catalina Island Museum. Photo by Asia Morris.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Visitor Services Associate Annie Benedict stands in front of Kim Lordier’s “Last Light, Eagle\u2019s Nest Lodge” in Catalina Paintings: Night & Day with her snapshot of the location at the Catalina Island Museum. Photo by Asia Morris.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Visitors to the gallery will notice how most of the paintings are relatively small. That\u2019s for one of three major reasons, having to carry everything with you, from your easel to your canvas, to your paints and your brushes. \u201cAlso, with big paintings, a breeze will turn it into a small sail, so it\u2019s good to keep it a little smaller,\u201d Sampson laughed.<\/p>\n

Second, the light changes when you\u2019re out in the field, so you only have a small window of time to render an impression of your chosen scene, before the shadows shift, the people move away, before everything changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can go back to your studio and touch it up, but the idea is that there\u2019s a subjective truth when you\u2019re working on a piece, what do you include and what do you not include, so you\u2019re trying to paint reality, you\u2019re trying to paint a moment, a feeling, an impression,\u201d Sampson said.<\/p>\n

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“Catalina Island Rock Quarry, a Nocturne” by Brian Stewart in Catalina Paintings: Night & Day at the Catalina Island Museum. Photo by Asia Morris.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s a nocturne by Stewart depicting cranes at Catalina\u2019s rock quarry\u2014\u201cYou can hear all this industry, but it\u2019s this kind of zen, peaceful, almost meditative effect that he\u2019s able to capture\u201d\u2014as well as scenes from the pier at dawn, just as Avalon starts to come alive. And, of course, what would an exhibit of Catalina scenes be without the iconic Catalina Casino?<\/p>\n

The casino\u2019s ballroom was actually where, starting in the late 80s, the Plein Air Painters of America<\/a> held its annual Catalina Show following Plein Air Week, when a resurgence of the art form brought artists to paint together for a week before the opening.\u00a0As the show grew, the group of volunteers that coordinated it each year was formalized into the nonprofit The Society for the Advancement of Plein Air Painting. However, in 2003, its 18th annual event was also its last.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a viewer of a plein air work, because it\u2019s impressions, your mind has to connect the dots,\u201d Sampson said. \u201cYou can almost feel the little breeze, you can smell the warmth of the sun, you can feel it on your legs as if you\u2019re there, whereas if this was a photograph it would be an amazing image but you wouldn\u2019t have that physical sensation of being in the work.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, Sampson says, \u201cLet the painting happen to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Catalina Paintings: Night & Day will be on view through June 7 at the Catalina Island Museum; 217 Metropole Ave., Avalon, CA. Upcoming events include a talk with artist Joseph Paquet on April 4. For more information, visit catalinamuseum.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Related:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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Listening to Johnny Sampson speak on the sublime beauty of outdoor painting, you soon realize the man could sell you a rock if he really wanted to. The Catalina Island […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":70891,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[2744],"class_list":["post-13329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","tag-catalina-island","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13329"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=13329"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=13329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}