PROFILE ON JEAN LEGASSICK,
Plein Air Magazine, Dec. 2004 issue
"Plein-air Passion"
By Jean LeGassick
Plein-air painting is definitely
my passion.
Since I was a tiny girl, I had always known I would become an
artist of some kind. With a degree in art from Art Center College
of Design in Pasadena, CA, I followed a career in commercial
art while dabbling in fine-art painting on the side. It wasn¹t
until I took a plein-air class with Michael Lynch in 1990 that
I suddenly knew what I would do with the rest of my life and
that plein-air painting
was how I wanted to spend my time-- ALL of my time! The light
went on & I was born as an artist at that moment.
That light still burns brightly.
I can't think of anything finer than jumping out of bed or my
sleeping bag, or rolling out of my camper in some remote place,
and strapping on my backpack full of my painting supplies,
then hitting the trail to find the scene that will excite me
so much that I MUST paint it.
I am hooked. To be outside in the greatness of nature, experiencing
it first hand, brings me happiness and a sense of contentment
that studio painting doesn¹t offer. I have always been a
nature girl. I love to hike, camp, and study the flora and fauna
of every place I find myself. I used to carry
bird books and binoculars, wildflower and butterfly guides, tree
keys, and magnifying lenses in my backpack as I tramped through
the wild areas I loved to explore. After I started carrying my
heavy painting equipment on my back, those other things were
jettisoned one by one. Now I study nature by directly painting
her.
A photograph doesn¹t tell me what the breeze felt like on
my skin, how it
rippled the grass and sounded in the trees, or how the clouds
tumbled and turned. It doesn¹t tell me the scents of that
day and place, or what the air temperature was. And it certainly
doesn't tell me how it felt after I hiked for miles over rough
terrain to get to my painting location-- how alive I felt at
that particular time. Somehow all these elements get mixed up
with the paint and applied to the canvas. That is the freshness
and immediacy that people talk about when they describe plein-air
paintings.
Every summer I mule pack into
the Sierra Nevada Mountains, or other ranges across the west,
and camp out for 10 days or more at a time. This way I can be
in very remote spots to capture that beautiful first warm light,
or paint late in the day to capture the "alpen glow"
I love so much. I also travel extensively in my truck and camper,
camping out every night so I can be immersed in nature as much
as possible.
I prefer to rough it rather than
to stay in motels and hotels.
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So nature, the wilder the better,
is my favorite subject. About 90% of what
I paint is purely landscape, but I also enjoy occasionally seeking
people things to paint-- actual persons, or architecture, boats,
agriculture land, cityscapes, etc. These are exciting subjects
for me because, instead of nature's usually subdued palette,
they allow me to paint with more vibrant color. These scenes
also help keep my drawing skills honed. It's easy to get lazy
with the landscape; nobody knows a particular ridgeline's exact
angle. If I paint a street scene, however, my rendering of the
perspective better be close to perfect. It keeps me sharp and
on my toes.
I also like to teach occasionally
to pass on this plein-air passion. It's good to give back what
my many wonderful teachers gave me. I try to keep my students
enthused as they struggle to juggle the many things necessary
to make a good painting in the midst of working outside. Mother
Nature dishes out challenges of wind, heat, glare, cold, rain,
snow, bugs-- you name it!
I get discouraged sometimes after
a particularly rough day, like the time a
gust of wind from hell picked up my whole easel and blew it onto
me-- the painting, my palette, paint thinner-- making a horrible
mess. However, I recovered my composure and I went on to paint
other paintings that day. When I got home and set up these paintings
to view, I was reminded again why I love the experience of painting
nature firsthand: They had that freshness and truthfulness that
only plein-air paintings can offer.
Whether or not I return home
with great paintings, any discomfort or trouble fades in comparison
to the feeling that I really accomplished something important
and vital. In addition, I spent an exhilarating day outdoors,
celebrating in paint the incredible beauty of our world.
QUOTE:How do I know when the
painting is done? That's easy! When I start getting
tired and find myself not looking at the scene much anymore but
just noodling around with the paint, then I know it¹s time
to stop! It's better to have a rough but exciting painting than
ruin all the good stuff by overworking it.
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