I spent last weekend in one of my favorite communities, Petersburg, Alaska, conducting a painting workshop for sixteen local artists of varying ages, backgrounds, and experience. Organized by the "Fresh Air" group of plein-air painters in Petersburg, the workshop was to introduce new ideas and methods for painting directly from life in the outdoors. These are just a few of the participants, posing with their paintings after a final critique at the end of the first full day of the workshop.
Most of the members of the Fresh Air group, who have painted together for years in all weathers and seasons, participated along with a number of other local artists. It was a wonderful weekend with an extraordinary group of people. I don't know whether I was most impressed by their dedication, talents, enthusiasm, and hospitality, their willingness to try new things, their flexibility in the face of changing weather and my crazy artistic demands, or their mutual support of one another.
As I usually do in these workshops, I talked about and showed images of my work the first evening, meeting them and letting them know who I am and where I'm coming from artistically, explaining that I don't do demonstrations (and think they're evil), and going over the plans for the next two days. On Saturday and Sunday, they painted all day long in two gorgeous settings--Blind Slough and Sandy Beach. I gave them challenging exercises/assignments, and then went from one to another, working with each individually on ways that they could think differently about outdoor painting, get beyond their comfort zones, discover new ways to connect to their familiar surroundings, make images that were more personal, more individual, and more responsive to that day, that place, that weather and light, and what they saw there and felt about it. As I told them over and over, it seems to me that most plein-air painting deals with eyes and hands, and I wanted them to work at least as much with their heads and hearts.
I taught painting workshops in Petersburg 16 and 18 years ago, and now, as then, I was knocked out by the vigor of the town, the dedication of its artists, and the good will of the community. This year, as before, I stayed with our dear friend Polly Lee, one of Southeast Alaska's best known potters and painters, an early State Arts Council member and arts leader who has been an inspiration to Alaskans on artistic and other fronts for decades. She, some of the painters in this workshop, and many others in the Petersburg arts community are responsible for the growth of a thriving arts council, museum, an amazing amount of public art, and more in this island community of only about 3000 people.
You can see much more of the work of the Fresh Air group of Petersburg painters on the website of members Don and Karen Cornelius, at www.corneliusstudio.com. And you might want to check out the work of two other talented Petersburg artists that Polly Lee introduced me to while I was there. Fiber artist Sue Christensen has a great website at www.sjchristensen.com , and you can see some images of work by painter Pia Reilly at www.takugraphics.com/apreilly.html.