Painting as Old School
By Lon Brauer
When we were kids, they gave us crayons. Such a wonderful tool to express anything that came to mind. A box would come to us with sticks of colored wax standing upright waiting for a small hand to drive. We could draw and scribble. We drew dogs, cats, houses…stuff that made us happy. Coloring books and sheets of open paper were our domain. We didn’t care a lick if it was faithfully rendered. Our naiveté allowed us to describe the world as we saw it and felt it. It was old school and we had great fun!
“Two Dogs” by Lon Brauer
Painting, too, is old school. It is such a simple thing…really. A brush, some paint, and a surface. All one needs to get started at picture making. Pick up the paint with the brush and put it on the surface. Work done by hand. A manual skill. Old school. Where we can get bogged down is in the details. We can too often get caught up in the rendering and miss sight of the wonder of material. In an age of fast changing image-making technology I would suggest that we recognize the old school aspects and methods that we have come to know and love.
There is efficiency and there is experience. As plein air painters we know the joys and frustrations of getting our hands dirty. That is the experience. That is the journey. To make a mark on a surface and have that mark convey an image with context is what we strive for. Fine art painting is not about efficiency. Fluidity comes from our confidence with the skill set. If we know the craft as well as we know how to tie our shoes, we can do almost anything with paint.
“Used Car Needs Tires” by Lon Brauer
One must choose what ‘conveniences’ are appropriate for making a painting. We all have our own self-imposed limitations. How stringent those limitations, or how ‘pure’ we view it, is completely under our control. Who hasn’t pulled out a phone to catch a reference photo. And short of a juried plein air event…who cares? If a tool can help with the journey, go for it! But again, in the end, a painting is paint on a surface put there by the artist. Anything else can be art, but it is a different kind of art.
As representational painters we are image makers. Our subjects are tangible. We draw and paint stuff. We pack our gear, throw it in the car, go to a location, set it all up, and then paint what is in front of us. Plein Air painting is lauded because it requires direct observation. And so it does. It also requires memory. We draw upon what we have seen and experienced before. A past journey down the painting path. We grow, really grow, by getting our hands dirty. That’s old school.