Dharma Bums, On The Road Again...

The phrase "Dharma Bum" was coined by the Beat* writer, Jack Kerouac. Dharma is one of the most important words in the Hindu and Buddhist religions. Narrowly defined it means "your spiritual duty," or "your place in the universe." A Dharma Bum is a wanderer and a truth seeker, and in the case of Kerouac’s novel these divine vagabonds were bohemians, writers and artists who shunned the confines of society. This blog is about the sacred joys of painting and travel. 

A restless spirit, I've always found it difficult to work in a cubicle from 9-5. One of my most memorable jobs was with the DPW in the summer of '72. My days were spent riding around town in the back of a dump truck with 5 other teenagers, picking up trash in the local parks. Today most people would consider this court mandated, community service but for me it represented freedom.

Love Street Surf Shop by Eli Cedrone ©

Kerouac’s notion of the Dharma Bum could easily describe today’s generation of artists who travel the country participating in Plein Air events and teaching workshops. To outsiders this lifestyle may be viewed as eccentric but these painters are highly trained, well-organized professional artists. For many, this way of life can be creatively and financially rewarding.

St. Edwards, Palm Beach

So I’m boarding my Jet Blue flight for Palm Beach (with excruciating delay given the advanced age of most of the passengers). I’ll be gone for nearly a month; painting and teaching with a residency thrown in the middle so I can catch my breath. If like me, you've had days where you’re feeling old and travel seems best suited for the obscenely young, you’ll understand the need for the residency.

Painting on Worth Avenue, Palm Beach

My wall at the Plein Air Festival, Tequesta

First stop Tequesta, for the 4th Annual Plein Air Festival at the Lighthouse Art Center. This is my second invitation to the event so I see a lot of familiar faces - and some very talented painters. I’m in good company. The camaraderie amongst artists is historic and important for a number of reasons; a sharing of ideas, a competitive spirit and a chance to get out of the studio. These events also offer opportunities to get your work in front of new collectors and publishers. I sold a bunch of paintings and was awarded First Place by juror George Van Hook in the Quick Draw (artists must complete a painting on location in 2 hours.) A pretty blissful way way to end the week.

First Prize in the Quick Draw

My winning painting "Harborside" by Eli Cedrone

I was fortunate to have a week-long residency in Palm Beach and I had some time to do a little painting on my own. I love using small 6x8 panels for quick, field studies.

Painting at the Society of the 4 Arts, Palm Beach

Color study "Bougainvillea" by Eli Cedrone

Following my residency, I taught a 2-day workshop at the Lighthouse Art Center. The focus was on the fundamentals of figure drawing. We started with a lot of quick, gesture studies and I introduced a technique to simplify the figure in order to integrate them into landscape paintings. It was an amazing group of painters, many of whom had studied with me last year. Check out my website for workshops there in 2018.

The gang at the Lighthouse Art Center workshop

I’m traveling across Alligator Alley which coming from Boston, is a disturbing name for a highway. I have visions of being devoured by one of these prehistoric creatures. I’m also a bit unnerved by the fact that there are 20 people enrolled in my workshop at the Bonita Springs Center for the Arts, but that’s okay… I’ve totally got this.

I thought it would be brilliant to present a workshop on the techniques and methods of a variety of painters throughout history. In theory "Lesson’s from the Masters" was a great idea but it required a lot of “moving parts” in order to set up each day. The staff at the art center was heroic in this regard. I swear there are tiny elves on the payroll; each morning everything was in order... model stands, lighting, even hot coffee and pastries!

My demo at left, is a copy of a painting by Anders Zorn. The palette is limited to 3 greyscale values. I begin with the mid range value, eventually adding darks and lastly, the lights. The focus of this lesson is to paint correct value relationships and seeing in terms of "pixels" in order to render the fall of light and modeling of form.

The wonderful students at Art Center Bonita Springs

For me, the sacred joys of travel and painting are an act of self-actualization. Becoming your true potential is pretty rare in society. I guess that’s why there’s always this feeling that the daily grind police will catch up with me, and I’ll have to get a "real" job. But for now, I feel the pull of the north wind so I’m heading to Portugal to teach a week-long workshop in Casais and Sintra. Want to follow along? Just subscribe to my Art & Soul blog!

Some tips on how to begin your own creative journey…
Get a change of scenery with a quick, overnight painting trip to a new destination.
Visit the studio of other artists and explore a new medium or technique.
Take a course or workshop close to home without the cost of flights and hotels.

Indulge in some armchair travel with one of these great books…

- Art + Travel Europe: Museyon Guides, Step into the Lives of Five Famous Painters

- The Last Nude: Ellis Avery, Art Deco painter Tamara de Lempicka

- Kiki’s Paris: Billy Kluver, Artists & Lovers 1900’s
- Strapless: Deborah Davis, John Singer Sargent's Madame X
- The Moon and Sixpence: W. Somerset Maugham, Paul Gauguin in Tahiti
- And last but not least…
- On the Road by Jack Kerouac

*Beat (Beatitude): a state of utmost bliss

One's destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things.

I’ve had a love affair with Bermuda for over 40 years and just returned from a week long art festival on island. A big part of Bermuda’s charm is its natural beauty and as an artist it represents a dramatic change of scenery from what I’m familiar with in Boston. Plein Air painting celebrates the making of art in the great outdoors. Visiting new places allows us to experience the world with a fresh eye and revitalizes our spirits. I’ve found that a radical change of scenery shakes up old ways of working and forces a reconsideration of seeing and interpreting the landscape.

"The purpose of the painter is simply to reproduce in other minds the impression which a scene has made upon him. A work of art does not appeal to the intellect. It does not appeal to the moral sense. Its aim is not to instruct, not to edify, but to awaken an emotion.” George Inness

Local and visiting festival artists

Painting in Somerset Bermuda

The ultimate moveable studio!

National Gallery with Bill Hanbury (CEO of Tourism) and wife Valerie

The gala reception was held at the Bermuda National Gallery. Each artist had the opportunity to enter up to 6 paintings for the final exhibition. I have no idea how the committee managed to hang so many paintings in such a short time but they did a fantastic job! I'm very pleased that several of my paintings sold and I'm looking forward to exhibiting some of my work later this year on island. To read more about the festival visit:

http://www.bermudapleinair.com/plein-air-festival/meet-our-2015-winners/

Castle Point 11x14 Oil on linen

Ely's Harbour, 9x12 Oil on linen

Hanging it up, showing it off.

This past month I felt as though I was in the business of moving rather than making art. The season is in full swing on Cape Cod. I have a lot of new paintings on view at Gallery Antonia (Chatham), Sosebee Gallery (Nantucket ) and Willoughby Fine Art (Martha's Vineyard).

A really nice crowd showed up on June 5th for the opening reception of an exhibition of my paintings at The Marion Art Center along with pastels by Kim Morin Weineck. Art in Bloom was a special part of the exhibit and floral arrangements were created expressly for each painting. The show runs till July 11th. 

Speaking of “Portable Studios” I’ll be doing a demonstration this Saturday, June 27th from 10:00am to 2:00pm MAC. Marion, MA is a really cool town to visit (it's like Cape Cod without the hassle of crossing the canal) I hope to see you there!

Marion Art Center

Main & Pleasant St, Marion, MA (508) 748-1266 

I can. I will. End of story.

Society of the Four Arts

I drove up to the home of Manon Sander, (www.manonsander.com) a fellow painter who was my host last week in Florida. I was there for the Festival of the Arts at the Lighthouse Art Center in Tequesta. I was thinking I’d taken a wrong turn - the house is palatial to say the least. Manon has a parakeet named Fritz and the home is jokingly referred to as The Fritz Carleton so you get the idea. Anyway the other guest at the "Fritz" was Morgan Samuel Price, who just happened to be one of the judges. Morgan is one of the finest landscape painters in the country and is the most energetic person I've ever met.

I’d been preparing for this trip for several weeks, trying to get outside to paint in spite of the staggering amount of snow and bone chilling temps we’ve experienced in Boston this winter. I often painted the views from my window in the comfort of my studio. I’m primarily a figurative artist so it's great to get out of the studio to paint nature from life. It was great to be juried in but I was a bit apprehensive given the talented pool of painters. 

Some of the most accomplished artists I know are riddled with insecurities when it comes to their work. Self doubt is a sign of creative progress and if anyone doesn’t believe they’re doomed to fail, I figure they are. In any case, as I said earlier this is my year to say YES to new adventures. It doesn’t always work out but I’m an optimist at heart. For now it's back to Boston (yes it's snowing) and the struggle continues at the easel but I have faith in what comes next.

More than 50 artists traveled from all over the US and as far away as Alaska for the Festival. The paintings are on exhibit and available for purchase through March 28. I’ll be teaching a 3 day workshop at the Lighthouse Art Center, February 2016. For more info visit: www.lighthousearts.org/ 

"Riverbend Reflections" 11x14
Available at the Lighthouse Center for the Arts

Jason Sacran won Best of Show

John Caggiano and Michele Byrne

Quick Draw at DuBois Park

Ken DeWald's painting of me painting.