Blog

Blog Summer 2026

Wow.  What a leap forward – all with challenging enjoyment.

I had three excellent artists staying with me during Cedarburg, my hometown Plein Air event.  After painting turn in we went to Blicks -a brick and mortar art store – something not available to them, through Milwaukee’s Third Ward, past the emerging mural of Bob Ueker, and onto Milwaukee’s Calatrava building art museum.  They were thrilled to see firsthand examples of painting giants in person.  We all kept being cautioned by the guards for being too close.  How else can you see brush strokes, layering, and thicknesses of paint?  In forty years of visits I have never learned so much.  I came away with a homework list. 

Some artists create because they have to – it’s like breathing.  Peter Max told me he was like this.  I talked to several classmates of Leroy Neiman and they were disdainful of his developed quick paint style and blatant commercialism.   Some of my painting friends have an academic, explorative approach and some have an oxygen to breathe approach.  In talks with Logan Hudson I marveled at his complete absorption in his art.  His admission of losing time being lost in thought about his art made me brand myself a dilatant.  I learned a lot with this young man who does marvelous, moody work.

Success has been three-fold.  I have continued to develop my open white space style.  It includes linear brush strokes learned in my Korean painting class and small brush detailing introduced in Jessie Rebik’s portrait painting workshop.  The subjects included complicated fair scenes and miniature golf courses.  The darn people/models never stand still so some of them morph into Ghost people.  The compositions have me wondering, and although they have generated many comments so far only a few sales.

There have been two Best of Show awards – Green Lake from judge Trina May Smith and Jefferson from Mary Beth Drabiszczak and Troy Tatlock.  My joy is many paintings have new homes hopefully delivery enjoyment.  Three awards at my favorite event the Wisconsin State Fair Plein Air – Reserve Champion, First Place Quick Paint, and a theme award.  Thank you Chris Behrens, Lori Beringer, and Troy Tatlock.  A second-place nocturne at St. Charles went to my marvelous hostess Sheryl McGowan of her sunken garden at Cocoon in Geneva, IL.  Two of my entries were painted in her back yard – Neighborhood Pond and morning Dew.

I challenged myself with a solo trip to New York City to visit Paul Klee exhibition.  He is one of my favorite artists.  His cerebral writings on design and amusing paintings were much joy – and I learned about his political courage.  Six major museums and three Broadway shows had me thinking and grinning.  Imagine – multiple viewings three inches from a Van Gogh painting!  Viewings ranged from groundbreaking Marcel Duchamp descending nude to the Whitney’s Biennale. 

Having been to events where the winners were really pedantic – predictable – flat – boring they have added to the brewing controversy in this sub set of the art world.  Many of my fellow painters struggle with, “Do you paint pretty, photolike images or do you stretch your art and keep growing - learning new applications of media and challenging compositions?”  And then there were awards that were not well painted, had no compositional value, told no story, and made me seriously question why that individual was judging.   Thinking on this and Plein Air in general caused me to write a spec article for the New Yorker. 

And finally more great people and memories.  Farm painting commissions, midnight forays to street scenes (easier to find parking places after 10PM).  And meeting, teasing, and learning from new artists.

Isn’t art grand?