Behind the Easel
The Incidental Picture
Robert K. Abbett
Published in Wildlife Art, June 24, 1999
The Incidental Picture
Robert K. Abbett
Published in Wildlife Art, June 24, 1999
When looking at pictures in an art gallery, or when browsing through an art magazine or a favorite book of paintings, I’m often attracted to pictures that depict what might be called a lesser moment. I think most of us are of course drawn to the heroic "big" picture" compositions - these should and always will compel and deserve our attention. The height of the action at hand, or the full dramatic saga are certainly always popular with most artists and art viewers alike. But to me there is almost no activity or sport that is not also accompanied with numerous associated events of perhaps minor importance that can often furnish us with equally interesting subject matter.
Historically, when schools of artists, such as the impressionists, began to break away from their former, stricter regimens of religious, mythical and classical subject matters; the so-called genre paintings came into being. Present day artists have much more license to explore and express their artistry in these scenes and events of everyday life.
I frequently see the makings of these incidental pictures as they happen, quite often on my travels for commissioned work, and am usually quite anxious to quickly put them to work. This is the kind of true inspiration that insists that you paint it, and these occurrences are too good to pass up. In Arkansas some years ago, I attended a field trial that was a case in point.
When someone mentions field trials, the typical scene that pops into mind would be the dramatic pose of a pointing dog, staunch, with his attention focused on a flushing game bird, perhaps even with horses, riders and a gallery. My job was to paint such an action portrait of the winning dog, which I later did, but in the meantime I was pleasantly awash in a wealth of picture material of both major and minor proportions. Here were dogs a plenty - of all sizes and shapes - some always being exercised or attended to. And there was the bustle of horses being saddled and tacked, and riders loosening up. All this taking place in a most carnival-like atmosphere of good natured competition and anticipation on the part of the owners and spectators. .
During the day, some of the canine contestants, mostly pointers, would be staked out on a ridge from which they could watch the competitive action taking place in the trial fields below them. They could also turn and bark at the variety of interesting two and four legged traffic going back and forth behind them - for a lively dog, the best of both worlds. The poses they so naturally fell into immediately seized my attention and "Waiting at the National" was born. The bright coats of the dogs contrasted strongly against the earth which their fidgeting had darkened to a velvet texture, and that when coupled with early morning sunlight made the painting mentally stir into life.
Another such picture of a relatively minor theme is "Hunting at Oxbow" . I was staying at Oxbow Ranch in Oregon as the guest of then owner Mr. Dan Lufkin. I’d been commissioned to do several paintings of the place for his collection. On one evening, near the end of the visit, the cook had made a special Chinese meal for us and my taste buds were beginning to blossom. Just as we were about to sit down, Dan called. In thinking about the over-all project he wanted to remind me that the growing and management of grass is a mainstay of ranch life, and that I ought to make sure and include some kind of painting to this effect in what I was planning. As a matter of fact, his call came on a day when the men were out
in their machinery cutting and baling the grass crop and there was no more than an hour of day light remaining. My pleas for the others to save me some of the Chinese cooking were met with jeers as I grabbed a camera and, putting art before appetite, started off across the pastures on foot.
That time of day was what we always call the magic time - when the sun is low in the sky, the shadows long and all the colors are warmed with that late day glow. The harvesters used were the ones that roll the grass up into a huge cylindrical bale and these are of course used to feed the stock during the winter. As I legged it across pastures, over irrigation ditches, etc. I finally reached some of the areas already mowed. Then, without being prepared for it, I noticed a hawk sitting on the upper edge of one of these bales, then I saw another and another and finally realized that this was also feeding time and the hawks could get a better vantage from the height of the bale and could see and obtain their evening meal more easily. It all made sense - the machinery was scaring the mice and critters into the open, now more visible after the mowing and providing a feeding opportunity for the raptors. I was reminded of how the barn swallows follow our tractor when we mow the yards at home.
I was fortunate to get a few good pictures of these birds of prey in flight, and later, back home in Connecticut, it was obvious to me that this idea had the earmarks of a decent picture. "Hunting at Oxbow", fell together quite easily once I began to see it in my mind as a finished painting. The scene had a strong abstract pattern to it, which never hurts, you know, what with the long straight shadows playing against the sharp undulating line of the hills in the background. The big shape of the bales is an artist’s dreams - I’m not sure why, but we always like to paint big geometrical shapes - I suspect is because it is easy to describe their volume and they add the third dimension to the work at hand. Their texture was also important, as was the mowed path that gently leads our eye into the center of interest. .
The hawk was carefully placed - I thought having one wing just break the horizon line made it look more like it was truly in flight.
This painting has always been a favorite of mine, even though it was done small, only nine by twelve inches, it was greatly satisfying to produce. I believe is speaks directly to nature’s way - which is not always what we might design were it up to us. And also because it shows nature in connection with human endeavor - in this case a symbiotic relationship. . Finally, like "Waiting at the National" Run", it really happened. So often, our most diligent planning takes a chilly back seat when compared to some trivial, almost accidental moment in real life.
I was attracted to all of these picture subjects because they were unexpected, I got to witness them first hand, and they were true. Truth in painting, like in drama and comedy, is one of the few things that can make it all work. I also believe it is this truth and not necessarily the scale of an idea or the size of the painting that helps validates a painting as a piece of art.
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Historically, when schools of artists, such as the impressionists, began to break away from their former, stricter regimens of religious, mythical and classical subject matters; the so-called genre paintings came into being. Present day artists have much more license to explore and express their artistry in these scenes and events of everyday life.
I frequently see the makings of these incidental pictures as they happen, quite often on my travels for commissioned work, and am usually quite anxious to quickly put them to work. This is the kind of true inspiration that insists that you paint it, and these occurrences are too good to pass up. In Arkansas some years ago, I attended a field trial that was a case in point.
When someone mentions field trials, the typical scene that pops into mind would be the dramatic pose of a pointing dog, staunch, with his attention focused on a flushing game bird, perhaps even with horses, riders and a gallery. My job was to paint such an action portrait of the winning dog, which I later did, but in the meantime I was pleasantly awash in a wealth of picture material of both major and minor proportions. Here were dogs a plenty - of all sizes and shapes - some always being exercised or attended to. And there was the bustle of horses being saddled and tacked, and riders loosening up. All this taking place in a most carnival-like atmosphere of good natured competition and anticipation on the part of the owners and spectators. .
During the day, some of the canine contestants, mostly pointers, would be staked out on a ridge from which they could watch the competitive action taking place in the trial fields below them. They could also turn and bark at the variety of interesting two and four legged traffic going back and forth behind them - for a lively dog, the best of both worlds. The poses they so naturally fell into immediately seized my attention and "Waiting at the National" was born. The bright coats of the dogs contrasted strongly against the earth which their fidgeting had darkened to a velvet texture, and that when coupled with early morning sunlight made the painting mentally stir into life.
Another such picture of a relatively minor theme is "Hunting at Oxbow" . I was staying at Oxbow Ranch in Oregon as the guest of then owner Mr. Dan Lufkin. I’d been commissioned to do several paintings of the place for his collection. On one evening, near the end of the visit, the cook had made a special Chinese meal for us and my taste buds were beginning to blossom. Just as we were about to sit down, Dan called. In thinking about the over-all project he wanted to remind me that the growing and management of grass is a mainstay of ranch life, and that I ought to make sure and include some kind of painting to this effect in what I was planning. As a matter of fact, his call came on a day when the men were out
in their machinery cutting and baling the grass crop and there was no more than an hour of day light remaining. My pleas for the others to save me some of the Chinese cooking were met with jeers as I grabbed a camera and, putting art before appetite, started off across the pastures on foot.
That time of day was what we always call the magic time - when the sun is low in the sky, the shadows long and all the colors are warmed with that late day glow. The harvesters used were the ones that roll the grass up into a huge cylindrical bale and these are of course used to feed the stock during the winter. As I legged it across pastures, over irrigation ditches, etc. I finally reached some of the areas already mowed. Then, without being prepared for it, I noticed a hawk sitting on the upper edge of one of these bales, then I saw another and another and finally realized that this was also feeding time and the hawks could get a better vantage from the height of the bale and could see and obtain their evening meal more easily. It all made sense - the machinery was scaring the mice and critters into the open, now more visible after the mowing and providing a feeding opportunity for the raptors. I was reminded of how the barn swallows follow our tractor when we mow the yards at home.
I was fortunate to get a few good pictures of these birds of prey in flight, and later, back home in Connecticut, it was obvious to me that this idea had the earmarks of a decent picture. "Hunting at Oxbow", fell together quite easily once I began to see it in my mind as a finished painting. The scene had a strong abstract pattern to it, which never hurts, you know, what with the long straight shadows playing against the sharp undulating line of the hills in the background. The big shape of the bales is an artist’s dreams - I’m not sure why, but we always like to paint big geometrical shapes - I suspect is because it is easy to describe their volume and they add the third dimension to the work at hand. Their texture was also important, as was the mowed path that gently leads our eye into the center of interest. .
The hawk was carefully placed - I thought having one wing just break the horizon line made it look more like it was truly in flight.
This painting has always been a favorite of mine, even though it was done small, only nine by twelve inches, it was greatly satisfying to produce. I believe is speaks directly to nature’s way - which is not always what we might design were it up to us. And also because it shows nature in connection with human endeavor - in this case a symbiotic relationship. . Finally, like "Waiting at the National" Run", it really happened. So often, our most diligent planning takes a chilly back seat when compared to some trivial, almost accidental moment in real life.
I was attracted to all of these picture subjects because they were unexpected, I got to witness them first hand, and they were true. Truth in painting, like in drama and comedy, is one of the few things that can make it all work. I also believe it is this truth and not necessarily the scale of an idea or the size of the painting that helps validates a painting as a piece of art.
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