PAWa:What is your art background?

JIM: I always took as many art classes through my school years as was allowed.
By my senior year in high school I was sure I wanted to be an illustrator. I had
several art and design classes in junior college, and met an instructor there
who had graduated from the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. He was
head art director for airline graphics identities at Boeing. He took me under
his wing and encouraged me to develop as many art styles as I could and challenged
me to put together a portfolio of my best work during my four years in the US
Navy, which I did. Upon finishing the Navy, I moved to Los Angeles, took several
art classes at the Art Center and began to slowly develop a reputation as a freelance
illustrator in Southern California. My artistic skills and disciplines were honed
working as a freelance illustrator for 14 years. After being introduced to plein
air painting, I decided to take several workshops from people who had been doing
it for a long time. It was a good decision. Even though I couldn’t grasp all the
information at the time, over the years, the information has made more and more
sense to me.

PAWa: A lot of illustrators have found their way into plein air painting. How
do you think illustration has helped you?

JIM: The strong competition to make it in illustration was a huge factor in my
development as an artist. I had to know how to draw well, design well, and produce
rapidly, on a moments notice or I was out of business. If you were late delivering
a project to a client, that was it. You probably would not work for them again.
That factor alone has been invaluable to me over the years in the gallery business.
Show dates and advertising dates are firm dates, and making the deadlines for
those dates is critical to maintain a good working relationship with my galleries.




Working as a freelance illustrator was also a great training ground for learning
about the business world and how to operate my business. Presentation of my work
in all forms had to be top notch. I learned that having only one mediocre or bad
piece of art in my portfolio could cost me a commission because the client would
be concerned I might produce one of those for them. Making contacts with clients,
billing, shipping, advertising, developing self-promotional materials have all
been helpful tools to utilize in the fine art business.

PAWa: You participate in national plein air events. Tell us a little about that
experience. What draws you to participate in these events?

JIM: First of all, if you are invited to any national show, with all the fine
artists at work in this country today, it is always an honor. It provides a wonderful
forum to have your work included with many other exceptional artists, and puts
it before an interested potential client base you might not have the opportunity
to connect with any other way. I have been able to meet some wonderful, generous
people over the years. I have developed ongoing friendships with folks who have
shared their homes and hospitality with me during the weeks of the shows, and
I have met so many artists whose work I admire and respect, artists I would likely
never come in contact otherwise. It provides a great time for artist camaraderie.




PAWa: What is the most difficult aspect of these competitions?

JIM: The downside to competitions, in my opinion, is that I personally don’t
like the idea of art having to be a competition. The selection of award winners
is often so arbitrary and subjective, depending upon the tastes of the judges
and public, that some truly fantastic works often go unhighlighted. Fortunately,
historically, the truly fine paintings have survived whether they have ever won
a competition or not.



The other issue that is difficult about any show or competition, is the “did
it sell?” mentality. There seems to be the idea floating around the fine art business
that if it sold, it must have been a good painting, and if it didn’t sell, it
must not have been so good. The pressure to have your work be considered “sellable”
to a lot of buyers is the most stressful, because it has the potential to affect
your entire painting career.

PAWa: How do you deal with the pressure to produce 4-5 good paintings in a week?


JIM: Most of the shows I have been involved with require 3-4 good paintings to
be hung for the show. The pressure I feel generally comes from me. I consider
these trips serious business, so I usually don’t spend a lot of time socializing
during the day, and I most often paint alone because it simplifies things when
I’m searching for a painting location that appeals to me. I get up at sunrise
and quit at dark. I set a goal for myself to produce 12-14 pieces during a five
or six day period. On long summer days, if I don’t spend too much time driving
around, I can create 3 or 4 paintings in a day. This gives me a good selection
of works to choose from for the show.



PAWa: You participate in the Annual Laguna Art Museum Invitational Plein Air
Painting Competition. What goes through your mind during the 2 hour “Quick Draw”
portion of the painting competition?

JIM: I have participated in these for the past 6 years in a row, so it’s not
as scary as it was in the beginning, but you know going in that you are a mere
mortal and no matter how long you have painted plein air, you are always capable
of producing a “bomb.” I have seen some of the most prominent and experienced
plein air painters end up with weak paintings, and I have to admit to having that
occur myself. There are a lot of curious and interested bystanders observing during
that 2 hour period, some of whom are collectors. It is a tricky time for the artist,
because we are out there to be accessible to the public, so you need to be polite
and congenial, but at the same time, you are under the gun to produce what you
want to be your best work. There are a lot of distractions, the worst being the
curious observer or budding artist who perches on your shoulder the entire time
and wants to engage you in conversation with questions about your techniques,
tools, and supplies. If that happens, I usually try to politely tell them I am
a one-track-mind sort of person and that they are welcome to watch, but I’m a
lousy conversationalist when I’m painting. At the end of the 2 hour session, a
gun sounds and you have to frame the work, title and price it, and take it immediately
to the museum to be hung in the competition. There is a lot of pressure, and it
is a bit stressful, but sometimes the added pressure contributes to a fresh, nicely
painted work of art that you did not have time to ruin by fiddling with it.



PAWa: Could you take us through the development of a painting?

JIM: After I have researched an area and decided on a specific location, I ask
myself, “Why do I want to paint this? What about this subject do I want to communicate
to my viewer? What is it that excites me about this subject?” Whatever that is,
I have to create a design that will enhance my idea and downplay the things around
the subject that will distract from it.

JIM: Once those decisions are made, I mentally envision ways I can design the
painting. I might do a small rough design sketch or set about directly on the
canvas with what I have envisioned. I decide if the design will be vertical, horizontal
or square. The design of a work is about drawing and values. If you have a weak
design to begin with, no amount of flamboyant color or texture or detail will
save the painting. It’s better to spend more time developing the design at the
beginning than to hope something magical is going to happen at some point in the
painting process that will make it a fine painting. A simple design plan in the
beginning generally results in a stronger piece. Complexity in design is more
likely to end up in confusion and nonessential busyness unless handled with great
care and skill.

I paint standing up. It’s my personal preference because it enables me to continually
step back from the work and get a look from a distance to check the masses of
colors and values against what I’m seeing in nature; to see the structure of the
painting without worrying about details.

My palette is fairly limited. Ultramarine Blue, Sap Green, Permanent Red Medium,
Cadmium Orange, Lemon Yellow and Titanium White achieve most of the color I need.
On long trips I like to mix 1/2 Titanium White with 1/2 fast drying alkyd white
to speed the drying time of the paint to prevent storage hassles

JIM: When beginning a painting, I try to find a major color tone in the landscape
I can key off of. I mix up a large batch of that color so I will have plenty of
it to continually refer to and mix into other colors to insure the mood and color
harmony I want to achieve in the painting. I will tone the entire canvas with
a light, thin version of that color. Sometimes I will begin on a white canvas,
simply drawing in the largest masses with a brush with thin paint (usually a warm
color), and then blocking in with the approximate color temperature (warm &
cool), intensity, and value of each mass. I always keep the pigment thin throughout
most of the painting process and only add the heaviest passages at the end after
all the color and value problems have been solved.

Unless I’m under a time constraint with the sun going down, I usually premix
large batches of color on my palette that are the approximate color temperature
and value of the largest masses in the painting. This insures that I will have
enough paint to produce the painting, start to finish, without having to go back
and remix color to match the colors and values I have used. This process takes
a little longer before you can start to paint, but ends up saving time in the
long run having to mix and match paint during the painting process. It also insures
better color harmony, because it enables me to mix warmer or cooler versions of
the colors, or darker or lighter values of the colors very easily. The colors
are applied thinly and blocked in with simple, flat shapes, as though they are
pieces of color cut from paper. I try to have the basic “feel” of the painting
blocked in after 30-40 minutes or less. If the design and mood are not working
at this stage, I can make major changes and will not have invested a lot of time.
Because the paint has been applied thinly, I can scrape or wipe off the areas
that aren’t working without too much trouble.

JIM: After I place the strongest darks, lights, and color intensities in the
area of my focal point, I use these strongest notes of color and value to key
off of to determine color and values in the rest of the painting. I try to work
around the painting as much as possible at that point, bringing all the areas
of the painting to finish at the same time. I keep checking during the painting
to make sure each mass is properly relating to the other masses in terms of color
temperature, value, and intensity.



Sometimes the subject of a painting is not made obvious by a strong focal point.
There are times when the subject may be an overall mood, or color tone, or design
structure that has interest. It’s obviously necessary to know the basic rules
of composition/design, but ultimately it’s up to the artist to make decisions
regarding what to adhere to and when it works to abandon a rule if it supports
the idea of the painting.

After the problems of color harmony, design, and values are resolved, it is at
this point more pigment is applied. Too much pigment too early in the process
has the potential of getting in the way of easily resolving the areas which have
problems. When I reach the point of feeling I have captured what I wanted to capture
successfully, I finish the process by checking edges. I want to be certain they
are accentuated where they should be accentuated and softened where they should
be less obvious. I check for color notes that are out of character with other
color in the piece, and make sure the values are working well to support my idea
and overall design.

JIM: At any stage in the painting process, if I’m having difficulty with an area,
it is helpful if I ask myself three basic things. Is it too warm or too cool?
Is it too dark or too light? Is it too intense or does it need some intensity?
The problems can usually be solved by addressing one or more of these questions.
When I feel comfortable these issues have all been resolved, I pack up and move
on to the next painting. I keep a running numbered catalog of every work I produce.
This helps me maintain an accurate record of my paintings including the place
and date each were created. The paintings are a visual diary of every painting
trip I make, and the written records help me recall all the essential information
about those trips as well as help me keep track of paintings that end up in galleries
or shows.

PAWa: Is this process what you teach in your workshops?

JIM: This is a very abbreviated version of what I teach in my workshops, but
it gives you the basic idea of my approach. I use demonstrations to assist with
the teaching process.



For more information: www.jimlambstudio.com click on “Workshops”