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Plein Air Painting in Oil (Artist's Library Series) ReviewI am a beginning plein air painter. As a working adult, I don't have time to take a university extension course ot enroll in local art classes. For the time being, I have to make do with instruction from books, and inspiration from published collections, galleries, art shows and museums. I purchased and read a large number of books - in and out of print - on drawing and painting. There is a great deal of fine material out there, but at the very beginning stage I find Frank Serrano's little book to be the most helpful.
Winston Churchill came to recreational painting as an adult, and in his characteristic fashion described, in another very inspiring little book ("Painting as a Pastime," Odhams, London (1965), the essential challenge (facing the blank canvas, brush in hand), and the essential quality the beginner must find within him- or herself: the audacity to put the first daub of paint on the canvas:
"Having bought the colours, an easel, and a canvas, the next step was to begin. But what a step to take! The palette gleamed with beads of colour; fair and white rose the canvas; the empty brush hung poised, heavy with destiny, irresolute in the air. My hand seemed arrested by a silent veto."
There are numerous "how to get started" books in print that deal with oil painting. What makes Serrano's so valuable is it's simple, direct approach to putting the paint on your brush and then on the canvas. It is a quality of this book, and not a failing, that it does not attempt to cover too much material. Serrano sticks to the basics, and describes them with admirable simplicity and directness. His approach is not so simple as to be condescending, though. As a beginning painter, I feel some of the lack of control that I felt when learning to drive. At first there seem to be so many things to think about: mixing the colors to replicate what you see, considering the overall compositional plan of the canvas, keeping in mind the shadows and the highlights. Just one example of a beginner's challenge is to shade the green of the leaves on a tree so that the sunlit leaves are bright and the leaves in shadow are dark, while maintaining the proper character of the green between lit and shadowed areas. The essential value of Serrano's book is that it focuses on the essentials. Any more detail, and the beginner could go into "information overload."
Getting the level of detail is very important in a book aimed at beginners in any discipline. If the student is so burdened with "do's and don'ts" and details that they become confused, or worse, discouraged, the teacher has failed. Yet, there seems to be a tendency for teachers/writers to want to "strut their stuff," to show how well they have mastered the details of the craft. They forget that beginning is not about details, its about fundamentals, and getting those fundamentals right. That's the foundation the beginner needs to progress. Frank Serrano has not forgotten what it's like to be a beginner. Reading his book, I got the impression that Serrano, accomplished as he has become, has not lost the excitement, the sheer joy, of learning. The basics seem as important to him as the more sophisticated elements of the craft. Indeed, looking at his works in the book, on various websites on the Internet, and in person (I own several of his original paintings), a simplicity and clarity of vision becomes apparent. His paintings seem to be as much about the essentials, the basics, of envisioning and experiencing nature as his book is about the essentials of the craft. I've had the pleasure of speaking with Frank on occasion, and I can honestly say the joy and excitement I sense in his paintings are communicated by him on a personal level.
Another aspect of Serrano's book that I believe is important, is that it is informed by his respect for the traditions of the plein air genre. As noted in his book, Frank was influenced by Sam Hyde Harris, who was at the center of plein air activity in Southern California in the mid 20th century. Harris was part of the art community that settled and painted at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains and along the California coast. Harris explored the effects of atmosphere - early morning haze, for example - in his paintings of Pasadena's Arroyo Seco and Los Angeles's Chavez Ravine (long before Dodger Stadium). These and other sites in California and the Western US are the locales in which Frank finds his own subjects.
If you are interested in starting plein air painting, and want a good guide to the essentials without extraneous detail, I don't think you can do better than to buy Frank Serrano's "Plein Air Painting in Oil." You will be learning from a fine artist in the plein air tradition, who has not lost the enthusiasm for learning and the sense of sheer fun that is - or should be - so important to anyone starting out to learn a new craft.
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