Sedona Plein Air Festival
The Painting
Passion of
David
Haskell
by Sylvia
Somerville
 David
Haskell dreams of one day having a one-man show with canvasses
from his painting expeditions on the Colorado River. He would
like to document all 277 miles of the wild and sensuous river
that has carved out the Grand Canyon into the awe-inspiring
natural wonder it is today.
Haskell is a plein air
artist, a painter who, as the French term says, enjoys painting
“in the open air.” He has painted Sedona’s red rocks, Oak Creek
Canyon, Indian ruins, missions, barns, birds and seascapes, but
it is to the Grand Canyon that he returns to again and again,
enchanted by the immensity and sheer grandeur of the landscape.
A Hike to Remember
-- David Haskell
“The Grand Canyon is like
Forest Gump’s box of chocolates; you never know what you are
going to get,” he laughs. “It’s a challenging environment. I’ve
been hailed on, poured on, and stuck in a dust storm, but it’s
gorgeous. There is so much to take in that it’s almost a
never-ending sense of possibilities.”
Haskell’s favorite subject
is the temperamental and tempestuous Colorado River, which
swells 5,000 feet below the rim.
“I love painting scenes that
move,” said Haskell. He finds beauty in the contrast of smooth,
fluid water against hard rock and enjoys the reflective light in
rivers and streams. “Moving water is a primeval action.”
Haskell has taken more than
a dozen trips down the Colorado River, and each time he sees
more. He has even led two painting expeditions for the Sedona
Arts Center, giving other artists the exhilarating experience of
painting the Grand Canyon from the ground up.
“It’s a pretty powerful
experience,” said Haskell, “yeehawing down the rapids and
painting like banshees. In the end no one wants to leave.”
Nature and a paint brush
Plein air artists love the land and light. They are poets whose
words are dabs of color on canvas, explorers in search of a
fleeting image, a transcendent emotion or a perfect moment when
they are completely enraptured with the landscape. Everything
else ceases to matter.
Foot Bridge Pool - David Haskell
Although he is a relative newcomer to plein air painting,
Haskell has been an artist and outdoor enthusiast for most of
his life. As a teenager, he was drawn to the sweeping landscape
of the Mojave Desert and enjoyed his family expeditions into the
national parks.
He taught himself to paint, copying the work of Robert Wood, who
for several decades was America’s most prolific and popular
landscape painter. In college, he was an illustrator to pay his
way. As an adult, he spent a career working to protect the
national parks in high-level management positions. The higher he
climbed, however, the less energy he had for painting.
When he retired from the National Park Service in 1999, at the
age of 55, Haskell returned to the outdoors with the eyes and
heart of a painter, discovering for the first time the joy of
plein air work.
“You can’t get to know nature by watching,”
Haskell said. “When you
are
actually painting on site, you are learning to see the scene in
a different way. You see what the light is doing, you witness
changes in reflection. You can’t get that feeling and experience
in a studio environment.
Haskell
never had time to paint on the park service trips he took, but
he knew where he wanted to paint.
“I mapped
out places for when I retired,” he said. “If you are going to
paint landscapes, you need to be intimate with the place.
Otherwise, it’s like painting a portrait without the person. You
don’t meet someone for 15 minutes and then paint their face.”
Western Sentinel - David Haskell
Haskell
encourages painting expeditions, where artists can take a chunk
of time to paint an area - whether it is a horseback trip into
the Rockies or a plein air festival. Such immersions have
allowed him to sink into an environment, making the most of the
two or three hours he has to paint a scene before the light
shifts and with it the shadows and atmosphere.
“You need
to paint fast. When the light is perfect and you are ready, it’s
magical,” said Haskell. “It’s a kind of inspiration you can’t
get in a studio.
Familiarity also opens the door to noticing the unexpected,
opportunities that are compelling and thrilling. Haskell
explains: “There are things you are looking for and there are
things that just happen. When I am out in a plein air
environment, I keep my creative mind open so I can capture the
unexpected. It is always an arresting surprise, perhaps unusual
light in a scene or dramatic contrasts in the landscape.”
The first
couple of times Haskell chanced upon an image, he hesitated
because what he saw did not fit into his painting plans. He may
have been out to paint the canyon walls, but got fascinated by a
tree along the way. Still, the painter in him always won out
over the planner: “You simply stop and say, ‘This is it.’ You
immediately begin to paint your canvas. It’s intense and
inspiring. Now I am hoping for the unexpected.
Not Photographs
Plein air
artists are not photographers with a brush, simply recording
whatever happens to be in front of them. The scene is a catalyst
and inspiration for an emotional response that finds its way
into the finished piece. “The worst compliment anyone can give
me,” said Haskell, “is ‘Your painting looks just like a
photograph.’”
When
artists start out painting, their relationship to nature tends
to be more literal.
But as
they mature, it’s the emotional quality that provides
inspiration and challenge - perhaps a numinous moment when the
scene almost vibrates with energy or when the landscape is super
saturated with light.
“I don’t
try to copy reference photos,” he said. “I use them to put me
back into a place in time. I look at the images, and I remember
the scene and feeling. I try to get some of that emotion back
when I paint.”
In his
studio, Haskell transforms his 8”x10” or 9”x12” field studies
and digital images into paintings that are 24”x30” or larger.
Often, he alters part of the scene.
“You can
do a lot of modifications of light and color to make your
impression,” he said. It’s a creative license that allows him to
express his vision and to create the soft, soothing, and
peaceful paintings that have become his trademark.
In
Community
“I was
never in an art environment until I lived here,” said Haskell.
“I was always in the boondocks.”
When he
first became a full-time artist, Haskell studied the work of
internationally recognized plein air artists Curt Walters and
William Scott Jennings, who both live in Sedona.
“I
studied them anywhere I could find them,” he said. “I had
permanent loitering rights at the El Prado, where I would sit
for two to three hours in front of their paintings, figuring out
how they did it. I learned a lot from their work.”
The
immersion has paid off. Haskell has come into his own as a plein
air painter. He now teaches others how to get started, offering
courses and workshops at the Sedona Arts Center and the Mountain
Artists Guild in Prescott. He focuses on the key elements of
plein-air painting success: design, color harmony, distance
perspective, value blocks and center of interest.
“I teach
for my own selfish satisfaction,” he quips. “These are things
you struggle with throughout your entire career. When you show
someone else, it just hammers it home.”
Haskell
is a great champion of plein air painting. He loves to paint at
public functions to expose more people to the excitement of
plein air work. He is enthusiastic about the Sedona Plein Air
Festival because it brings art to the streets where it becomes
part of a community experience.
“When you
have that many quality artists together, the public can run into
them. It’s an opportunity for local residents to view work from
some of the top artists in the country and some emerging folks
like me.”
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