Seven painters from the Northwest are inspired by what surrounds them
From misty seascape and harbor scenes to rugged mountain terrain to rolling grasslands and farms, Washington state supplies artists with inspiration from a variety of land and climate variations. On the coast, in particular, the weather offers a challenge to plein-air painters. But as you'll see in these pages, there are a few hardy souls out there happily enduring the drizzle and chill to translate the freshness of the outdoor experience into art. Others bring the excitement of the land and water back to the studio in sketches, photographs, and memories. Here is a look at seven Washington-based painters and their diverse artistic responses to the place they call home.
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Pouring over art books that were banned by the Chinese government but secretly shown to Xiaogang Zhu in the mid-1970s by a friend in the Beijing library confirmed for the young artist what he already suspected:
The painting style he was powerfully drawn to was that of the French Impressionists. In art school at the end of the Cultural Revolution, Zhu was exposed to very little worldwide art history. What he did have, however, were hours and hours of plein-air painting practice along the canals near his college on the Yangtze River delta in southern China. When Zhu settled near Olympia, WA, in 1993, after earning a master's degree in fine art from Virginia's Radford University, his heart and palette found themselves at home in the shimmering light and reflections of this water infused region.
Zhu's primary medium over the years has been gouache, an opaque water-based paint whose layered use presents an appearance similar to oils. Today Zhu, whose work is widely collected nationally and internationally, does most of his painting in his studio. Yet his imagery of harbors, boats, and city scenes radiates an energy and aliveness that gives the impression of being painted on location. He is represented by Howard/Mandville Gallery, Kirkland, WA Waterworks Gallery, Friday Harbor, WA; Saks Galleries, Denver, CO (which presents a one-man show of his work in November); Texas Art Gallery, Dallas, TX, Nedra Matteucci Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM; Eisenhauer Gallery, Martha's Vineyard, MA and Trailside Galleries, Scottsdale, AZ, and Jackson, WY.
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