Wisdom of the masters: Three LPAPA artists share their insights about creativity and the artistic process
By MARRIE STONE
This month, in a departure from the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association’s (LPAPA) usual emphasis on landscape, they’re showing a unique exhibition dedicated to the human figure. LPAPA invited three established masters – Scott Burdick, Dan McCaw and Jove Wang – whose subject matters span the globe, cross genres and blur boundaries, all while capturing something authentic and universal about the human spirit. Beyond the Landscape will be on view through June 30.
Driven by their own curiosities, all three artists gravitate toward subjects who look nothing like them, often only to discover something true about themselves. Burdick travels the world – Tibet, India, Guatemala, Tanzania, Peru and beyond – to absorb people’s stories and render both their experiences and his own. McCaw, who paints in abstract expressionism, is drawn to the female form, imbuing his women with symbolism he acknowledges as profoundly personal. Wang, a Chinese native, paints western cowboys, Mongolian milkmaids and aristocratic ladies.
In a rare opportunity to sit behind the canvas with these three accomplished masters, LPAPA hosted a panel last Saturday night (June 7) to offer the public access to the mysterious thought process that informs how art gets made. What makes work successful? What distinguishes fine art from commercial? How much do these artists know about a painting before they begin?
Click on photo for a larger image
Photo by Jeff Rovner
LPAPA hosted a panel discussion last Saturday, June 7, for their latest Exhibition “Beyond the Landscape” – (L-R) Celeste Gilles (LPAPA vice president and moderator), Scott Burdick, Dan McCaw and Jove Wang
Meet the masters: Scott Burdick
I never paint anything I haven’t photographed myself. I need that personal relationship. That’s what art is.
Born and raised in Chicago, Burdick spent much of his childhood in hospitals, undergoing numerous operations for clubfoot that afflicted him from birth through high school. Art proved the perfect distraction. His mother bought books showing her son how to transform simple shapes into complicated objects.
In high school, Burdick took a life-drawing class and won a scholarship to the American Academy of Art. The first in his family to attend college, Burdick was soon studying under the legendary artist Bill Parks. After college, he continued his studies at the Palette & Chisel Art Club where he met his wife, artist Susan Lyon. They now live in North Carolina and travel the world in pursuit of their work.
“Even when I paint a photograph I made long ago, I’m reliving that time and remembering the stories and emotions,” Burdick said. “That comes through in the painting. I paint to connect with other people and the landscape.”
Click on photo for a larger image
Photo by Jeff Rovner
Scott Burdick poses with his oil painting “A Friend from Nowhere”
Dan McCaw
Like every kid, I got motivated by positive feedback. Encouragement feeds creativity. We’re all creative. It just gets suppressed, or we deny it as we grow up.
Born into a small Irish-Catholic mining town in Butte, Mont., McCaw wasn’t exposed to much art. His first memory of meeting an artist happened around age 7. He encountered a landscape artist painting on a sidewalk in Ennis, Mont. “I watched these trees appear out of nothing. He was like a magician,” McCaw said. “That sense of wonderment stuck with me – that somebody could produce something out of thin air. So, I started drawing.”
Click open story button to continue reading…
McCaw’s formal training took place at the San Francisco Academy of Art, the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and the Bongart School of Art in Santa Monica. He taught at the Art Center College of Design for more than 15 years and has had more than 40 solo exhibitions. McCaw published one book and numerous national and international articles. In 2007, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate degree by the San Francisco Academy of Art.
“The most important thing for an artist is curiosity,” McCaw said. “To see the possibilities within a subject. That’s my motivation to move from representational work to the things I do now.”
McCaw leaves some ambiguity in his work so the viewer can participate in the conversation. What you find becomes your own. If he explains too much, McCaw says he’s robbing you of your own experience.
Click on photo for a larger image
Photo by Jeff Rovner
Dan McCaw poses with his oil paintings “Anticipation” and “Serendipity”
Jove Wang
I never paint subject matter that is popular, nor do I cater to collectors. I want to pursue only what’s in my heart. I never follow the same path. That would make the work boring. Whatever I paint, the subject matter must touch my heart first.
When Wang arrived in America in 1990, he had only 40 dollars in his pocket. The artist was 28 years old, an honors graduate from the finest art institutions in China – the Jilin Art School and the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (now the China Academy of Art). Wang had apprenticed with master painter Gang Gu from the age of 7. Trained in both calligraphy and design, as well as classic artistic instruction, Wang came to the United States armed with formidable skills, a curious mind and an open heart.
His background in design led Wang to work for the Chinese government, designing exhibition pavilions throughout Europe and South America. He also contributed to the design of the Chinese Exposition Center in Spain for the 1992 World Expo. “I enjoy freedom,” Wang said, noting that those travel experiences opened his mind to creative opportunities outside China. “That was my main drive to move to the U.S.”
Today, Wang paints exclusively from the heart. His works are included in the permanent collections of several California art institutions, including the Bowers Museum, the Bakersfield Museum of Art and the art collection of Mission San Juan Capistrano. His work is also in the art collection of the Museum of Jilin, China.
Wang has been a LPAPA invitational artist for 10 years and had a solo exhibition at LPAPA in 2022 entitled The Great American West.
Click on photo for a larger image
Photo by Jeff Rovner
Jove Wang poses with his oil painting “A Sunday Afternoon”
Artistic Wisdom
Beyond what you’ll experience on LPAPA’s walls, each of these men shared insights into their process, as well as observations they’ve gleaned over their many decades about nurturing creativity, paying attention to your obsessions and cultivating your unique artistic voice. Here are a few of those thoughts.
On Creativity
The most important thing for an artist is curiosity. Look for all the possibilities within a subject. I was in New York, shooting photographs with my sons. I was interested in the shadows on a fire escape. My son was photographing cracks in the sidewalk. All of a sudden, I was brought into what he was looking at. For the rest of the day, I was looking at sidewalk cracks. As artists, we always need to be broadening our perceptions. –Dan McCaw
• • •
The more art you see, the more you open yourself up to other ways of perceiving. Art exposes you to things you may not have ever imagined. It can spark something in your own imagination. –Dan McCaw
• • •
We’re all creative. We’re just creative to different degrees, at different times, and for different reasons. Sometimes out of boredom or frustration. Sometimes out of the necessity to solve a problem. –Dan McCaw
Click on photo for a larger image
Courtesy of LPAPA
Jove Wang’s “Girl with a Lamb”
I have the gift of being able to travel and learn things that most people can’t experience first-hand. I put that energy into my paintings to share with the viewer. Everything I create is based on experiences I’ve had. It shows in the paintings. –Scott Burdick
• • •
We’re all trying to move the human spirit in different ways. There’s a difference between painting an ice cream cone versus tasting the ice cream and then rendering it. That emotional experience determines what marks you’ll make on the canvas. Artists are always trying to find something within themselves that they can put into their paintings. –Dan McCaw
• • •
Experimentation helps us get rid of our own self-imposed boundaries. The walls we build to protect ourselves become the walls that imprison us. We have to find ways to push through. –Dan McCaw
• • •
Life is my teacher. I am always out exploring, traveling, and looking for new experiences to keep my creative eye open and improving. –Jove Wang
Click on photo for a larger image
Courtesy of LPAPA
Dan McCaw’s “Connected”
On Process
I like painting with people who are better than me. That’s how I improve. It’s like playing chess. If you play with people who are better than you, you’ll learn. If you have an ego and always want to win, you’ll never get any better. –Scott Burdick
• • •
Remember the freedom we had as children when we thought cows could fly and trees could talk? When we became reality-based, we suppressed that freedom. –Dan McCaw
• • •
I’m always experimenting. Most of my experiments allow me to learn a new technique. Fill up your toolbox with different techniques. You might not use them for a long time, but you’ll have them when you need them. –Scott Burdick
• • •
Every painting I do is a challenge to move away from the safe, the familiar, the predictable. I have to be surprised all the time. –Dan McCaw
• • •
The more experimenting you do, the more you’ll learn. One piece of advice a teacher told me: If you screw something up, really screw it up. If you’re going to wash it off anyway, use it as an opportunity to experiment. –Scott Burdick
Click on photo for a larger image
Courtesy of LPAPA
Scott Burdick’s “My Time is Now”
Beyond the Landscape will be on display at the LPAPA Gallery through June 30. To learn more about the exhibition, visit the LPAPA website here.
