I knew Roz for most of my younger life, she was like a second artist mother, and we kept in touch, so I was excited to find something she had written during Carmel’s extraordinary Bohemian era. It is a safe bet that this is the first time that this readable article has seen the light since 1946 (other than the Internet Archives, where it is virtually unreadable). I’m sure there’s much more to be gleaned from the Carmel Pine Cone archives, if they even exist. Funny, my mother’s cousin, Marie Gilman was the Carmel Librarian. If only I could go back in time. The Monterey Peninsula Herald is another source, but its impossible to scan their microfiche archives. No text. Read on. —Maureen Hurley, Spring Solstice, 2021
Carmel Pine Cone 1946-12-13
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1946
At Pat Wall Gallery
Sam Colburn, Carmel Water Colorist,
Currently In Farm-Group Period
By Rosalind Sharpe
While oil painters are a dime a dozen in this neck of the woods, watercolorists (particularly good ones) are scarce as hen’s teeth, and Sam Colburn, along with Royden Martin of the Carmel Valley, is not only one of the rare representatives of this art on the peninsula but enjoys the not inconsiderable distinction of being good enough to stack up with some of the best in the field anywhere. He is a young man who has come a long way since he first arrived here and started painting in 1937, and particularly has gained command of his medium during the last three or four years. People hope great things of “Sammy” whose work already is distinguished for its simplicity of form, and its finely concentrated mood quality and his achievement is particularly remarkable when one realizes that he is a virtually self-taught artist in a medium which is generally considered the most difficult of them all.
When Sam was traveling through France, Spain, Mallorca, England and Germany in the early ’30s, he did a little sketching, but although he had always been interested in painting it was “nothing that felt like a career,” and later, when he settled down in southern California selling cub airplanes, he attended some life classes in the adult education program and was fortunate enough to get a teacher who was mainly interested in sculptural form. “To hell with cast shadows and all that,” as Sammy put it. But it was only when he came to Carmel where he had a lot and decided to build a house that he actually got launched on an artistic career. This was in 1937.
“That decided me,” he said, “No further waverings. Painting? I drifted into it gradually, until I became' thoroughly involved, enmeshed."
As to why he chose water color instead of oil paint as a medium, his surprising answer, "I was intrigued with water color because it was very difficult. Besides. I am very much interested in luminosity. You can achieve effect with water color not possible in oil."
"The oil painter," he added with a grin, “has to carry hundreds of brushes, paint rags, tubes, easels, all sorts of paraphernalia. It clutters up the place.”
Sam, who is a thin, lanky individual with a deceptively casual air , who usually impresses people fOL being one of those characters who^drift through life without strain or undue exertion, is actually an extremely hard worker who rises nearly every morning around 6:30 or 7:30. ‘I get out very early when the sun is not high,” he said.
"The landscape is more dramatic in early morning or late evening." And when Colburn is really in his stride, he turns out two or three water colors a day. Some, however, take a lot of time. Others are more sketchy. But watercolor on the
[in tyith people and everyday living, ]. Sam had some pungent comments to offer.
“Art and artists are receiving a wider acceptance lately,” he said. "There is more interest, no matter in what kind of art. At one time artists were considered ‘precious.’ They were looked down upon as producers of nothing worthwhile. But people realize now that they have plenty to offer.”
“Museums,” he continued thoughtfully, “are very bad and even art galleries from one standpoint. People think they have to walk in and stand in awe. It scares them away from art and they think it’s something that has nothing to do with themselves. Paintings should be in homes and restaurants and bars and stores. Mainly in homes, where people live with them.
The quarrels between divergent schools of painting don't worry Colburn much, as his angle is that whether a painting is non-objective or representational it doesn't matter so long as it is good.
“Things seem so damned insecure in the world. There’s always the threat of the atom bomb. And perhaps there’s never been a period in history when more people have felt less secure. Possibly from this point of view the function of the artist may be to strive to paint pictures which show calmness and strength, because he’s trying to achieve it himself. Like the Paris contemporaries, who are reacting against the abstract school. However, non-objective and abstract art have never been at a higher peak than now in America. The peak occurred in France ten or twelve years ago. Abstractionists often are trying to get away from human emotions and their painting is intellectually cold. To my mind, this is one of the great dangers of abstract and non-objective art, this business of getting away from human feeling. It may be a good thing; but it sometimes seems an escape reaction.”
“Surrealism,” on the other hand, he appended as after-note, ‘is the product of unconscious conflicts and tensions. It is the product of emotional stress.
“But it doesn’t matter whether an artist paints in an academic way or whether he’s an abstractionist. I don’t always have too much of an idea of what is going to happen. This gives it an unexpected quality. There’s room for the spontaneous.”
And watercolors, unlike oils, of course, have to be done very quickly. The artist must perceive the landscape or subject all at once and when he starts working set it down rapidly exactly as he sees it without any false moves. A false move means ruining the whole thing, oier a period of years the water colorist develops his powers of concentration and perception along with the technique of handling the brush so that he is able to strip a subject down to its important essentials very quickly and execute it without losing the wholeness of his original perception—leaving leeway, of course, for feeling, new impressions, and ocasional accidents.
“When I first started painting," he remarked, “I was interested in the subjective quality of a landscape or subject. What came across to me. I still am intrigued by it. But lately there is more tendency to designing the space And creating form through use of color, mass and line.”
His paintings are nearly always calm, and when the reviewer asked whether this meant anything, Colburn laughed. “I don’t have any feeling against landscapes which have tyirmoil and trouble. It’s just that lately I’ve been interested in farm groups. While farm groups are not the main offering of the Carmel scene, they’re accessible up the valley. You might say that I’m in a farm group period from which I hope to emerge sometime.”
At an earlier stage he went through a “bar-period,” mainly of people sitting on bar stools, and whence was in Mexico, did a lot of figure work, Mexicans with big hats, peons, etc. As to art in general and as a whole is very difficult to control.
“Some artists say,” Sam Colburn went on, “that there’s a mathematical precision in painting, and that it finishes itself. I don’t believe that. I think there should be room for intuition, feeling. Of course, In watercolor there are a lot of fortunate and unfortunate accidents. You can’t plan or work over as you can in oils. One doesn’t know whether he’s a good artist or not. His own personal quality has to be such that it makes him different from everyone else. He may be influenced by other artists along the way; but his own stuff has to come through.”
In conclusion, Colburn said, “I am interested in redesigning spaces and quite interested in feeling also. Both academic painters and modern abstractionists frequently lack these qualities. One’s work must have a wholeness, an integrity of form and feeling.”
Two paintings by Sam Colburn were included In the group show sent by the Carmel Art Gallery back to the Grand Central Gallery in New York recently, and he was one of the two artists .whose work received favorable rqention in the New York Times, New York World-Telegram, Art News and Art Digest as well as other papers.
There will be two paintings, by Colburn in the water color show which will be hung at the Carmel Art Association Gallery January 1. Colburn is definitely coming along, and his work shows the impact of his desire to achieve something which has “wholeness and integrity of form and feeling.”
At Pat Wall Gallery
Sam Colburn, Carmel Water Colorist,
Currently In Farm-Group Period
By Rosalind Sharpe
While oil painters are a dime a dozen in this neck of the woods, watercolorists (particularly good ones) are scarce as hen’s teeth, and Sam Colburn, along with Royden Martin of the Carmel Valley, is not only one of the rare representatives of this art on the peninsula but enjoys the not inconsiderable distinction of being good enough to stack up with some of the best in the field anywhere. He is a young man who has come a long way since he first arrived here and started painting in 1937, and particularly has gained command of his medium during the last three or four years. People hope great things of “Sammy” whose work already is distinguished for its simplicity of form, and its finely concentrated mood quality and his achievement is particularly remarkable when one realizes that he is a virtually self-taught artist in a medium which is generally considered the most difficult of them all.
When Sam was traveling through France, Spain, Mallorca, England and Germany in the early ’30s, he did a little sketching, but although he had always been interested in painting it was “nothing that felt like a career,” and later, when he settled down in southern California selling cub airplanes, he attended some life classes in the adult education program and was fortunate enough to get a teacher who was mainly interested in sculptural form. “To hell with cast shadows and all that,” as Sammy put it. But it was only when he came to Carmel where he had a lot and decided to build a house that he actually got launched on an artistic career. This was in 1937.
“That decided me,” he said, “No further waverings. Painting? I drifted into it gradually, until I became' thoroughly involved, enmeshed."
As to why he chose water color instead of oil paint as a medium, his surprising answer, "I was intrigued with water color because it was very difficult. Besides. I am very much interested in luminosity. You can achieve effect with water color not possible in oil."
"The oil painter," he added with a grin, “has to carry hundreds of brushes, paint rags, tubes, easels, all sorts of paraphernalia. It clutters up the place.”
Sam, who is a thin, lanky individual with a deceptively casual air , who usually impresses people fOL being one of those characters who^drift through life without strain or undue exertion, is actually an extremely hard worker who rises nearly every morning around 6:30 or 7:30. ‘I get out very early when the sun is not high,” he said.
"The landscape is more dramatic in early morning or late evening." And when Colburn is really in his stride, he turns out two or three water colors a day. Some, however, take a lot of time. Others are more sketchy. But watercolor on the
[in tyith people and everyday living, ]. Sam had some pungent comments to offer.
“Art and artists are receiving a wider acceptance lately,” he said. "There is more interest, no matter in what kind of art. At one time artists were considered ‘precious.’ They were looked down upon as producers of nothing worthwhile. But people realize now that they have plenty to offer.”
“Museums,” he continued thoughtfully, “are very bad and even art galleries from one standpoint. People think they have to walk in and stand in awe. It scares them away from art and they think it’s something that has nothing to do with themselves. Paintings should be in homes and restaurants and bars and stores. Mainly in homes, where people live with them.
The quarrels between divergent schools of painting don't worry Colburn much, as his angle is that whether a painting is non-objective or representational it doesn't matter so long as it is good.
“Things seem so damned insecure in the world. There’s always the threat of the atom bomb. And perhaps there’s never been a period in history when more people have felt less secure. Possibly from this point of view the function of the artist may be to strive to paint pictures which show calmness and strength, because he’s trying to achieve it himself. Like the Paris contemporaries, who are reacting against the abstract school. However, non-objective and abstract art have never been at a higher peak than now in America. The peak occurred in France ten or twelve years ago. Abstractionists often are trying to get away from human emotions and their painting is intellectually cold. To my mind, this is one of the great dangers of abstract and non-objective art, this business of getting away from human feeling. It may be a good thing; but it sometimes seems an escape reaction.”
“Surrealism,” on the other hand, he appended as after-note, ‘is the product of unconscious conflicts and tensions. It is the product of emotional stress.
“But it doesn’t matter whether an artist paints in an academic way or whether he’s an abstractionist. I don’t always have too much of an idea of what is going to happen. This gives it an unexpected quality. There’s room for the spontaneous.”
And watercolors, unlike oils, of course, have to be done very quickly. The artist must perceive the landscape or subject all at once and when he starts working set it down rapidly exactly as he sees it without any false moves. A false move means ruining the whole thing, oier a period of years the water colorist develops his powers of concentration and perception along with the technique of handling the brush so that he is able to strip a subject down to its important essentials very quickly and execute it without losing the wholeness of his original perception—leaving leeway, of course, for feeling, new impressions, and ocasional accidents.
“When I first started painting," he remarked, “I was interested in the subjective quality of a landscape or subject. What came across to me. I still am intrigued by it. But lately there is more tendency to designing the space And creating form through use of color, mass and line.”
His paintings are nearly always calm, and when the reviewer asked whether this meant anything, Colburn laughed. “I don’t have any feeling against landscapes which have tyirmoil and trouble. It’s just that lately I’ve been interested in farm groups. While farm groups are not the main offering of the Carmel scene, they’re accessible up the valley. You might say that I’m in a farm group period from which I hope to emerge sometime.”
At an earlier stage he went through a “bar-period,” mainly of people sitting on bar stools, and whence was in Mexico, did a lot of figure work, Mexicans with big hats, peons, etc. As to art in general and as a whole is very difficult to control.
“Some artists say,” Sam Colburn went on, “that there’s a mathematical precision in painting, and that it finishes itself. I don’t believe that. I think there should be room for intuition, feeling. Of course, In watercolor there are a lot of fortunate and unfortunate accidents. You can’t plan or work over as you can in oils. One doesn’t know whether he’s a good artist or not. His own personal quality has to be such that it makes him different from everyone else. He may be influenced by other artists along the way; but his own stuff has to come through.”
In conclusion, Colburn said, “I am interested in redesigning spaces and quite interested in feeling also. Both academic painters and modern abstractionists frequently lack these qualities. One’s work must have a wholeness, an integrity of form and feeling.”
Two paintings by Sam Colburn were included In the group show sent by the Carmel Art Gallery back to the Grand Central Gallery in New York recently, and he was one of the two artists .whose work received favorable rqention in the New York Times, New York World-Telegram, Art News and Art Digest as well as other papers.
There will be two paintings, by Colburn in the water color show which will be hung at the Carmel Art Association Gallery January 1. Colburn is definitely coming along, and his work shows the impact of his desire to achieve something which has “wholeness and integrity of form and feeling.”
No comments:
Post a Comment