Art Dept Fall17
By Michele Malinchak
As a plein air painter, Brad Boyer has endured more than most artists would. To paint nature he has to be in it, even if it means risking hypothermia, being stung by bees, chased by hunters or getting stuck in the mud.
While these encounters are not common, they are part and parcel when your only studio is the great outdoors. For more than 30 years Brad has painted in the open air of Bucks and Lehigh counties and nothing has quelled his passion. His large impressionist landscapes are completed in one day and radiate with an energy that comes directly from his interactions with nature.
Painting from photographs has never been an option for him. “I like the three-dimensional quality of painting from life,” he said. “A camera can’t duplicate what a human being is seeing and feeling at that moment. That day and time will never come back.”
Following the tradition of Impressionist painters like Edward Redfield who strapped his canvas to a tree in severe weather, Brad does not shy away from adverse conditions. His vigorous approach to plein air painting is, in his own words, “not for the faint of heart.”
Starting at dawn and finishing at dusk, he completes his paintings in roughly 12 hours. He executes his work with great rapidity and force using thick brush strokes and bold colors that capture the changing light. “l stay there all day until dusk and use a flashlight to navigate out of the woods,” he said.
Though he loves to paint in all seasons, winter is by far his favorite. “The winter air, light, and snow exhilarates me with an overwhelming joy like nothing else. Where everything is glistening with white, yellows, blues and violets. Houses with snow on the roofs and streams with snow-covered rocks and evergreens. A magical time of the year.”
However, freezing temperatures can be challenging and his expeditions remind one of Canadian television’s Survivorman. Using a walking stick Brad is known to hike through deep snow in 20-degree weather carrying 75 lbs. of equipment on his back. “This method of painting outdoors is very physically demanding,” he said, “and requires mental stamina, physical fitness, and a love and passion for what I'm doing.”
Before he starts he builds a fire to stay warm and makes sure his canvas and easel are secure from the blowing winds. To protect his eyes from the sun, he wears a wide brim hat and puts black wax under his eyes like the kind baseball players use. He also brings a change of dry clothes to prevent hypothermia.
His paints will also freeze unless he mixes them with lots of linseed oil. Even so, the cold air affects how the paint dries on the canvas. To illustrate this, Rich Timmons, owner of Rich Timmons Fine Art Gallery, pointed to a 48 x 60 painting by Brad entitled, Winter Village of Seemsville. “You can see how the paint dried fast creating a crackling effect.”
Other seasons pose their own problems. In summer he’s been stung and chased out of the woods by bees. In the fall he wears blaze orange and dodges hunters. Once he was abruptly told to leave by a bow hunter sitting in a tree, so he tries to paint on Sundays when hunting is banned. Another time his car was stuck in the mud and he spun his wheels leaving deep tire tracks in the grass. He knocked on the nearest door for help and the home owner was a police officer. He towed Brad’s car but was not happy about the grass and insisted that Brad replant it. Upon hearing this a neighbor offered to replant it and Brad thanked him before hurrying away.
Brad’s paintings are homages to the Pennsylvania Impressionists who continue to inspire him. He has studied his favorites, Fern Coppedge, Edward Redfield, Daniel Garber and Walter Baum extensively throughout the years. During work breaks he used a magnifying glass to scrutinize their paintings in books and magazines. So profound was their influence that he said, “I feel like part of them are in me.”
He also admires the work of Claude Monet, Georges Seurat and Camille Pissarro. In addition, he has high regard for the work of contemporary plein air painter, George Gallo.
Brad was born and raised in Bethlehem, PA along with a brother and sister. His love of nature sprang from frequent hikes in the woods that he and his brother took with their beagle named Ginger.
From an early age he had a natural ability to see something and draw it. When he was ten he and a friend would have contests who could draw Mickey Mouse or other cartoon characters.
Brad attended Liberty High School in Bethlehem and later Dieruff High School in Allentown where he graduated in 1974. His French heritage and interest in impressionism led him to enroll at the Académie Julian in Paris during the summers of 1976-78. The school was also attended by such notable artists as Edward Redfield and Childe Hassam.
In addition to being an artist, Brad has worked as a certified welder, car salesman, maintenance man and delivery driver. While in his 30s he was also a fashion model for the Kemcy Model Agency in New York City for about two years. “I always wanted to be a model and it taught me how to persevere,” he said. “You get used to lots of rejection.” He did commercials and photo shoots in the Hamptons on Long Island. Shortly after one of these shoots Brad was grocery shopping and at the checkout line noticed a familiar face on the cover of Family Circle magazine. “It was a picture of me from the four-day shoot that I did in the Hamptons. Delighted and surprised, I purchased several issues and left the store.”
He’s also been a kick boxer for 35 years in the martial arts. “I trained in Allentown with Mike Rank, a fighter that ranked 8th in the world at kickboxing and a Korean 7th degree black belt, Jon Chun Kim who was a national Taekwondo champion of Seoul, Korea.”
Part of his training involved breaking boards with his bare knuckles. “To toughen them up I would do push-ups on the cement sidewalks with my bare knuckles,” he said.
Even so, he admits, “Hiking through snow and painting all day is more grueling than kickboxing.”
Brad tones his canvas light gray or if painting in winter, a yellow orange. Using no preliminary sketches, he paints the horizon line first, then applies colors as he sees them and lets the image emerge. He doesn’t adhere to any rules adding, “If there’s yellow in the distance, I paint it.” Form and color, not values, are most important to him. One can see the influence of Fern Coppedge in the bright rainbow of colors he often uses.
“The first initial impression of the color is always right,” he said. Paint is applied in spots rather than broad patches. He puts contrasting colors like yellow and blue side by side letting the eye optically mix colors.
“To create grays and darker colors I don’t use black, instead I mix complementary colors together, such as yellows and purples, blues and oranges, and reds and greens.” He also softens his colors by mixing them with white. “I have two palettes,” he said. “One has cool colors on the left and warm colors on the right. The other palette has white paint that I mix with other colors to create pastel shades.”
He often uses a palette knife, foliage brushes and even a rag to create texture. Some of the brushes he uses are from artist Bob Ross who taught art on the TV show, “The Joy of Painting.” Brad picked up several tips by watching the show over the years.
There are no hard lines in his landscapes and he often uses broken lines to define form. The form creates its own lines. “Precision isn’t the key—I let nature do its thing and go for it. It’s more of a subconscious act and I’m not even thinking about what I’m painting,” he said.
One effect he strives for in all his paintings is something Claude Monet called “all-encompassing light,” meaning everything is lit up all at once with sunshine and light. By adding light effects from morning, afternoon and dusk Brad is able to show how natural form and light interact.
He has done several paintings of the Seemsville Bridge and Hokendauqua Creek in Northampton County. Hokendaqua, meaning “stream looking for land,” is one of his favorite spots to paint. In the 18th century the village of Hokendaqua was inhabited by Unami Indians and was also along the route of the infamous Walking Purchase. “There is a spirituality I can feel when I paint there,” he said.
He has painted more than 1,000 works, many of which are in private collections and has had 103 exhibitions both here and abroad.
Brad has received numerous awards such as the 2010 New Hope Impressionism Award at the Phillips Mill Art Exhibition for his painting, Carversville Creek. Other awards include: Arts for the Parks, the Impressionist Society in France, the Paris Salon Gold Medal and the Walter Baum Award. He was also a Martha Stewart Fine Art Nominee in 2011 and 2012.
Brad teaches adult classes and gives seminars on plein air painting and impressionist painting techniques. He also does commissioned work and currently his work can be seen at Rich Timmons Fine Art Gallery, 3795 Route 202, Doylestown, PA. Phone 267-247-5867 or on line at www.3795gallery.com. You can also view paintings on his website, bradboyerart.com.