 |
 |
| Edgar Payne
The Sierra Divide, 1921
Oil on canvas 24" x 28"
|
Although the couple sometimes collaborated, there was
also a subtle competition between husband and wife. Edgar had little
formal training, which consisted of attending the Chicago Art Institute
only briefly for six months and mostly learning painting from attending
gallery and museum exhibits. However, Elsie was more formally trained,
attending the Best Art School in San Francisco. After graduation,
she gained a name for herself working as a commercial and advertising
illustrator. On one of her visits to Chicago, she was immediately
offered many jobs because of her fine reputation as an excellent artist.
Initially, in the early stages of their marriage, Edgar and Elsie
worked side-by-side, but after a while they rarely painted the same
views. Edgar enjoyed painting the grandeur of mountains and expansive
vistas, while Elsie preferred more intimate scenes. (One notable exception
is their pair of paintings done at Lake Louise, showing similar views
from slightly different perspectives.) Although Elsie did paint some
landscapes while accompanying Edgar on his travels, she actually preferred
figurative work. According to Mrs. Hatcher, her mother attempted to
further distance herself from her husband’s work by painting primarily
with gouache rather than in oils.
Both Elsie and Edgar were active in the California Art Club. For a
number of years, Elsie was exhibition chairman for the Club, and paintings
for exhibitions were judged in her Ozeta Terrace Studios. Although
Edgar was elected Club President in 1926, he promptly resigned to
free up his time to paint in the Sierras. In these early days, the
CAC would hold an annual event at a community dance hall in Los Angeles.
Evelyn’s favorite memories are of dancing all night around the big
dance floor.
Along with his brief tenure as President of the California Art Club,
Edgar Payne was also the first President of the Laguna Beach Art Association.
Meetings of the member artists were held at his studio and in a small
rented gallery space where they also displayed their work. Elsie painted
the sign for the gallery and Edgar cut cheesecloth to soften the sunlight
coming through the windows. Artists took turns managing the gallery.
Elsie was also an active member of a number of other art associations
and was particularly fond of the group, Women Painters of the West.
While I was visiting with Mrs. Hatcher, she showed me a watercolor
palette that she had at one time used for her own work. Her parents
had helped her choose the colors. Extrapolating from this palette,
I tried to identify the colors of oil paint that Edgar might have
used, and concluded the following: Hookers Green, Cadmium Yellow Light,
Cadmium Red Light, Van Dyke Brown, Alizarin Crimson, Indian Red (Red
Ochre), Indian Yellow, and Payne’s Gray (although not named for him,
Edgar liked to entertain the idea that it was). And for his blue,
I suspect he probably used Ultramarine Blue, rather than Cobalt. Vermilion
is also likely to have been on his palette. As his daughter explained
to me, the painters of his time credited Edgar with being the first
to portray the blue-hued California hills with a touch of this bright
red. Edgar Payne never used black on his palette.
Edgar Payne painted during the day since he preferred to paint only
with natural light. However, as Mrs. Hatcher recalls, her father spent
his evenings drawing in black and white, sketches which he used for
experimentation and thinking through his principles of landscape painting.
These were the drawings that evolved into the thumbnail compositional
sketches that became the core of his classic book on landscape painting.
Mrs. Hatcher owns one particular small painting that has a special
story. In 1928, when Edgar caught pneumonia, his doctor instructed
him to stay indoors, which meant he couldn’t go out to work in his
studio. He accommodated by staying home and borrowing Elsie’s gouache
to paint several small compositions from memory. The painting that
Mrs. Hatcher owns depicts an invented Swiss mountain scene. The work
appears to have been quickly painted and retains his characteristic
thick daubs of oil paint. According to Mrs. Hatcher, weathering the
art world’s change to modernism was difficult for her father and he
suffered acutely. He was involved with the group, Sanity for the Arts,
which was dedicated to preserving traditional art. Edgar was antagonistic
to abstract work primarily because landscape painting meant such a
great deal to him and mountains held for him a spiritual meaning.
In contrast, Elsie was very open to modernism.
Fortunately, during my visit with Mrs. Hatcher, I was also able to
paint the same day for a short time in sunny fifteen-degree weather.
I showed the resulting painting to Mrs. Hatcher for her comments.
I am grateful for her hospitality and the interview. I also feel honored
that she critiqued my work. Now I can say that members of two generations
of the Payne family have influenced my own work.
|
