Painting A Condition

My son Tyson Weihs asked me to paint a painting for his flagship office in Houston. His office, Foreflight Mobile is a entrpreneurial business he developed that builds intelligent apps for pilots. Foreflight helps pilots stay connected to the important preflight intelligence information wherever they are, in the car, at the FBO, or in the cockpit. He wanted the painting to reflect a condition that pilots sometimes face. As well as make an artistic statement in his chic office space. He named THE painting "Instrument Meteorological Conditions." Or IMC, a term used by pilots. It is sized, 50 x 65.

My narrative was to show this condition that pilots sometimes encounter, in PAINT. When hangiing it, right away, his employees saw the impression of weather. One said, "Oops, there it is, a place of space, no, not yet, still vast, then there... there, that may be a clearing." Now I am not a techie nor a pilot, so I felt the reaction was all good. I told them the painting was FREE of association to a point, it is what you personally get from it. More dialogue, good feelings of the vastness of it. All who work for Tyson are all pilots, and all were into the narrative and felt the weather and the conditions.

As a painter we get the task of winning approval from the onlookers and the clients. Or not. When you do get that approval, it is an amazing feeling, especially when it is a family member. They sometimes are your only critics. I especially value those opinions because it is honest as they know what they like and not necessarily know art, so we have great conversations. Sometimes I get an e mail that says, "I get it now, it took me a few months, but now I see it and feel it." That is always nice. It makes me feel my work has a presence.

Since I do art that feels like a place or feels like a space, I get engaged into a lot of conversations about my art. Some don't get it and need an explanation. Most like to learn, some shy away becasuse it is an unknown area to them. I like to be able to teach what I know by engaging them. Most people are moved by the color, and a lot of people say, "I don't understand abstract, but I love YOUR abstracts." I use paint to paint texture with paint, and that is what they can understand. They also understand by really taking time to really look into it. 

Some potential buyers sometimes don't get what I do. But always like to hear about it. The galleries that do like what I do sell it well by explaining it well. They and we together have great rapport because it is a narrative between the seller and the buyer. All say it is a great opportunity to learn and grow with art. Often, observers remember my paintings and come back to visit it again or show it to a friend. Then after several encounters, they buy. And my buyers often come back, so I have now many multiple buyers.

I always tell my students whom I mentor, "paint what you feel, whatever it is." I teach often those that just want to paint something simple like flowers or trees, as I do too when moved, and that is super fine. They are painting what they know and like and if that is the case, their work will reflect their love of it. Never copy, it is not you, it is someone else's condition. Copy what you see or feel with your own eyes out in the vast world. Not everyone can paint like I do, and I can't paint like them, so we are all experiencing a condition that is only revelent to us. I always stop and sigh when I see a realistic tree painted well, the flow of the limbs and strength of the trunk, feeling the wind through it. That condition of excellence is marvelous when done beautifully. I tend to paint the texture and the idea of the tree. 

Once I complimented an artist on the beauty of his trees, how they has such personality, and he remarked that he loved my texture, so there, we all do what we can do. I keep painting the paint, telling stories with paint and color, letting the paint keep the narrative often starting with my own idea of what it will look like, but letting go of that idea completely when the paint paints the paint. It becomes the conditions of a place or the textures of the paint. I love it when a client asks me to paint a feeling of a place. And when it is family, a bonus. That is what I do. I paint the paint.