Group preserves nature in the wild, and on canvas
When he talks about standing on the ice and loving the chance to "take the gloves off and go at it again," 28-year-old Ryan White of Elgin sounds as if he might be a hockey tough guy for the Chicago Blackhawks.
He actually does his work in harsher environs than a hockey rink. White is a member of the Wilderness Painters, a collection of artists who paint and draw, outside, every month of the year.
"I remember one morning when we got up and it was 4 degrees outside," says White, who spent about an hour piling on the layers for that day's open-air pastel session in Geneva's Fabyan Park along the frozen Fox River. "Standing in the snow for three hours, your feet are going to go."
The hands, however, are the key.
"My right hand went numb so I started painting with my left," says White, who wasn't bothered. "You could still walk away with a really nice piece."
The artists in this suburban "plein air" (open air) painting group know the landscape they put on the canvas. They are environmentalists and conservation volunteers with Poplar Creek Prairie Stewards, Citizens for Conservation and other groups. These artists preserve on canvas what they are preserving in nature for future generations.
"I've always loved nature. I've always been into camping and hiking and the outdoors," says Jenny Vogt of Streamwood. After working as a commercial artist for 25 years, Vogt now enjoys the fine art of painting the natural settings she got to know as a bird monitor and nature volunteer.
"It's kind of neat to do portraits where the restorations are happening," she says.
A naturalist who once worked for the Smithsonian, White is the naturalist at the Fox River Country Day School in Elgin. He remembers how a seemingly boring commute would end up inspiring a piece of art.
"I saw wonderful natural beauty hidden behind highways," White says.
With fellow wilderness painters, such as Kevin Hunter of Geneva and Kathy Spiess of Barrington, the artists capture the elements in their oil paintings, water colors, chalk drawings and sketches.
"Sometime Mother Nature becomes a part of your canvas literally," White says, explaining how paintings aren't immune from insects, leaves and dirt.
Neither are the artists.
"As a wilderness painter, sometimes it's hot and sweaty. You're contending with the bugs. It could be cold windy," Vogt says. "But those are all things we bring into our paintings. The wind, the changing light. Honestly, I'd have to say, that's kind of the magic of it all."
• The artists donate half the sale price of their open-air works to local conservation groups. To find out about upcoming shows, sales or painting sessions, visit the Web site www.wildernesspainters.com.