'Nature with a capital N'

By KRISTI ALBERTSON

This Week in the Flathead

Painting plus nature is a powerful combination for Kalispell artist Nicholas Oberling.

It’s what brought the Long Island, N.Y., painter to the valley in 1998. Opportunities for landscape painting didn’t exactly abound in New York City.

“I wanted nature with a capital N,” he said.

Oberling still has galleries on both coasts and across Montana. He and his wife, artist Jennifer Li, both paint in studios at their home.

Oberling always knew he wanted to paint.

He went to college in New York to study art but dropped out because of philosophical differences with the instructors. Teachers constantly emphasized new art, new artists, new techniques — often at the expense of painting’s classic masters, he said.

“I was always looking at past masters, saying, ‘Oh my god, how did they do this?’” he said.

He also was taken with artists from the Hudson River School such as Thomas Cole and Albert Bierstadt, who painted from life in the Hudson River Valley.

“You study from nature, and nature is always supreme,” Oberling said of the genre’s emphasis.

When the French Impressionists arrived on the scene, the new movement almost wiped out the Hudson River School, he said. He considers his own work a sort of continuation of that mid-19th century genre.

Oberling is a plein air painter.

“En plein air,” a French term that means “in the open air,” is used to describe a painting technique that strives to translate what one experiences outside onto canvas.

“I believe very strongly in painting from nature, not painting from a photo,” Oberling said.

“Photographs have ruined painting to a certain extent. We rely too much on them. It’s fresher, better-looking and the end results are better when people paint outside.”

Artists are more connected to their work when they’re painting from nature, not a photo, Oberling added.

“Sitting in the context of a studio, you turn your brain off,” he said.

“Outside you have only about an hour and a half before everything changes. You’re in the moment, focused intensely on it. It’s always a better painting.”

That better painting is because of what Oberling calls the “quality of spontaneity — or desperation sometimes.”

Although Oberling has been painting from nature from years, his long experience doesn’t guarantee success. Sometimes he can’t capture what he sees before the scene changes. Sometimes nature itself provides the challenge.

“The process is always fraught with a kind of danger,” he said. “I’m always struggling to be better. I’m only human; I make mistakes.

“That’s the thrill of painting out there,” he added. “You have to survive on your wits, basically.”

In recent months, Oberling has taken a page out of Public Broadcasting Service painter Bob Ross’ book and started broadcasting his technique to the world.

Oberling has uploaded several videos to YouTube demonstrating his painting techniques. The videos range from about four to 10 minutes long and are available at www.youtube.com/user/woodsmokestudio.

“I really feel strongly about teaching people my craft,” Oberling said.

To that end, the artist has taken on an increasing number of teaching opportunities. Later this month, he’ll teach a two-day plein air landscape painting class for adults. This spring, he taught Whitefish Middle School students the basics of oil painting.

“It’s not taught any more in schools,” he said. “Everything is sports, sports, sports. Sports are good, but there’s got to be art in there, too.

“Everybody has some aesthetic urges. Painting should be taught.”

The urge to share painting, especially plein air painting, with a broader audience also played a role in Oberling’s desire to start what is now called the Plein Air Paint Out.

He helped Kalispell’s Hockaday Museum of Art launch the event five years ago, with the idea of bringing 20 plein air painters to the valley and setting them up with easels for three days. Late in June, that’s usually not a problem, Oberling said.

“It’s usually dry, or there’s one part of one day that opens up,” he said.

The event was tied into Glacier National Park’s centennial for two years, he said, but this year, the Hockaday opted to bring the Paint Out back to the valley.

“They’ve partnered with several land trusts and conservations to paint on very special places, to make people aware of their special beauty,” Oberling said.

The Paint Out takes place June 20-22 at sites around the valley. All paintings created during the event will be sold during a party at the Hockaday at 5 p.m. June 23. The party and sale are open to public, who will get free admission to the museum.

For more information about the Paint Out, visit www.hockadaymsueum.org. For more information about Oberling, visit nicholasoberling.com.

Kristi Albertson, editor of This Week in the Flathead, may be reached at 758-4438 or at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.