Hello, from New Mexico, USA!
My name is Lee Gordon Seebach. I’m a painter and I work mostly in oil colors but also watercolors. For many years, I was an “en plein air” or “work from life” painter exclusively. Some of the best, most meaningful times of my life have been when I was communing with Mother Nature in this way: just me, my paints, my folding French easel, and my canvas. I would respond with “Oh wow, I’ve got to paint that!” whenever I found something that inspired and challenged me. This activity is one of the most beautiful experiences that a person can have. Many of my posts here on Hive are the results of working en plein air.
Painting along Oak Creek, Sedona, Arizona in 1998.
These days, with modern technology, I’m able to work from reference photos on my large iMac screen that are of such high quality that it’s almost like working directly from life. Even though working directly from the subject is better, I can avoid all the time and hassle of going outside to paint. And, I can get a lot more painting done in my studio with all the comforts and convenience afforded to me. I still go out to paint from Mother Nature, however, just not as much as before. I now have the best of both worlds!
I am one of those “painterly painters” that you may have heard about. I want my work to show the excitement of brushstrokes applied with economy and directness. There’s a certain kind of pleasurable dynamic tension that occurs when a painting looks authentic yet is deftly painted with a human hand. I leave out small details except where needed. This leaves something to the imagination of the viewer to “finish” the painting in their minds, allowing them to participate in the artwork. The overall effect of a painterly painting gives the feeling that the painting was done with ease and joy. I like this.
The handbook for the painterly painter is “Hawthorne of Painting” by Charles W. Hawthorne (1872-1930). This amazing little book is jam-packed with wisdom for painters, and it’s the one book I would recommend above all the other thousands of art books out there. Yet, it’s under 100 pages and costs less than $10! Even just reading the introduction and the conclusion is worth years of art school, it’s that good. Hawthorne just cuts through all the details and clutter and gets right to the heart of what painting is all about and how to approach it. Yes, of course, get information wherever you can find it, but this book is an absolute must for anyone who wants to paint.
I have a website at https://leegordonseebach.com if you’d like to read my entire resume and see other works. This is also where I sell my work since I sell directly to my clients.
"Tea Pot" oil on panel 20"x18" Painted from a setup in my studio under north light.
Some of my artist-heroes and role models: John Singer Sargent, Anders Zorn, Nicolai Fechin, Joaquin Sorolla, Antonio Mancini, John F. Carlson, Willard Metcalf, Edward Hopper, Aldro T. Hibbard, Bettina Steinke, Richard Schmid, and Abram Arkipov.
A bit of history: I grew up on an Iowa farm. I went to art school in Chicago, Illinois, at the American Academy of Art from 1968 to 1972. I then continued to paint along Lake Michigan, the city streets, and in the forest preserves until I moved to the American Southwest in 1979. I eventually moved to Taos, New Mexico in 1984 and painted that beautiful area until 1998 when I moved to Sedona, Arizona for a few years. I then spent five years in Los Angeles teaching at art schools and doing a lot of figure drawing and painting before relocating back to Iowa then New Mexico, where I now have a studio near Artesia.
So here I am on Hive and I hope you enjoy seeing my posts!
Cheers!