In a brief clip from Disney's 1958 short film 4 Artists Paint 1 Tree, Joshua Meador explained his palette knife technique. He stated he didn't thoroughly mix his colors on his palette, but let them mingle on the canvas. He then stated, "Thorough mixing of colors would kill all the life in it for me."

In this brief statement, there is a clue to what Meador thought important in his paintings, LIFE. Life is what Meador wanted to paint, whether it was landscape or seascape, and movement was one of the key ingredients he would strive for in capturing that life.

Where did he get his inspiration for capturing movement in his paintings? Without Joshua Meador here to answer that question, a possible answer can be found in the impressionists.

Camille Pissarro is considered the impressionist who best helped evolve how to use figures in impressionist landscape paintings.

The great majority of Pissarro's paintings were landscapes, many of them containing indistinct figures. The small quick strokes he used to create these suggestions of figures contained only enough visual information to make the figure recognizable, but not definite.

Pissarro used these indefinite figures to draw the viewer into his paintings. Once viewers zoom in on these figures, they find themselves inside the scene, experiencing the painting far more than if the scene were painted without figures.

Pissarro helped us understand why his sketchy figures were in the scene he was painting. With a dash of color or a sweep of his brush, we gain information about the figures, who they are and why they are there. We can recognize a hat, a scarf, a dress, boots, canes, long and even hair or beard styles, enough to place the figure in that time and place.

Pissarro was keenly aware of the need of color balance in his painting. He used his figures to introduce a striking color that otherwise was not in the scene. In a painting that was primarily white, blue or green, he would add a dash of red to one of his figures. Its amazing, when you imagine a Pissarro painting without that small dash of red, it is far less interesting.

As a graduate of the Art Institute in Chicago, Joshua Meador was keenly aware of the Impressionists and gained a secret or two which he incorporated into his own art. Joshua Meador once said, "I consider my self an impressionist, but impressionism can be informed by modern art."

In the early 1950's, Joshua Meador, his wife Libby and their son Philip visited Bodega Bay often. According to Philip, the Meador family would drive their "woody station wagon pulling their tear drop trailer from their home in La Crescenta. They would camp in Bodega Bay for days at a time.

Paintings like Bodega Dock #807 and Bodega Bay #1106 were painted during Meador's visits here, and are typical of his use of figures.

In the painting to the right, Joshua Meador paints an indistinct figure of himself, standing at easel on a dock in a wild mix of sail boat rigging, sails, fog, and busy marina life. Notice the touch of red on the canvas before him.

This painting was the inspiration of a 2015 Joshua Meador exhibition called "I Dreamt I Was Painting" when we still had our physical gallery in Bodega Bay.

Like Pissarro, Josh tried to show life in his landscapes and seascapes. He viewed the life in his painting as dynamic, changing and flowing. Both the scenes above had wet pavement and figures with different colored umbrellas.

Buildings in Meador's paintings seem to swing and sway as they are planted in a moving earth. Seldom do they have crisp squared off angles or precise lines, as you would find in an Edward Hopper painting. Meador's buildings have character, showing the scares of age. They sag due to their weight, their paint is thin or peeling, their wood is warped or splintered. They bend with the changing times as surely as the land upon seismically moves and the clouds race above on the winds.

And into landscapes with sagging old swaying buildings on moving, quaking land, he places indistinct figures. The figures are but a brief punctuation in the life of a landscape. Like Pissarro and the impressionists before him, Meador uses small indistinct figures to draw us into the painting. For Meador, people are part of the landscape, brief surfers on a flowing earth below a dynamic sky.

The more I see of Joshua Meador's paintings, I believe this to be true, he sought to paint the life of a scene, its dynamism, its movement.

Into each landscape or seascape, like Pissarro and the impressionists before him, he used indistinct figures to draw the viewers eye into the painting, he used figures to offer perspective, and he used figures to introduce a balancing color or shape. He also preferred to paint buildings worn down by time.

For Meador, people are but temporary wisps in the life, living briefly among aging and dissolving buildings on an ever shifting and reshaping landscape.

His paintings are his effort to capture that life, its brevity and its magnificence, and share it with us.

GRATON HOLIDAY ART EVENTS!

Four Graton art venues within walking distance of each other will have weekend activities December 4-5.

At least 10 Atelier One artist studios on Bowen St (including Linda Sorensen's paintings and a selection from Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery) will have Holiday Fine Art Sale open studios from 11:00am-5:00pm each day (see flyer).

The nearby Studio 9000 holds its Holiday Pottery Sale 11:00am-4:00pm, Lisa Beerntsen and Gina Kuta featured (corner of Donald St and Bowen St, also Dec. 11&12).

From Bowen St. across the Graton Rd intersection is the Old Firehouse building's Winter Fire A Holiday Pop-Up Show 10:00am-6:00pm each day with art, crafts, food, and music (see flyer for names).

And just east on Graton Rd is Graton Gallery, holding its Gallery Partners Holiday Show (with guest artists), this and other weekends 11:00am-4:00pm, and by appointment.

Since 2008, our gallery has sold 55 Joshua Meador paintings, including many from the Meador Family Collection. We will continue to acquire and sell Joshua Meador paintings which do not belong to the family. Forum pictured above is a painting of special interest in that it was once owned by Walt Disney. Forum was displayed at Walt's Smoke Tree Ranch in Palm Springs.

For an in-person viewing of any of these paintings, YOU WILL NEED TO CONTACT US and make an appointment. None of these paintings will be available for viewing without a request. We can show you a limited number of these paintings at our showroom in Graton. A possible viewing opportunity is the Graton Holidays event on December, 4 & 5 See the article (above) about the Holiday Sale in Graton.