Editor’s note: This story is the second installment in a series profiling the three featured artists of New Perspectives, a biennial group exhibition at Gallery Los Olivos.
One of the joys of painting landscapes for Lompoc local Neil Andersson is occasionally finding new places to capture on a whim—sometimes spontaneously, while out and about on an unrelated errand, for example. Andersson was driving on Highway 101 when he spotted one of his landscape subjects featured in an upcoming group show, New Perspectives, at Gallery Los Olivos.
“I was struck by the way the clouds formed a great diagonal movement that contrasted to the horizontal landscape,” Andersson said, recalling why he chose to pull over and photograph the area with the intention of painting a studio piece.
The painting is simply titled Near Los Olivos, as it captures a patch of land you can find near the Highway 154 exit into town. But as Andersson explained, it wasn’t so much the location itself that grabbed his attention. It was actually the weather that caught Andersson’s eye.
“I really enjoy painting clouds,” said Andersson, who focused more on capturing the details of the sky in his oil landscape rather than the land and trees below.
Andersson postulates that his penchant for cloud painting came from his upbringing, far from the sunny skies that often define the Central Coast.
“I was born and lived in the Northwest most of my life, so I’ve had a lot of experience painting clouds—it’s always fun,” Andersson said. “Clouds are always good, as they add compositional interest to the sky.”
Evident from its title, a cloudy sky also takes center stage in Andersson’s Park Pathway on a Cloudy Day, another oil landscape featured in New Perspectives. Like Near Los Olivos, this studio piece was also painted from a reference photograph.
Park Pathway on a Cloudy Day is just one of many landscapes Andersson has based on photos he’s taken at Beattie Park in Lompoc. Other Beattie Park pieces include Eucalyptus Tree and Pathway, which was previously showcased in Gallery Los Olivos’ Winter Salon exhibition.
“Usually when I work from photos, I’ll change things to make a more interesting composition or edit out things that I think aren’t important,” said Andersson, while explaining nuanced differences between the original photo that inspired Park Pathway on a Cloudy Day and the final piece itself.
“I usually change the foliage—and in this case, like others, I simplified the forms to make them more geometric,” Andersson said.
One of his favorite aspects of the painting is ambiguity, as the trail disappears within the frame, leaving viewers to imagine for themselves where it might lead to.
“I like the way the pathway leads the eye through the painting to an unseen place in the distance,” he said.
During the course of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, Andersson has found ample time at home to paint from reference photos. But some of his most recent pieces were completed outdoors and on location as well, including Santa Ynez River at Solvang. Unlike the previous pieces Andersson discussed, there isn’t a single cloud to be found in this plein air painting.
“It was painted over a couple of sessions when the sky was beautifully clear and the leaves just starting to turn golden,” Andersson said. “One of the great things about painting from nature is not only are you outside in the open air—a good thing during the pandemic—but the painting becomes almost like a souvenir.
“I have paintings I’ve done one on location 30 years ago and when looking at them, I can still remember the place, where I set up, the paint I used, and details that otherwise would have been long-forgotten,” he said.
Most of Andersson’s oil pieces set for display at Gallery Los Olivos, once New Perspectives opens in February, were painted on linen and will be showcased alongside the artworks of his fellow featured artists, Karen McGaw and Jim Tyler.
“Both are very accomplished artists, and I’m excited about our show,” Andersson said. “I think our styles are very complimentary and that our work will look great together.”
Stay tuned for the final chapter of Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood’s three-part series on New Perspectives. Send comments to cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jan 21-28, 2021.
