Jeffrey Baumgartner - Chicago Actor and Artist
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“I looked along the San Juan Islands and the coast of California, but I couldn't find the palette of green, granite, and dark blue that you can only find in Maine.” – Parker Stevenson

8/31/2012

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Shrimp Boat, Gloucester Harbor. Check out these reflections. Awesome (photo)
Day 4- Friday

Arrive Gloucester by 7am and have a look-about in search of boats to paint. Winding through town and I am floored and absolutely charmed. Pull in to the harbor and find a ship yard; take a bunch of reference photos, but looks tricky trying to paint here on the piers, lots of “no trespassing” signs, that sort of thing. Hasn’t always discouraged me in the past, but… well, these are sailors and fishermen and they look fairly tough. I am wearing my “Steppenwolf Theater” tee shirt, you kind of know what I am saying?

So I continue making my way around the harbor, more stops, more boats. I come up to a turn in the road, and here is Rocky Neck Art Colony, one of the oldest in the nation. There also is the Gloucester Stage Company that I just passed; Israel Horovitz was its founding artistic director since the 70’s till 2006. I am becoming more and more enamored of this magical place.

Winding through Rocky Neck, galleries sprawling throughout; make a turn and there is my boat. Holy Toledo, is it beautiful! I march into the yard and make inquiry, asking permission to do a painting. I am directed to the head of the yard, she introduces herself to me as “Viking Gustafson” – okay, that’s rather cool. She is General Manager of Gloucester Marine Railways. I have struck gold – she is entirely accommodating. "We love our artists here. Several painted here the past couple of weeks, one right over there yesterday. Set up wherever you like", she says, "just be careful and mind the open doors where there will be lots of traffic." 


I am on fire and ready to paint. 

Heading back to the Kia for equipment and I stop in my tracks, not twenty feet from where I just was conversing with Viking. Two pennies – one up, one down; I decide it is yin yang. A show of balance. These are my pennies from heaven. They are a shotgun blast of good luck, good journeys, 'Irie-Mon', I’ve-got-yer-back, guardian-angel style. And they are here on the very spot where I will paint. On closer examination, the up penny appears to be from 1962, year of my birth. Okay. Let’s rock n roll!

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Pennies from Heaven, Guardian-Angel style!
I set up the easel and begin with a sketch, which is not always the case, but here I feel a need for clarity insofar as composition and direction. Too, I have been on the road driving, and should warm up a bit, find a groove. The painting comes together quite quickly and I am working larger than usual – after all, it’s a HUGE ship! I have a 20 x 16” canvas rather than my usual 11 x 14”.

This wooden boat arrived in the yard week or so ago and is anticipated to be ready to launch by end September. It is the famed “Highlander Sea,” a Boston pilot ship. It is almost 122’0” in length and the beam mast is 25’ tall. It was built in 1924 and the current owner is selling it for an asking price of $2 million. The crew has been teasing me while I have been painting, having fun. When I hear the guy working on it say its sale price, I reply, “Hey, that’s weird, when I finish this painting, its sale price will be two million. That’s crazy, why don’t we just swap?”

Another guy behind me, a crew member, watching me paint, leans up and says soto voce, in his best Gloucester ‘downeastern’ accent, “If I were you, I’d keep the painting.” I ask, “You mean that if I threw this painting into the water when it was done, at least I would be assured it might float?” “Oh, this boat will float, don’t you doubt it,” he says. “They are just so danged expensive to maintain.”

The accent is infamously: “Paak the Caa in Haavaad Yaad” for Park the Car in Harvard Yard.

And doubly funny to me: these guys working in the yard, all of them, they all bear an uncanny resemblance to Robert Shaw, "Quint" the shark hunter, in “Jaws.” All of them. Talk like him, same teeth-or lack thereof-wearing exactly the same clothes. And, I suspect, many of them perhaps drink much the same as he.

So. I finish the painting, shy of three hours. I want to pose a picture standing with Viking at the painting. She throws a tee shirt at me, “wear it proud.” It reads, “Gloucester Marine Railways.” I am loving it. Put it on, and I begin speaking exactly like Robert Shaw. Just kidding.

I am very pleased with the outcome of the painting. It's a good painting, really. Asking price: $ two million, ha! And I'll give you a ride in my new boat, then drop you off in my new Fiat (you gots ta read the blog, people,  to get these references... :) 


I finish a bag of trail mix for breakfast and bid all adieu in the yard – they have been very kind to me. Heading out of Rocky Neck, I take a turn into a residential neighborhood, looking for another spot, and I happen on a woman sweeping her drive. I ask if she might have any suggestions. She says, want to look in the back yard and see if you see anything? She introduces me to her husband, George. George shakes hands, he has an empty Heineken bottle in his hand, a tad unsteady and reeking of three days' effort. It’s ten in the morning.

Don’t catch her name, she disappears into the house. I will call them “George and Martha.” However, they have a remarkable and expansive home, impeccably manicured, and now I get it, why I was invited for a perusal of the back yard: the house is directly on the harbor and we are looking into the town and port of Gloucester. It is a spectacular view, this view of George and Martha’s.

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The Schooner "Highlander Sea", Gloucester Harbor, Mass; oil, 20x16" Painted at Gloucester Marine Railways
George-of duo George-and-Martha-tells me to use the access road that snakes along the harbor below their property to get to the iconic Gloucester paint factory located on the point of the harbor. It is amazing. Shuttered. It was recently purchased by a not-for-profit organization and will be newly outfitted as a research center for marine studies, as is my understanding.  I have George's blessing to use the road; I have a hesitation to ask for a Heineken, but then think better of it. It's ten-fifteen in the morning. I thank them and off I go.

As I pull up to the gate and begin unloading gear, up pulls the owner, CEO of the organization, a very charming Scotsman. Oh, this serendipity, it simply astounds! I give my story, he tells me to use the property as I like to get the best perspective, oh, lock up the gate when I leave. I hear him tell someone he is running into town for some garbage bags, something. I grab a five-spot and ask him to bring me two waters as I will be in direct sun the next few hours.  Remember my budget, those five dollars are not anticipated, every dollar counts. But he has just told me that he is fund-raising $2 million for the project. I almost suggest that he can have my new boat, also worth $ 2 million....

When he returns about twenty minutes later, bearing two ice-cold waters, he reaches for change and I say, oh, please, put it toward the effort (thinking it will be cents). Tell him kiddingly that I will need a tax write-off receipt. But then I see the bottled waters are only $1.19 each. Shoot, I think, could have used that change. But he is, thanks in large part to my help, well on his way now towards the cool two million in funding :)
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The shuttered Gloucester Paint Factory. I will paint two hours and then a storm comes in, I clear out, run for cover (photo)
It will become an even better day of painting after I leave the paint factory, but I shall cut to the chase. The storm passes quickly and I go into town and begin a third painting. I lean the boat against a tree near where I am painting, many people stop by and comment.  Decide to end the day as I lose daylight and get an early attack on the day tomorrow.
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"In our definitions, we grope after the spiritual by describing it as invisible. The true meaning of spiritual is real; that law which executes itself, which works without means, and which cannot be conceived as not existing." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

8/30/2012

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Day 3 - Thursday

Break camp at Lake Erie, empty everything from car onto picnic table and re-organize, re-pack the car. Much more efficient. I know where everything is and can now find it when needed, including canvases and framed paintings. I do not have the cargo storage on top of the Kia as during the California trip in May & June, so this makes getting at things much easier. 


Hit the road and prepare myself for another eight and a half hour day of driving.  Will try to get to spitting distance to Kennebunk so as to arrive Saturday noonish. Looks like Gloucester, Mass, puts me there and I can paint all day on Friday. I will spend the holiday weekend with Jeff & Leigh, day trip from their place Monday and Tuesday, and participate in a Paint Out in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, on Wednesday. It is from Boothbay that I will catch the ferry to Monhegan Island on Friday. On the way, hope to get to Portland Head, the first and arguably most beautiful lighthouse in the States; it was ordered by George Washington in the late 1700's.

I land at a truck stop an hour this side of Gloucester and sleep for six hours. I am ready to paint.
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My view at the campground, Lake Erie State Park, NY (photo)
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"I believe the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity, is daring to dare." - Maya Angelou

8/29/2012

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"Morning at Lake Douthat" Diann Squiers, Diann's Photo Art 2010
Day 2 - Wednesday, 29 August

“When you start on a long journey, trees are trees, water is water, and mountains are mountains. After you have gone some distance, trees are no longer trees, water no longer water, mountains no longer mountains. But after you have traveled a great distance, trees are once again trees, water is once again water, mountains are once again mountains.” – Zen teaching

Start of another journey, indeed. Headed out for Indy to visit the Gabreks (however, Lori was out of town on business) as well as to deliver a commissioned piece of artwork. Mark and I had some dinner, then back to the house where I presented first the photo art that Diann has gifted them as they were so hospitable to us in June. The piece is "Morning at Lake Douthat" which is one of my favorites of her's; it is sunrise on a lake in Virginia. I had been teaching at Governor's School, hosted by the university in Newport News. Di had flown out to help me drive back from Virginia to Chicago and we were tent camping on the lake. This scene is what we saw when we exited the tent next morning.

I showed Mark the painting. I had done a 16x20" oil of the lake place in Brown County and I was very pleased how it turned out. Actually, it had, in my opinion, a slight resemblance to the work of master painter, Richard Schmid, who was for a long time an iconic presence at Chicago's revered Palette and Chisel - from the 60's onward - and now resides in Vermont with his wife, also an artist. Fair to say he is an influence in my work.

A couple of things came to light at dinner as we reminisced old times: both of us, Mark and me, shared a penchant for Taco Bell tacos when we were young and foolish. We first started patronizing the Bell together when the first Fort Wayne store opened in 1975, something like that. I used to drain down three or four taco sauce packets, just open them and drink them, after knocking down four or five crunchy tacos (they were $o.29 then!), which also had sauce poured on them.

Too, we tracked the fact that we both played baseball in parallel leagues - he at Village Woods and I played Little League at Hillcrest from age eight years old to twelve, then moved on to Senior League which was hosted at Paul Harding High School. Mark played Babe Ruth league, the like-companion to Senior league. We also started  playing soccer same years, including a visit to the State Championship in Carmel where we lost 2-1. We both had stories of brief football careers, mine lasting through the first try-out in fifth or sixth grade; I remember thinking to myself that day, "now there's something I never need to do again." Mark said he made one of his first tackles, little running back named Mike Stronzcek, who hit him straight on - Mark's reaction, wow, this isn't even fun to me, as he slowly picked himself up from the ground, teeth rattling.

Anyway, got on my way as Mark was leaving for work next morning. Drove an indirect route eastward across central Indiana so as to visit Hagerstown, IN, where I had my first summer theater job with Nettle Creek Players in  1981. Right across the street from the tent theater was an awesome smorgasbord restaurant called Welliver's where many of us went virtually each Sunday evening after performances. Operating as Willie and Red's since 2010, it was destroyed by fire just a few months ago and was, for me, a bit chilling to drive by, as the building was almost completely boarded up; you could say, I suppose, 'smorgasborded up'.


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Guy Welliver's Famous Smorgasbord, Hagerstown, IN (photo)
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The restaurant was destroyed by fire this past summer after something like 60 years in business (photo)
Continuing on through to New Castle, IN, home of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, and my mind starts wandering. I am reminded that I attended a basketball workshop at Harding H.S. in 1975 with Kyle Macy, named "Mr Basketball" in that year. Born in Ft Wayne, he was a point guard at Purdue and went on to playing, then coaching, professionally. I think he now is a commentator. I specifically remembered having to do dexterity drills like holding a basketball between your bent legs, one hand on the ball from in front of the knee, the other from behind the other knee, and then rotating around quickly and switching left to right, never letting the ball move in the air between your knees.

These are the things I think about when driving cross-country on a painting trip.

At one point, passing through Columbus, I get a heavy metal station and have a wild hair of an idea. I try calling the radio station to make a request (I NEVER listen to metal music, trust me; my fondness for Peter Gabriel's music would betray me thoroughly).  I just think it's funny that I am traveling to Maine to visit, before attending the workshop on Monhegan Island, a buddy of mine and his partner, Leigh, whom I have not yet had the pleasure meeting. This buddy, Jeff "Oly" Olson, was the original drummer for the metal band, Trouble, with whom he traveled extensively in Europe on tour back in the day. Jeff has appeared on each of the Trouble studio recordings as well. He now conducts a heavy metal podcast each Monday night, interviewing metal musicians, for his start-up business and label, "Retrograve."  In addition, Jeff works for the stellar brew company, Allagash. This intrigues me more than the metal music. Beer. Wine. Maine.

However, this has always been one of my favorites of  "Oly's" stories: they were playing a huge stadium in Europe, some tens of thousands of people in an open air venue in Holland, not unlike Woodstock, audience going nuts as the band takes the stage, and the singer for Trouble yells/shrieks into the microphone, "Is everybody Heeeeeeeeeeeeeerrree!" Oly said the other band members kinda looked at each other, then at the crowd and everybody - band and audience - was, for a shared moment in time, completely dumb-founded. It cracks me up. Oly said later, the reference clearly was intended to knick a famous moment of Jim Morrison and the Doors onstage, but in the moment it was lost.

The Kia and I make a stop in Old Hilliard, Ohio, to top off the brake fluid and to cash a check from a recent art purchase. I now am flush with cash for this trip, and here is how the budget works this time: I have three or four bank envelops, each with allotted amounts, the envelops designated "Monhegan Lodging," "Monhegan Workshop Fee," and "Gas-Chicago to Maine." I will be on a cash-only basis for all expenses for these three or so weeks.

Note that I haven't any envelops marked for foodage (yet), nor for fuel for the return trip. You sell a painting, you eat. Well, not to that extreme, but sure would like to have an envelop after my first sale on this trip - hopefully sooner than later, ha - designated: "Clam Chowder". If the piece that sells is 16x20" rather than 11x14" which, by necessity, commands a healthier purchase price, I will also write on the chowder envelop "... & Lobster." But I did go to Trader Joe's before leaving Chicago to stock up on and gather various trail mixes and couple of bottles of wine, as well as several canned goods for the Coleman stove. No worries. I am flush with canned goods now.

I arrived just before dark at Lake Erie State Park so as to camp and set up for a meal. I, Paul, borrowed from Peter exactly $8 for a visit to the market which resulted in a pork chop, a can of white potatoes, and a sack of organic broccoli/cauliflower. By light of my trusty old friend, the Coleman (florescent) lantern, I set to it browning the potatoes, steaming the veggies, then started the pork chop. Halfway through, I added the potatoes and veggies to the cast iron skillet with the chop, grilled them all together and ate directly from the skillet under an incredibly full moon.  I wouldn't have wanted even $18 to buy this meal in a restaurant; my $8 served me just fine. 

Now I have to find money to pay back Peter.
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The Prep - Trip #2 East-Bound

8/27/2012

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"Boat on Dry Docks" 20 x 16" oil 2011 [SOLD]
"Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire; you will what you imagine; and at last you create what you will." - George Bernard Shaw

Here we go... again! I  am leaving tomorrow for three weeks'painting in Maine - my first time there, and I am thrilled. Apprehensive but thrilled; have not had the time to prep as much as perhaps I did for the journey West two months ago. But the art spirit is ready and willing to sally forth again. 

I will run a  few errands tomorrow morning. Then I head to Indy to visit and deliver a couple of artworks to dear friends, Mark and Lori Gabrek. I have done a 16 x 20" painting of their lake place in Brown County and have had so much fun doing it. Have not, as yet, digitized it, but will do so tomorrow and try to post. 

Will hope to visit the Indiana Art Museum as well, to kick start the inspiration. Get away on Wednesday morning and stop-overs/tent camping (1) outside of Cleveland, (2) Syracuse, New York, and then (3) Gloucester, Mass, painting all the while en plein air. This places me spitting distance to Kennebunk, Maine, where I will rely on the kindness of friends to stage me for a few days while I make some day trips out to paint the environs. A paint out in Booth Bay Harbor on Wednesday next week, then the Slam Dunk: a week painting on the legendary Monhegan Island eight days, from Friday to the following Saturday.

It has been a busy week. We closed SS! THE TAMING OF THE SHREW with Chicago Shakespeare Theater after a resounding four-week success of their new program "Chicago Shakespeare in the Parks".  It's free! Underwritten in part by Boeing, the production traveled to eleven park districts and hosted an average of six to seven hundred theater-goers each performance; seems to me the largest capacity was something over 950. It was an absolute joy in which to participate. I even committed myself to completing a series of twelve paintings, one for each of the parks locations, many painted from life (I would arrive an hour or two ahead of the rest of the cast) or from a combination of rough sketches and photo references. The series, when complete, might gain legs as there may be an opportunity for exhibition down the line.  Especially cool for me was meeting Mayor Rahm Emmauel when he visited the production in Garfield Park. 

In typical fashion, I heard he was there, and just before the performance commenced, marched right out to the center of the lawn where he was seated in lawn chairs with his wife, and shook hands. It was not until later, during the performance, that we all espied from backstage the several (subtle but heavily-armed) members of the security team watching him intently from every vantage point. I am guessing I made an appearance on their wireless: "yep, got him, Shakespeare actor, costumed - are those Pumpkin Pants he is wearing! - aggressively approaching..." (wondering what code name they used for the mayor during this performance: "bard" maybe) "aggressively approaching 'Bard I'... keep an eye on the Pumpkin Pants...." Over.

Anyway, a great success. The production was put to bed on Sunday after four weeks, some twenty or so performances, thousands of people in attendance, many new to Shakespeare, perhaps even to the concept of live, professional theatrical presentation. Wow.

So, a week to get ready for this trip. On Monday, I met with the owner of the new Fiat dealership which celebrated their Grand Opening on Thursday. I had done, on spec, two 18 x 24" paintings of Fiats against a backdrop of rural America (my reference photos from outside of New Harmony, IN came into service in a big way), as well as a grove of trees as backdrop, through which a beautiful Fiat has just passed. The owner liked them very much.


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"FIAT in Farm Country" 18 x 24" oil, 2012
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"FIAT in Grove of Trees" 18 x 24" oil, 2012
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"Lincoln Park Home" 16 x 20" oil, 2012
So, the owner asks me to execute three large wall murals to be completed by Opening on Thursday. I am not a muralist. (Yet, apparently). Like my theater days running a company - the dreaded all-nighters. I worked from their closing at 8pm until wee hours, 3 am'ish Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. My body was aching but the check was cut and in the bank by Wednesday at noon. Tried negotiating the throwing of a Fiat in to the mix, but it did not go over well. 

The balance of the week was spent peddling other artworks that I have completed during my brief honeymoon period with Lincoln Park these past five or six weeks.  At right is a tremendous home, the owner of which I met only yesterday as he now considers purchasing. I suggested we could waive the purchase price if only I could have the home on time-share two weeks out of the year and that I would need additional parking space for my new Fiat - as of press time, my call has not been returned. 

Anyway, welcome back and see you soon! Ciao, baby

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    Jeffrey Baumgartner

    A professional actor for over twenty-five years, Jeffrey is an accomplished oil painter based in Chicago.  In 2008, he established  JB ArtWorks studio gallery. 

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