Changing Sky

To paint in nature, artist Robert MaGaw knows he must stay out in a storm.

By: Susan Van Dongen

"Late April Snow," by Robert MaGaw.

   While Robert MaGaw speaks by phone about his art, a thunderstorm sweeps through the area near his home studio in Bushkill, Pa., close to the Delaware Water Gap. The dialogue pauses every few minutes as lightning crackles the telephone lines. The man who is so comfortable in nature weighs the risk factors and decides to continue the conversation.
   Growing up in what he calls "semi-big sky country" in Ohio, Mr. MaGaw has always had an affinity for weather, the skies and the landscape. As the son of a farmer, he can also gauge the dangers of storms.
   "Now this is interesting — we’re getting hail," he says, as a steady percussive sound suddenly becomes audible over the phone line. Mr. MaGaw decides the storm isn’t so daunting after all. "It’s starting to brighten in the west so I think it’ll pass pretty quickly. It’s a perfect example of the changeability of the weather here."
   Mr. MaGaw honors the variable colors of nature with Seasons, his solo exhibit of recent oil paintings at the Atelier Fine Art Gallery in Frenchtown through June 25. With a style described as impressionist and tonalist, Mr. MaGaw’s works incorporate the blazing reds and oranges of autumn foliage, low winter sunlight on snow-covered fields, stippled summer haze over the Delaware and the purple-black thunderclouds that roll through the river valley in the springtime.
   Mr. MaGaw’s intuitive connection with nature goes back to his childhood on the farm, when watching the weather was an aesthetic experience but also important for self-preservation.
   "When you’re out in the middle of a field, a long way from the barn, you have to gauge how much time you have before you get absolutely soaked," he says. "I remember watching these big thunderheads, big mountains of clouds, rolling off the Great Lakes. It seemed like they were coming right off the Canadian prairies on top of us — they were just simply huge and very dramatic to watch.
   "I’ve always had an affinity for that kind of changing sky," he continues. "And I’ve always liked being out in the weather, which is a little disturbing to my friends. Sometimes they think I don’t have the sense to come in out of the rain — and maybe I don’t. But that’s the only way you get to really see things. Every day can’t be sunny."

	"Thunder Over Delaware"
	"Evening Fire"

   As a young person, Mr. MaGaw sketched the animals and woodlands he saw around him but is otherwise untrained as an artist. He hadn’t considered a creative career until about 10 years ago.
   Born in 1949, Mr. MaGaw served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War, taking advantage of the military’s tuition assistance program to pursue a degree in architecture after he left the service.
   "I went to the New York Institute of Technology, a little private school on Long Island after I got out," he says. "They had just launched their architecture program. Of course, having been in the service, I was about 10 years older than the other kids in my class. But architecture was like a dream come true. I’d always wanted to build and design things."
   He spent more than a decade with architectural firms in the New York metropolitan area, working on national and international industrial projects as well as interiors of office buildings.
   "(Architecture) is still something I enjoy the thought of, although the business of it became a little (wearying) after a while," he says. "That’s why I decided to do something else.
   "It was an interesting time in my life and I don’t regret it," he continues. "But it was one of those things where I kind of lost the dream and I was at a point in my career where there wasn’t much of a chance to get it back. Fortunately, I was young enough to try something different. Lo and behold, this has become a passion. Painting is something I’ve always liked to do but it has evolved into its own life."
   His friends who remained in the architectural field were slightly envious of Mr. MaGaw’s ability to shift gears so easily and make a living as a full-time artist. He got an inkling of his abilities while taking a friend’s summer art class at Old Westbury Gardens on Long Island. The instructor recognized his talent and invited Mr. MaGaw to take part in a special exchange program and exhibit.
   "‘But I’m not trained as an artist,’ I told her," he says. "‘That’s OK, you just have a knack for it,’ she said. That’s how I got involved with the plein air auction there. It happened to coincide with the anniversary of the Normandy Invasion, so there were a number of French artists visiting for the weekend as part of an exchange program. She invited me to take part in it and I did so, but with a great deal of anxiety. Over the course of one weekend, we all painted outside.
   "The French artists paint along the Normandy shore, selling their paintings wet," Mr. MaGaw says. "So, instead, they came here and painted in the gardens, then auctioned off those paintings wet. When they had the auction, my painting brought in the highest price and I was absolutely dumbstruck. We had been discussing whether I had a future as a painter and my friend turned to me and said, ‘Well, I guess you have your answer.’ That’s when things really started to happen."

"Winter Near Martin’s Creek"

   After the acclaim he received at that exhibition, Mr. MaGaw began work on a series of commissions and the tentative career change became a sure thing. The artist’s ability to bring the awesome beauty of the north woods to the canvas caught the attention of art acquisitions personnel at Relais & Chateau hotels. He received a major boost in 1995, when the Lake Placid Lodge in New York — a Relais & Chateau resort — acquired a number of Mr. MaGaw’s paintings to exhibit in guest rooms, cabins and their own Great Camp Gallery. In 1998, they commissioned Mr. MaGaw to paint "Adirondack Fantasy," a 28-foot mural for a new gathering room.
   With the appeal of his work still growing, his landscapes can be found in galleries, private and corporate collections throughout the Unites States as well as Singapore, Japan and Bali. In 2001, Mr. MaGaw had two one-man shows in central Paris. In March 2002, his work premiered at a gallery in Lisbon.
   Mr. MaGaw says he hasn’t deliberately tried to imitate such masters as George Innes, N.C. Wyeth and Wolf Kahn, but friends and critics have compared his work to theirs. Others have seen a resemblance to English impressionist J.M.W. Turner. Mr. MaGaw is flattered, but plays down the fuss.
   "Beauty exists everywhere," he writes in his artist’s statement. "The subjects of my paintings seldom have any significance of ‘place.’ They’re simply bits of landscape that we pass by every day, perhaps without notice. But, in one never-come-again-moment, when they’re splashed with the fresh light of dawn or the fiery glow of dusk, those commonplace bits of scenery can assume a striking presence. I simply try to catch as much of it as possible before it all fades away."
   "It’s still a little beyond me how I can sometimes capture all this," he says, in his characteristic easygoing manner. "It’s almost something that ‘I’ don’t do — it just happens. It’s not a conscious effort or a technique, more like synthesizing the moment into paint on canvas."
Seasons, oil paintings by Robert MaGaw, is on view at the Atelier Fine Art Gallery, 108 Harrison St., Frenchtown, through June 25. Gallery hours: Thurs.-Sun. noon-5 p.m. For information, call (908) 996-9992.