Note: painting images seen in blogs may have sold. See currently available work at the portfolio.
One of the things that Edd Enders captures well is the undulating backroads of Montana. To capture these vast vistas, Edd drives out to find landscapes that inspire him. He then sketches the the scene, looking for compositional angles and adding details and color notes. Back in the studio, he lays down oil paint on the canvas – referring to the sketch – using nonrepresentational colors that are complementary and adding visual elements that draw the eye like roads, powerlines, and often birds. These two new paintings inspired by Swingley road just outside of Livingston, Montana, are iconic examples of how Edd captures the freedom and unique beauty of Montana road trips. Contact 406.222.4848 to see these and other Edd paintings.
Swingley Meets Business Park Road, Stage 1
Swingley Meets Business Park Road, completed. 36″ x 66″, $7,120
When Edd feels stuck on complicated landscape or urbanscape paintings, he regularly taps into his unconscious and paints a self portrait. This 2016 painting incorporates a new element; text. The theme is aging and the passage of time. Edd has more than two dozen self portraits and they demonstrate different stages of his painting style and where he is in his life. Edd generally does not sell his self portraits.
Note: painting images seen in blogs may have sold. See currently available work at the portfolio.
Fall in Montana 2015 was exceptionally long, warm and lovely. Edd is outside every day walking his dog, hunting or fishing and most importantly; observing nature and sketching scenes that inspire him. Fall is one of Edd’s favorite seasons to paint because the deep orange of the foliage is a complementary color to Montana’s big blue skies.
Edd regularly gives himself new painting challenges and puzzles to solve and this Fall he made half a dozen very narrow rectangular canvasses. He has painted them both horizontally and vertically and the narrow strictures forced him to frame and crop scenes differently. Canvases with a narrow perspective also forced Edd to create linear movement with color contrast rather than his usual roads, fences and power lines. This painting, finished the first of November, demonstrates his unique and creative variable coloring of a Cottonwood tree to create texture, depth and contrast against the slice of background hills and sky.
Edd Enders’ artwork illustrates the inaugural publication by Livingston’s Elk River books, Vagabond Song: Neo-Haibun from the Peregrine Journals by Marc Beaudin. The cover features an Edd Enders color painting and his black and white drawing illustrate the interior.
Edd introduces Beaudin’s book
The book, “blends travel memoir with poetry to recount the author’s hitchhiking and road trip adventures. From Central America and Britain to the American West and Midwest, the book follows in the tradition of Bashō’s haibun classics such as Narrow Road to the Deep North and Records of a Weather-Exposed Skeleton. Amid stories that are often humorous and sometimes harrowing, lies a strong foundation of commitment to wild spaces, freedom (in all its precariousness) and the transformative power of poetry.”
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Reviews include: “Here is a poet’s road trip, tracing the blue highways with a dazzling prose that keeps us belted in for the fast passage – a firm anchor of raven, woodlands and the fractured moon on the lake at night. We should all take strength from his impressive traverse.” – Doug Peacock, author of Grizzly Years
“Is there such a thing as free-range literature?
I think there is and I think this is it. These lovely, spirited, freewheeling trip logs are charged with the poetry of motion.” –Walter Kirn, author of Up in the Air
This is not the first time Edd’s artwork has graced the cover of a local creative force, the late, beloved musician Ben Bullingston’s CD Lazy Moon featured an Edd Enders painting.
Note: painting images seen in blogs may have sold. See currently available work at the portfolio.
Many enjoyed the Danforth Gallery and Park County Friends of the Arts 2015 annual series “Discourse at the Danforth” discussing the creative process. After three stellar presentations by fascinating, creative and talented folks for three weeks, the series ended with Edd Enders discussing his creative process on April 21, 2015 in conjunction with his “Inch x Inch” art exhibit April 17-22. Free admission, donations and memberships greatly appreciated. The Danforth Gallery is at 106 North Main Street in Livingston. Visit http://www.pcfadanforth.org/ for more information.
Final Discourse: Edd Enders Painting on Tuesday, April 21st, 2015.
Danforth Board Chair introduces Edd
Enders will discuss his creative process; from sketching scenes, to building canvases, to mixing oil paints, to his painting style and why he paints what he paints. Don’t forget the reception for Edd’s show of new work “Inch x Inch” on Friday, April 17 at 6 pm, with a percentage of the proceeds benefiting the Danforth. Discourse at the Danforth has been sponsored by The Mint Bar and Grille (so stop by and thank them for supporting the arts and enjoy their own creative Taco Tuesday after the Discourse) as well as Synergigi Interior Designs.
Discourse at the Danforth – April 14, 2015 with Distiller Thomas McGuane Thomas McGuane IV grew up in Paradise Valley. After graduating from MSU in 1991 with an English degree, McGuane began a career in bladesmithing. He had his first knife show at the Danforth Gallery. In 2014 McGuane added a new craft, distilling spirits at Bozeman Spirits Distillery. Creativity and craft are what link the process of making artisan knives and spirits.
McGuane describes his creative efforts as combining “a sort of shared alchemy between transforming wood, metal and grain that connects these crafts in the convoluted mind of this artisan.” He adds that he will likely continue doing things as he pleases! McGuane will expand his alchemy by mixing cocktails with his spirits at his Discourse at the Danforth. Learn more about Bozeman Spirits at http://www.bozemanspirits.com and visit them at 121 West Main Street in Bozeman, phone 406.577-2155.
Discourse at the Danforth – Laurie Sargent April 7, 2015
Woe on those who missed the amazing songwriting discourse (we even got to write a song together!) on April 7th at the Danforth Gallery. Learn more about Laurie Sargent Musician/Songwriter. Laurie Sargent has has a long and a storied career as a singer, songwriter and instrumentalist and added organic farmer to her resume when she moved to Wilsall, Montana.
Her self-described “long squiggly career” includes recording for major labels with Boston-based new wave band Face-to-Face, who had a top 40 hit, and acclaimed indie-label bands Twinemen and Orchestra Morphine, in which she joined forces with her partner Billy Conway (formerly the drummer for the band Morphine). Her collaborations have included recording two discs for performance artists The Chip Smith Project and several solo albums featuring a talented roster of musicians. Following Discourse at the Danforth, Sargent will head out on tour to open up for longtime friend Johnette Napolitano (vocalist/songwriter and bassist for Concrete Blonde). Sargent’s latest solo recording is “Little Dipper and the Shooting Star,” which The Boston Globe calls, “a deeply satisfying solo disc,” and applauds her, “ finely honed lyrics with bruised wisdom.”
Sargent also recently added painting to her creative pursuits and owns and operates local farmer’s market favorite Crazy View Farms. Learn more about her tour, music, and see paintings at http://www.lauriesargentart.com/sonic-painting/
First 2015 Discourse at the Danforth Jerry Iverson’s discussion about philosophy and painting was fascinating and lively on March 31. Learn more about Jerry’s work at http://jerryiverson.com/ and read below: Artist Statement. My art has been much influenced by the materials, balance and grace of Asian calligraphy. I don’t know what the characters mean, but I love how they look. I use many layers of sumi ink, paper and rabbit skin glue to build a distressed, uneven texture. Torn and broken black lines create a tense, awkward balance. In order to examine an idea thoroughly, I like to work in series. One idea, over and over again: Language Series expresses the difficulty of communication. Black lines look like words, but they don’t say anything. Nerve Blocks show the strained and shattered nerves that happen in life. Things fall apart.
Line Bombs remind me of the violence and disruption of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and how war has taught the powerless and dispossessed that anything can become a weapon. The days are full of hidden bombs, and the lives of innocents are torn apart.
Darwin’s Trees are a reflection on Charles Darwin’s own ink drawing of the Tree of Life. He used it as a visual representation of his great theory of evolution – that species diverge from common lineages. Yet the branches are broken, misshapen, and most species become extinct.
Causation uses the intersection of black lines and circles to show the chain of life. Causal relations are everywhere. Each event in our lives is connected to events of the past and present. Often, the causal chain is very complex and hard to identify. Sometimes, it’s one big mess.
Livingston artists with Zhuping outside of Studio 188
Edd Enders has returned from two weeks in China full of gratitude. He went for a special art exhibit, exchange and group exhibition, “West on the Left, East on the Right,” in Shanghai with three other Livingston Montana artists; Parks Reece, Joe Fay and Abram Boise. They are the first four American artists represented by the international group, 188 Art who hosted their visit and showed the group various art studios and cultural and natural wonders in Shanghai and Jiangxi province as well as providing opportunities for the four artists to work in the 188 Art porcelain studio and do some plein air art.
Touring in China
The group art exhibition included twenty contemporary Chinese artists at 188 Art Studio in Shanghai and was well attended. The visit was in conjunction with the Yellowstone Asia Initiative, which brought an exhibit of contemporary artists from China to their only US showing in Livingston, Montana. As former Montana senator Max Baucus is now the Chinese Ambassador, it’s only natural to develop trade and cultural exchange ties between China and Montana and art is a universal language.
Edd discusses his work at the 188 Art exhibit
Enders sent twenty paintings to China, half to be kept in businessman and gallery owner Zhuping Yan’s Studio 188 art gallery’s permanent collection and the other ten for sale. Enders hopes they will resonate with Chinese art buyers and lovers. He very much admired the art by the many Chinese artists he saw on the trip, “The contemporary art was very high quality and I was especially impressed by the porcelain art. I was also happy to see work that addressed the environment.” Enders says it was a great, great learning experience and every day he encountered, observed and learned something new on the trip. Reflecting on the experience, he predicts, “All the art I saw and the visual stimuli will have a strong effect on my development as an artist.”
Chinese and Montana artists tour Jiangxi province
One of his favorite parts of the experience was being based in Shanghai and he enjoyed the city’s modernity, international flair, and the mix of modern and traditional architecture. He was also impressed by the hospitality they experienced, “people were fabulous; very courteous, generous, open, and seemed pleased to have us there.” He wishes he had been able to communicate with people more, as the language was a barrier. “The culture, language and environment are so different from any I’ve been exposed to,” Enders says. He enjoyed the cuisine and tried many dishes completely new to him and was fascinated by how the cuisine varied from region to region and how different it all was from stereotypical dishes found in American Chinese restaurants. He appreciated the affordability of the food and goods and often saw things in shops and restaurants he’d never seen before, so every day was a new learning experience.
Edd sketches in rural China
Enders found Chinese gangster films and soap operas intriguing as well. While traveling inland to visit rural areas, he was fascinated as Shanghai’s modern conveniences, infrastructure and industrialization receded, “I didn’t see any mechanized farming; everything was being done by hand,” he observes. He was concerned about the air and water quality, especially the severity inland.
Enders concludes, “I am very grateful and appreciate the
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opportunity to experience China, learn about the culture, and especially the contemporary and traditional Chinese art forms which are so different than Western art.” He gives special thanks to Zhuping, Julie and the 188 Art staff, and the Chinese artists he met. Edd will be working with 188 Art to bring an exhibit of contemporary Chinese art to Livingston, Montana at the Danforth Gallery summer 2015.
Did you know that Edd Enders has been part of several films? He inspired a feature project by Montana State University film student Heather Adkins entitled Edd Enders – Montana Oil Painter that captures his style, process, studio, philosophy and even canine sidekick Jade perfectly. The short film is four and a half minutes long but says so much!
An earlier film by photographer Audrey Hall begins with Edd painting in his studio and visits a range of other area folks to end with Edd painting the local landscape just filmed. See You Thenwas a finalist in the 2009 Nikon Film Festival and runs 2 minutes.
Thanks to these talented filmmakers for capturing Edd in action!
What paint does Edd Enders paint with? His canvases are exclusively painted with oils rather than water-based acrylics. That’s because oil paint’s binder, linseed oil, is translucent. He says, “When you see a lot of acrylic paintings they look flat because their binder is plastic and it absorbs light but when light goes through the oil paint on a canvas; it bounces off the primer and is luminous. Dutch masters Rembrandt and Vermeer’s paintings are good examples of that luminosity.” Oils also lasts and lasts.
Did you know that oil paints in tubes last for decades when not exposed to oxygen? Most of the paints Edd uses were given to him by people who had collections of oil paints and didn’t end up using them. For instance, a few years ago Edd got a letter from a fellow he knew in high school who had boxes of oil paints from the 1960’s and he gave the collection to Edd. When painting with these 50+ year old oils, Edd says, “I have to be very careful squeezing the tubes because the metal is so oxidized that my fingers can go right through the tubes. But the paint is perfectly fine and the colors unaffected.”
When you buy an oil painting from Edd, it should last for generations.
![IMG_4472[1]](https://i0.wp.com/eddendersart.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/img_44721.jpg?resize=363%2C604&ssl=1)
When Edd feels stuck on complicated landscape or urbanscape paintings, he regularly taps into his unconscious and paints a self portrait. This 2016 painting incorporates a new element; text. The theme is aging and the passage of time. Edd has more than two dozen self portraits and they demonstrate different stages of his painting style and where he is in his life. Edd generally does not sell his self portraits.
of the Tree of Life. He used it as a visual representation of his great theory of evolution – that species diverge from common lineages. Yet the branches are broken, misshapen, and most species become extinct.
e. Causal relations are everywhere. Each event in our lives is connected to events of the past and present. Often, the causal chain is very complex and hard to identify. Sometimes, it’s one big mess.
