Going To The Source - By: Baba Yaga

The impressionistic landscapes of Denver, Colorado, artist and teacher Mark Daily project His passion for the world around him.

"As an artist, I feel as if I'm standing outside the circle that formed me--the circle of inherited attitudes and academic rules," says painter Mark Daily. "I've entered a new set of concentric circles that go on forever, and now I can just enjoy moving outward." The forty-eight-year-old artist is standing in the square, light-filled living room you pass through on the way to his backyard studio, a converted garage located in a parklike, residential area near downtown Denver. The studio floor is bare wood, its walls are mostly window, and the room is nearly empty except for a piano. The most substantial presence in the room is the thick tree trunk that's visible through the glass, the stirring leaves, and the dappled light. There's not a shred of glitz or contrivance about the place, and its plainspoken qualities characterize both Daily and his paintings.

The artist's first academic rules came from his training at the Art Institute of Chicago and at the American Academy of Art, also in Chicago. William Mosby, who was one of the best-known teachers at the Academy, had a major influence on him. But perhaps the greatest impact was made by the group of artists Daily used to paint with, known as the Denver School.

Sharing a dedication to plein-air painting and drawing, members of the group lived and painted together in Denver and in Taos, New Mexico, in the late 1960s and 1970s. Most of the painters espoused loose brushwork and an emphasis on the changing effects of light. All responded to the rugged landscape, the colorful subjects, and the spiritual resonance of northern New Mexico.

The group--bound together by youth, poverty, a devotion to art, and a drive toward quality--included long-term Taos residents Ned Jacob, William Sharer, Buffalo Kaplinski, and Daily. Eventually, they were joined by fellow artists who came to Taos for long visits--George Carlson, Jon Zahourek, Ken Bunn, and Len Chmiel. "It was rare to find an art group as large as ours and with our degree of interaction," Daily recalls. "We painted, partied, traveled, and showed together, first at Sandra Wilson's Taos gallery and then, after 1974, in her Denver gallery. When she moved, many of us relocated from Taos and set up studios in Denver."

When Wilson closed her Denver gallery in 1980, the group identity waned. The artists worked individually, broadening their subject matter, traveling abroad, and winning awards and fellowships. These days, they visit each other's shows or share teaching stints at the Scottsdale Artists' School or the Art Students League of Denver.

After daily married--his wife's name is Jan--and had a daughter, Brett, he found himself trying to work through a stultifying blocked period, a time of self-doubt and fear, but he managed to come out on the other side. He explains, "I lost all confidence in the foundations of my creative efforts. Everything I'd aimed for seemed insufficient. I had to figure out anew how and why I should paint.

"Now, with my students," continues the artist, who teaches regularly at the Art Students League of Denver, "I try to create an awareness in them of the importance of acquiring more than academic skills. I urge them not to waste their time or spend their energy wrongly, and to take risks--to do whatever is necessary to take the next small step forward. In pushing them, I find it easier to drop the attitudes that are holding me down."

Daily says he feels his early training overemphasized simply "being a good painter" in a way that was somewhat destructive. "I was always asking myself how good my painting was next to someone else's--I was always comparing. Now when I do a painting, I'm not thinking about having it be good; I'm thinking about how I'd like it to be and about the experience of making it, the process. I keep trying to make something that has a lot of life to it. That's my primary motivation. I always considered my painting and my life as separate, and now they're not. I realized that my subjects don't necessarily have to be in exotic places; they can be right in my own backyard."

The painting Spring Snow, for example, depicts a location only three blocks from Daily's house. The artist recalls, "I was driving home after dropping off my daughter at school one morning. There had been a heavy spring snow, which had struck me as incredible. I took one look at the scene I ended up painting and just slammed on the brakes. It was all there--the color, the composition--I didn't have to think about it. That's the way it happens sometimes. I went out yesterday--up to the high meadow near Grand Lake, which is not too far from where I live--and I encountered light as intense as any I've ever experienced. I saw fifty potential paintings in the groves and forests there. It's amazing how the world is an absolute treasure trove."

Painting outdoors and from life works best for Daily. "You just have to do it," he says. "Forget the bugs, the hassle, the gawkers who ruin your concentration. Just get the paint box open. Go to the source. Analyze the roots that give the subject its power."

Daily says he sees photographs as a "great tool" and uses them to aid in composing and framing pictures. "I use photos as another way to understand what I'm really trying to do," he adds, "but it's hard to learn how to use them well. A photograph is no substitute for the excitement of light and color experienced firsthand. Besides, by doing small and fast preliminary studies, you learn how resonance is created. Studies become the heart of the final painting; they help you work with some authority. They don't take your breath away, but they fill your eyes and sink in, slow and satisfying. Instead of the dazzle of flashing brushwork or brilliant color, the resolution of the various elements is what grips you."

The artist feels his attitude toward the painting process--his openness--is much more significant than the brand of paint or the size of the brush he uses. He finds that listing the right brushes or the right colors for his students leads to a big disappointment. The process, he explains, is "solving the whole painting," rather than one focusing on using particular materials.

When starting a painting, Daily normally begins by setting up color relationships in thin, scumbled layers. "I feel confident with this technique because I get a sense of relationships without having committed myself," he says. "It sets up a safety net. I can also see if the painting's going to be a success.

"I sometimes do paintings very quickly, without any preliminary work," Daily continues. "The soul wants to express itself quickly and with the most pleasure possible, and the moment you start screwing around with the process, the pleasure diminishes. What I strive to do is to express my excitement in an immediate way, the way a five-year-old kid could communicate something. The unspoken ingredient is emotion--the thing that makes the viewer say of the painter, 'He must have been bowled over by that view,' or, with a still life, 'He surely owns that stuff.' In order for the viewer to get these feelings, it's necessary for me to know my subject as well as I can. Whether it's a branch of apple blossoms or the face of my daughter, I ask myself how I can break up the component parts, how I can make it strong without mucking about too much."

Discussing his ideas about color, Daily says, "I'm willing to put out an unlimited range of color on the palette if it helps me discover a simple, effective solution to a painting. It's worth trying the unexpected, digging until I can believe in what I'm doing." Daily paints in oils because he feels this medium gives him the fullest range in terms of color contrast. "The most important thing is to cover the six basic colors on the color wheel," he says. "Since I like to have a lot of choices, I buy everything. Then when I go hunting for a combination, I make it the simplest one possible--the simpler the better. Interestingly, I feel at odds with people who advocate using one key color to 'harmonize' a painting. I think really effective colorists see how different colors in the landscape can be, and they stress the distinctions. These differences are part of the reason the visual aspect of nature is so powerful. Yet even so, you could hardly say nature isn't harmonized!"

At the Art Students League of Denver, Daily teaches his student show to set up color relationships, not how to use a particular selection of colors. "For instance, you might put a little bit of yellow ochre on the canvas that because of the surrounding colors might appear greenish, cool. Yet, in another painting, with different colors, the yellow ochre might be the warmest color in the picture. The effectiveness of a color therefore depends on the colors surrounding it--hence the need to establish relationships between colors in all major areas of a painting.

While color theory and paint application are clearly important to Daily, he feels the most important part of a picture lies in the place it depicts. "The location itself is the real soul of the painting," he concludes. "We figurative painters are so in love with life and the world that what we see is constantly a thrill. For me, that's what the whole process of painting is about." Observing how Daily's joy comes from the here and now, you sense there will always be a new circle for him to step into. The possibilities are endless, and the center now lies within himself.

Artist and teacher Mark Daily's impressionistic landscapes project his passion for the world around him. Daily is profiled, and his works, which contain a lot of life, are discussed.

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