Overlaying streaks of pastel with apparent abandon, he quickly developed the work before him

I discovered Dan Gray facing into the forest on the deck at Coward House. On his easel a veritable tossed salad of colours was fighting for space on a piece of brown paper. I asked him how he was going to turn that into a view of the woodlands before him. . "Green is the worst, the hardest of all colours," he let me know. "The eye can distinguish greens bet ter than any other colour. Doing the picture on a green sheet of paper is no help. I have some of those giant gunnera plants in my garden. I have painted them often, but never successfully, The reflection of light off the green, and the translucency of the leaves I have to rely on my yellows and reds to make the green." Dan Gray and Matt Haider have teamed up for a display of plein air painting at Coward House this month (2495 Arbutus Rd„ 477-4401). Haider is a young oil painter who also operates the Art and Soul Gallery in Sidney. He's been painting outdoors for the past six years. It was Dan Gray who inspired him in the first place. "Dan Gray was the first guy I ever saw who painted this way," Haider points out. Haider's prac tice involves taking his canvas to a wonderful loca tion, setting up an ease] and making a painting. A purist of sorts, Haider believes you must finish the picture completely on the spot. This injects "a live liness to it," he tells me. "Racing the light, pressed for time. bugs flying in your face, so you don't even think. You just react in a direct way" Even though Haider uses oil paint, his work isn't as bright and juicy as Gray's. Considering the dash ing attack and sumptuous colours, it may come as surprise to find that all Gray's "paintings" are cre ated-drawn-with soft pastels. Gray is one of Canada's leading practitioners of the medium, win ner of the Silver Pastel Plate and a Plaque of Dis tinction from the Canadian Pastel Society. I guessed that Gray was beginning with the sun set and the arbutus trees, laying on slashes of the warm tones before he got to the greens. Red and orange" Gray sighed, as if acknowledging an addic tion. "When you start using them it's very hard to put them down. It's a trap." What's wrong with with the warm colours? "Some people don't like red." he continued, painting with the colours of mustard and . ketchup. When I offered my observation that all the pas tels on show at Coward House were beach scenes, that didn't surprise the artist. "I'm not interested in trees, particularly," he drawled. "They just seem to be all over. It's shorelines I love. I went to the shore as a child to enjoy myself: down to the beach." Isn't that subject in danger of being hackneyed? "There's a challenge to see if you can bring your own vision to it," he fired back. He's up to the challenge. Overlaying streaks of pastel with apparent aban don. he quickly developed the work before him. This is an artist with loads of experience and his confi dence shows. "Artists are always saying they want to loosen up,' "Gray noted as he worked away. "Spontaneity seems to be the king of this racket. But I believe that actually people don't actually need to loosen up. What they need is to stop and to look longer and to see better ... and to draw less." You can't possibly be "loose" unless you know what it is you are loosening. 'According to him, the key lo it all is the compo sition, and that's something that must be in place before you begin. "Everything else is Filler," he he asserts. whether it's a miniature or a mural, he say's it all depends on the underlying structure. A little painting with a had composition is just as big a failure as a big one. Gray recently made a trip to the Broughton .arch ipelago, near Gilford Harbour off the north tip of Vancouver Island. He was invited by the Living Oceans Society to make a picture for a travelling show and coffee table book they are producing on the subject of endangered ocean environments. He reminisced about being dropped off by a little boat on a shell beach on an uninhabited island. Gray was overcome, then and there, with a feeling that "this is what I was supposed to be doing." Another thing he seems born to do is act as a genial backstage host to the annual Grand Prix of Art in his hometown of Qualicum Beach. This year the Grand Prix of Art is on Saturday. Aug. 17. (note this years date July 5 2003) Artists will complete a work of art en p!ein air between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., work inspired by some thing or someone visible from their assigned loca tion. Prizes totalling $I,000 are awarded at the end of the day, and Matt Haider will be among those com peting for them. It's not too late for you to pack lip your sketch sack and head up for a day of fun... and fortune. For information about the Grand Prix of Art, call The Old School House in Qualicum Beach (250- 752-6133).