Interview with Gary Belcher by Gloria J. Geary.

GG: Tell me about your background.

GB: I was born and raised in Kansas and moved out to the Northwest thirty
years ago after traveling and working in Southeast Asia and Australia. My
wife and I have two wonderful daughters. My wife has been very supportive
and encouraging in my painting career. We lived in Japan for seven years
where I worked and learned the Japanese language and delved into various art
forms. We now live near the scenic and friendly community of Orient.

GG: What is your background in art---why did you begin to paint?

GB: I didn't catch the art bug until around age 28. I had always had a vague
interest in art, but with my bologna-and-cheese background, I never imagined
myself as an "artist". I started noticing some paintings and began thinking
I'd like to try it. I began poring over art books at the library, especially
ones on French Impressionism. I decided to go to art school and cashed out
my retirement fund from work.  I graduated from the University of Idaho with
a Bachelor of Fine Arts, cum laude. I had a great teacher there, George
Wray, who taught the principles of drawing and painting. As it takes years
of painting experience for these principles to be absorbed, understood and
applied well, I would consider myself basically self-taught.  In 1995 I took
a painting workshop and learned how to paint outdoors, how to use natural
light and what equipment was required, etc. I like to paint in "plein air",
as the French say. I rarely paint from photographs. Photographs record less
than what the eye can see. Shadows become black and depth is distorted.
Mostly, I have painted in the Kettle River area since that's where I live.
I like this area for its variety. I have also painted in Arizona and
Montana. It takes a while to get used to new areas, so I hope to revisit
these areas.

GG: Why do you choose oils as your medium and what do you like about it?
GB: I love smooshing around the oil paint on the canvas and reveling in the
infinity of results that can be observed. I enjoy the challenge of oil
painting because there are so many elements that must be successfully
brought together to execute a good painting-- color, harmony, composition,
brushwork, capturing the motif in a unified style, etc. It always becomes a
fascinating puzzle to try and solve, and I treat each painting experience as
a fresh start. I try and not get stuck in a method repeated over and over
again. To that end, I don't use the same color palette every time and
experiment with my color mixes, not sticking to a fixed, static color
scheme. I vary my subject matter as well and what is emphasized in the
composition whether it is the subject, color, light or mood.

GG: What inspires you to paint?

GB: For outdoor painting, my inspiration comes from the moods and seasons of
nature. Late autumn, with its muted grays and browns, evokes a melancholic,
reflective mood, while spring shouts out with joy in its bright color. To be
outdoors and painting in such milieus is a great feeling.

GG: What other artists inspire you or have inspired you in the past?

GB: I'm inspired by many artists whom I've read about--Velasquez, Titian,
Corot, Monet, Klimt, and many American artists. I love to look at oil
paintings. I dream of visiting the Prado and the Metropolitan.  The French
Impressionists still sing to my heart, but I've also come across the
relatively unknown generation of Americans who went to France in the late
1800s and studied and painted there. They later applied that genre of
painting where they lived, especially the Northeast and California. There
are dozens of American Impressionists who should be admired as much as
Monet, Van Gogh, or Pissarro. I look to them for inspiration especially in
the sense that they make me feel that painting is a worthwhile endeavor.
Each individual who seriously takes up painting has an innate style that
emerges, so painting will always be a fresh art form.

GG: How do you see your art developing?

GB: Of course, I hope to improve in my painting efforts. I'd like to work on
larger canvases and paint still life and portraits (if I can ever find a
model to sit for me). In the past, I've done several oil portraits and
figure paintings some of which have been accepted at juried exhibitions, but
I would like to do more. I also dream of traveling to France to paint in
some of the locales where the Masters painted. Recently, my paintings were
accepted in a juried exhibition at the Chase Gallery in Spokane. Out of 325
entries, only 37 were selected and two were mine, so I felt honored and it
motivated me to keep working hard. I also have paintings on exhibit at the
Colville Arts Foundation Regional Gallery and have had my paintings accepted
to show at the Artfest in Spokane at the end of May. While I mostly work in
oil, I also work in bronze and wood sculpture, ceramics and watercolor. I’ve also started to produce my own frames for my paintings, which is satisfying. I also enjoy spending time with my daughter helping her to develop her innate ability as an artist.

GG: Thanks, Gary it was great talking with you!

GB: Thank you.