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The Fine Arts Magazine Interview with Robert Gamblin by James Leonard-Amodeo As many artists know, Robert Gamblin is the owner and CEO of Gamblin Colors, a manufacturer of paints for the retail industry situated in Portland, Oregon. What many might not know is that Robert is also a fine art painter. His forté is landscapes and he travels extensively to capture scenes suitable to his palette. He travels so much, in fact, that it took us almost two months to do this interview. When we began the interview in September, Robert was preparing for a workshop in Pasadena. So, I could only slip in a few questions here and there. Besides the workshop, he also had orders to prepare in his 20-employee factory out of Portland. Often I'd receive his emails very late at night, which indicated he had been working all day preparing orders at the factory, answering mail, and doing the other duties encumbent on a man of his position, and before bedtime would give me his tired moments to answer some questions for this interview. I caught on soon enough that Robert Gamblin is an extremely busy man. Where does he find time to paint, I asked? How could one be a painter and yet run a factory with over 20 employees? Though mind-boggling to me as to why anyone would want to have such a hectic lifestyle, to Robert its "business as usual." Somehow he has achieved a level of internal and external organization that suits his needs and this is not to be questioned. The biggest surprise came when Robert told me he was a son of a Sicilian. I was curious because this is also my ancestry. The surprise was even more awesome when he told me that his grandparents came from the same town where my own parents were born in Sicily. My thoughts were: we live in such a big country yet so small. I could never have imagined Robert Gamblin as descendant of Sicilians—with a name like "Gamblin"? Turns out his dad was Irish!—And what would America be without the Italians and the Irish! Robert is very selective with paints. In fact, that's why he owns one of the most important paint manufacturing firms in the country. He wants the best paints for himself and for his buying clientele. If it doesn't pass Robert's approval, it doesn't get manufactured. His own paintings are done using exclusively Gamblin paints, naturally. Besides striving to provide artists with the best paint possible, he also works hard to educate artists on every aspect of paint. It's his business! And it's his art! And this is where Robert Gamblin stands apart from other manufacturers: He loves to educate, loves to paint, and loves to share his knowledge with fellow-artists. When did you decide you wanted to become a painter? By the end of my undergraduate education at the University of Oregon, I had decided to focus on painting. I had studied printmaking and film in addition to painting, but it was painting that hooked me. Printmaking requires a plate and a press between you and the expression. Film requires a crew and is a medium captive of time. Painting, the result of the most raw of raw materials, allows the artist the most freedom. How old were you back then? I was 22 when I graduated in 1970. I spent the next year painting and working while my relationship to the draft was settled. Then in 1971 went to the San Francisco Art Institute to study painting exclusively. Was anyone in your family a painter? No artists were in my family. Did your parents encourage you to pursue your dreams? No, my parents were very practical people. What was the career your parents suggested you pursue? My parents were not demanding in any way. That is why they freely let me major in art at university even though they did not understand the choice. Life was so much less expensive at that time, parents did not worry so much about their children not "making it." Tell us a bit about your family background. I was raised in my mother's Italian family. My grandparents had come directly from Sicily in 1905 to Portland, Oregon. They lived in a community of Italians. I cherish the view of the "Old World" that I saw through them. I spent my whole childhood in Portland, Oregon, educated by a series of parochial grade and high schools. Not one of them had any art classes. Sicily has been a great source of arts and sciences for centuries. Can you share with us a bit of that view of the "Old World" that you saw through your grandparents? None of the "Old World" that I saw growing up was art related. It was all about a relationship to life: the way one dressed, decorated one's house, entertained, fixed meals, drank wine, and the expectations one had for their children. In this last sense I think I am more "Old World" than my mother who was raised to become part of that society that they tried to transplant to Oregon. Did you go to art school to learn to paint? Like many teenagers my creative juices started flowing along with the other biological changes. Amazingly to me, in the absence of any exposure at home or at school, I started spending some free time in the downtown art library and would then prowl the aisles of the local art supply store looking at all the stuff trying to figure out what it was all about. I borrowed books from the library, bought materials at the art supply store and explored making heads out of clay, then making plaster moulds of the heads. Next I moved on to copying paintings. I copied a few Cézanne and Rouault portraits. My first year of college was a struggle, the path I was on was not right. So I took an aptitude test, it told me to go in the direction of art or architecture. The results were the first encouragement I had ever received, but that is all I needed. I transferred to the University of Oregon that had an art and architecture program. I studied as many different media as possible, and by the end decided that painting is what I would concentrate on. What path were you following that was "not right"? Pre-law. People who know me now would choke at that thought. Do you still have any of those early works you did? I don't have any of them. I gave them all away at the time. What would you say was that decisive factor that made you turn your head around and definitively focus on painting? There was not a single element that I can identify. All of the elements of painting seemed to "fit" right. It was a visual art where one had control over the image making with only the brush or knife at most between the image and the hand. I was also attracted to painting because I considered it the greatest of the arts. Much of our cultural history is in painting. To this day I find that exciting. I have spent a little time painting in northern Europe with Europeans and I think they have a very different relationship to this history than us from the New World. I find the history exciting and stimulating, many of them find it exciting and intimidating. How can they measure up to their countrymen, Rembrandt or Monet or whomever? We from the Americas can have the cultural perspective and without the baggage. How old were you when you decided that you wanted to earn your living as a painter? I have never thought that I could earn a living as a painter. This is the reason I became a paint maker: to make a living as close to painting as possible. Perhaps just now I could begin to entertain thoughts of making a living from painting and make realistic plans to make it happen. That's strange because it seems to me many painters earn a living selling their artwork. I wish it were as easy as that. Our schools graduate many thousands of art majors each year, yet the number of painters making a living from painting is quite stable, my estimate is that it is about 5,000, perhaps less. Five thousand sounds pessimistic to me. There are no good studies that I have seen that are recent. In 1988 a survey done by current statistical methods said that there are 11.9 million people who purchase art materials. Art in America gallery guide lists about 10,000 artists of all kinds that are represented in galleries. My guess is that 5,000 make a LIVING as painters, this is a different than how many "successful painters" there are. Can you recall the first piece of art you sold? The first work I publicly exhibited and sold was on the street in San Francisco. In the early 70's there was a vibrant Bay Area street artist's "scene" that was a descendant of the Renaissance Fairs. Beach Street, Telegraph Ave., the Embarcadero. I made a little "A" Frame out of pegboard and sold a few landscape paintings off of it while I was minding my table of hand made deerskin ties, peacock feather wallets, and rosewood pipes. Friends of mine made all of these items. We would split up stock and exhibit in three spots in a day. Those must have been fun days. Were you selling your student paintings? I was out of school. They were small landscape sketches. Can you tell us a bit about your approach to colors? Painters have many ways of approaching their palette of colors, most try to put the struggle of their early years behind them, and determine a set palette as soon as possible. And then make very few changes from that point on for the rest of their careers. In using myself as an important piece of market research, I have never allowed myself to accept any degree of misfit between my palette and my needs for color. So my palette is always under examination and always subject to evolution. Not only to get things "right," but also because, as individuals, we are not static. We change, we evolve, and ergo my palette evolves with me. My palette of colors must give me unfettered access to all of color space that I require and at the same time carry the right emotional tone. For example, my cold yellow has a sharp edge, my warm yellow a mellow richness, my oranges a solidity, etc. So, what you are advocating here is to keep an open-mind, to be flexible, and to allow the palette to shift as you shift personally from mood to mood, from one level of comprehension to another? Yes, but this can be difficult to achieve. My experience making materials and helping artists with their issues tells me that artists work hard to master a particular palette then turn their focus to the artwork and rarely adjust their palettes unless something is grossly not working. I suggest that painters examine their palettes even if there are slight struggles with color, transparency, and texture. Painting is hard enough, why accept any more difficulties on the materials side? Do you have a particular way of laying out colors on a palette? I use a strict chromatic arrangement of the palette first "invented" by the Impressionists. The reason for this is because using this arrangement as the basis I can make a two dimensional "model" of color space on my palette. I use the areas directly perpendicular to the layout of my colors for mixing each hue. Right below cold yellow is where the cold yellows are mixed, below the warm yellow where the warm yellows are mixed. So as the painting progresses all the colors that have been mixed are in strict temperature relationship to each other. This cuts down on distractions on the palette, I know without looking the relationship of each color on the whole surface of my palette. I've never heard of "distractions on the palette." How important is this "distraction", do you think? Does a painter really need to focus on achieving a palette that does not distract? This is so personal, I am at one end of the spectrum, I want to squeeze as much "static" out of the process that comes through the tools and palette as possible. At the other end of the spectrum are some artists who work like they are doing it all for the first time. I make no value judgements, I just want to help people have control over the process. Do you have a favorite palette? Yes, it is one of my painting panels, braced birch plywood, 18 x 24. So, you're a "neat and tidy" painter it seems, not like some painters whose palettes are 3 feet wide by 8 feet long? How important is neatness and tidiness, do you think? I became quite skilled at handling paint from running a three roll mill for the first seven years I made paint. When paintmaking, if you are not in control of the paint, you are defeated. I learned how to "manage the mess" as we say. But neatness is only important if you think it is important. Please explain what you mean by "defeated" and how one can achieve control. If the paint gets out of control then more time is spent in cleanup than in production. By controlling the paint through skilled handling then the work is easier. Do you use any other paints but Gamblin colors? I use only Gamblin Artists Oils. They are made specifically to my taste for color and texture. They are available in many art retail outlets. Why did you begin Gamblin Colors? I was a baby boomer with an art degree who graduated into a deep recession. I had a number of jobs. But I was not able to fully give myself to any of them because they were so far from painting. By making materials I could make a living as close as possible to painting. I have been very fortunate. Do you have a favorite white? Since I am a landscape painter I face many types of light. So I match the light of the day to the white I use. On bright, sunny, summer days I use Titanium White or Radiant White which reflect back the greatest degree of light. They can easily recreate the sparkle of light on a bright summer day. On days that are humid, foggy, or when the light is very soft, then I use Flake White Replacement, which is matte and more opalescent. On days when I am travelling and must go home the next day, I use Quick Dry White. Are the types of paints you list (Titanium White, etc...) names on labels? Yes. Those are the names of the colors on the label. What is your favorite medium? I use a range of painting mediums, Galkyd Slow Dry and Galkyd Lite when I need a medium to make color very thin. I use Galkyd when I want to make the layers dry very fast. I use Neo Megilp when I want to make paint more transparent without making it fluid, or if I want a very thick glazing layer in which to float color. Buying painting mediums for most artists is an expensive proposition. Not everybody can afford to test all kinds before they can settle on a few types. How do you think a painter can go around this problem? Is there a standard he can use? This is specifically why we make all of our mediums in very small sizes. So you can try a number of them on for size to see what is going to work best for you before buying a larger, more economical size. We also publish a medium brochure, which explains the intended working properties to help you narrow your search. We also have an interactive component to our medium page on our web site to help you if you do not have a brochure. Do you teach art? I have spent close to 25% of the last 15 years travelling and talking to artists and art students about materials. This is intended to help artist understand the strengths of specific materials so that they can put together a set of materials that best suits their goals. A proper set of materials makes the work easier, an inappropriate set of materials can make it impossible to achieve one's ends. So, you are really teaching about materials? Correct. What about workshops? Yes. I team-teach a workshop titled, "Lessons from the Impressionists" with Ross Merrill. His day job is Chief of Conservation at the National Gallery. We usually teach 2 or 3 workshops a year. We teach specific techniques that many of the Impressionists used: the use of the chromatic palette, simultaneous contrast, the use of impasto, broken color, etc. How can artists get involved in your workshops? I teach every year through the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. I am a member of the board. We also teach most years at the Art League in Alexandria VA. I will be doing a one-day version of the workshop through Flax in San Francisco on November 4th, 2003. Being owner of Gamblin Colors surely must take up a lot of your time. When do you find time to paint? Having had to fit painting around a day job for the last 33 years means that if there is time to paint, then it is time to paint. I have had the luxury, on a few occasions, to be able to paint uninterruptedly for a week or two. At the end of the week I feel like I am just getting into a serious groove. I hear many artists say that a "serious", "professional" painter should paint several hours everyday. In fact, they seem to be saying, "paint and paint and paint until you drop dead!" You seem to be contradicting this philosophy. I have heard that too. I know fabulous artists who paint every day. I know fabulous artists who paint in spurts. One thing I have learned is that this practice is so personal that all approaches that you can imagine, and more, are currently working well for artists. One gross generality that I heard years ago that I have not been able to dispute is that you must paint about an acre of canvas before your really get somewhere. So you paint whenever time allows? Yes, except when a show is scheduled, then I work most evenings. How many hours do you paint in one sitting? Sometimes it is only 15 minutes; I prefer 2-3 hours on my studio days. Have you ever had a painter's "block"? If yes, how did you resolve it? For me the only way through is to paint a bunch of bad paintings until the good ones can come again. I try to always push myself so I destroy at least 50% of what is started. I don't see any reason for that to change. Wolf Kahn was my teacher, and one of his favorite sayings is that "you should always go further than you should go." I try to follow that advice. When did you study with Kahn? And what did he teach, specifically? Did you do pastels, too? I worked with Wolf in some workshops and other gatherings from 1993-2000. There is not enough time for me to get into specifics, but if your are interested in his method it is all in his book, Wolf Kahn Pastels. I myself I don't work in pastels. It is just that many of the ideas that Wolf teaches are in the book he wrote on pastels. Painting in pastel is Wolf's favorite medium and he has evolved a method of oil painting that is as close to pastelling as can be. How many hours do you spend on one painting? That depends greatly. I do not have a set formula for working. My teacher's teacher was Hans Hoffman, so I have a touch of abstract expressionism in my 19th century landscape painting practice. Some can be done in an hour or two, some get painted on for months. Some for months and then destroyed. But isn't it cruel destroying a piece you've worked on for months? How can you be certain that the piece is "no good"? Sometimes what we subjectively feel is our worse work is loved by the public! My first teacher was David Foster, who was a student of Maholy Nagy at the New Bauhaus in Chicago after the 2nd WW. He taught me that the visual arts are primarily a medium of communication. If I cannot get the piece to communicate properly to myself, then it should not be allowed to exist. Painting is very hard. If I have a failure, so be it. Abandoning the bad ones, makes the good ones look much better. I try hard to be honest with them early so that I do not waste a lot of time kidding myself that I can bring a work around. How do you divide your time between doing business and painting? Work dominates. Painting is subordinate. But the work is important work. My wife, who is our chief executive, and I are working to build a company that will be a strong and valuable resource for all of American oil painters. So I do not begrudge the time that work demands. Just how big is Gamblin Colors, Inc.? We are 20 people working in 20,000 square feet, making only oil painting materials for painters in North America. Are your paints available outside of the USA? Only in Vancouver and Toronto, Canada, and Melbourne, Australia. How do you explain that some people will purchase a particular piece of artwork and not another? This is a wonderful question I am always trying to figure out. This is an important question, too, since I believe that painting is a medium of communication and you know for sure you have communicated when someone puts $1000 on the desk and takes it home. On the other hand, I have a recent suite of paintings of old growth forests. In the gallery they got such long looks that I thought some people were taking vacations in front of them. But to my surprise, none of them sold. So I don't know what to make of all of it. Do you tell people the meaning of your paintings or do you leave them interpret as they wish? I have found that with landscape painting the viewer makes a better connection if they think it is a place they have been. So I have a policy to not discuss the location where it was painted. This allows viewers associations to be open. What is important is what the viewer is feeling, that is precious and should not be tampered with by discussing the actual location. Who are some of your favorite artists? Claude Lorraine, JMW Turner, Claude Monet, Wolf Kahn. These are the influences that I invite into my process. Is there any specific reasons why these artists are your favorites? Claude created an awareness of the light, Turner charged that light with emotion, Monet told us it was outside all around us all the time, Wolf brought a modernist edge and high key color to the practice. Do you consider yourself a successful artist? Yes because I have developed a personal vision, and I accept it. Do you have any tips for artists who are just emerging and want to make of their art a financially rewarding career? If art is going to be a financially rewarding career then there must be a market. You should know that target market very well, and spend as much time working the market as you spend making paintings. How did you learn to market your Gamblin products and your art? Neither my partner or I were trained in marketing but we have good instincts for the process. An important aspect is to be able to see the market for what it is and not for what you want it to be. This is the only way you can design a marketing plan that has a chance of succeeding. There are many good books on marketing and advertising. Ogilvy on Advertising, Differentiate or Die. Robert Gamblin's artwork can be viewed at www.robertgamblinstudio.com This interview originally appeared in The Fine Arts Magazine.

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