Feature Article from Plein Air Magazine, October 2004
by Virginia Hooper Rood
Clive Pates knows he's painting well if he is not thinking about his technique. Paint will flow on to the canvas in a spontaneous manner with brushes, knives, the handle of a brush, his fingers - any method he can imagine to get the paint surface to duplicate the impression he wishes to convey - and all considerations of colour and composition will follow in this fashion. At this level of painting practice, he trusts in his ability to resolve these issues without too much deliberation. His mind is then set free to wonder at a particular relationship of colour hues or compositional subtlety, and to translate that with an instant clarity.
"I have spent my painting career as a tonalist, trying to understand the subtle undercurrent of the tonal composition in relation to a limited use of colour. For this reason, most of my earlier influences are tonalist painters," says Pates. "I admire the works of Corot and Cezanne, who both fought hard for their own vision of the world. Cezanne was one of those rare painters who, to slightly misquote my fellow painter, George Thurmond, 'managed to unite a considerable intellect with the emotional intelligence of a painter'. Cezanne also managed to successfully make the transition from tone to colour - an occurrence, in my eyes, reserved for only a few painters in history."
The majority of Pates' work is created as a response to a very modern need to re-evaluate the role of realism in the field of contemporary art. "A precept for this is not to follow fashion, but to step into the unknown," he says. "Painting, as a medium, has been pretty much talked out of existence by critical analysis, but the key to painting - its emotional depth - will always break away from imposed intellectual boundaries. It is important to push the role of paint on canvas as having continued importance for the future."
In 1984, Pates began a BFA course at a college that was a leader in the field of conceptual art. "I realize that my generation represented the first group of artists brought up with a training background focused almost entirely on abstract and conceptual work, and that we saw these movements as an established, normal approach," says Pates. "I sought to define my direction as a painter against this training. My own solution and evolution has led me to plein air landscape painting as a solid perceptual foundation from which to gage a future for painting." After several years working on his own, he received a BFA with First Class Honours and a post-graduate degree in figurative studies from Bristol Polytechnic (now the University of the West of England) in Bristol, England.
Pates prodigious talent in figurative studies was noticed soon thereafter, and in the next two years he was awarded numerous commendations and scholarships, culminating in a prestigious Fulbright scholarship to study at the New York Academy of Art. This award was for figurative painting and sculpting, but Pates inevitably rejected conforming to the strict, classical program and began to spend all of his time perched on the corners of busy New York streets, fascinated by the compositional difficulties before him. These cityscape paintings resulted in the first of Pates' three Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grants.
After returning from New York, Pates lived in Bristol during the academic year both teaching at the Queens Road School of Art and working from his studio. However, every summer he disappeared into the landscape to paint en plein air. He received the Juliet Gomperts Residency in Casolé d'Elsa, Tuscany, Italy, the Roundstone Arts Centre Residency in Connemara, County Galway, Ireland, and the Robert Fleming Residency at Hospitalfield House in Arbroath, Scotland. Then, in 2002, he traveled to Mississippi to paint along the Tombigbee River and fell in love with the gothic shadows and shimmering light. Mississippi reciprocated Pates' affection with three major solo exhibitions at three universities in the past two years. And the attention is spreading - Pates had a solo exhibition at the Sylvia Schmidt Gallery in New Orleans in May of 2003 and is currently exhibiting in a solo exhibition at Gallery 119 in Mississippi's capitol city of Jackson.
Before arriving in the South, Pates had little idea of what to expect from the landscape. He arrived at the height of the summer and, based on his experiences of other hot climates, he expected to be confronted by a rich array of burnt reds and ochres. To his amazement, the land was as green and alive as the English landscape he had just left. This comparison was limited, though, since the verdure of the Mississippi landscape was completely transformed by the heat and humidity. "The shadows were deep and barbaric," Pates says, "and the light, lensed by the atmosphere, created a depth of colour that I had not previously experienced."
"The composition of the landscape also challenged my expectations," Pates continued. "I have been used to a formalized landscape because Europe has been modified by centuries of land management; every part of every scene has an historical implication, therefore the landscape is subservient to the human need. The Southern landscape is surly in comparison! I felt not so much a distance, but a mutual respect between the people and the land - almost a stand-off between the natural world and the inroads made by civilization."
- Virginia Rood, October 2004