Stephen C. Datz thinks of paintings as ideas. At any given time, he’s surrounded by hundreds of them. More than he could ever paint. Stacks of old studies and sketches, countless photos on his computer. Good, but not quite right. Or maybe the timing was off.
“For this show, I’ve been going back through those things that have been patiently waiting for development,” Datz says. “It’s exciting. There’s so much new production all the time that I really do forget about things. I’ll pick a stack and go through it and be like, ‘there’s 10 great ideas in here I can use!’”
Storm on the Horizon, oil, 9 x 18 in.
Consider it ‘the muse’s memory,’ a theme Datz was tinkering with for his latest show of new paintings at Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery in Tucson, Arizona.
“I’ll never be able to paint them all, but at least I can paint these guys which were good enough ideas and interesting enough subjects to stop me the first time,” Datz adds.
Emerging Sun, oil, 8 x 10 in.
They stopped him, and then he stopped them. “People imagine a process where you start [a painting] and there’s this linear, step-by-step progression; sometimes, that’s not how it works,” Datz explains. “This happens to me a lot. I’ll get to a point of painting where I’ve got to think about this for a while. Sometimes you have to put [paintings] aside and start working on something else.”
But once the brain has been asked a question, it never stops thinking about it.
“Whatever I’m trying to figure out in the back of my head—it’s simmering away there—I’ll wake up one morning and go, ‘OK, I know what I need to do there,” Datz says.
Light Play, oil, 24 x 24 in.
Painting is not always a straight line between starting and finishing.
It’s also not a pursuit that can be carried out with the routine of a 9-to-5 job, especially for a plein air painter like Datz who takes his inspiration from nature, from the Colorado Plateau. Road trips. Hours of observation.
Sometimes life gets in the way. Sometimes, it’s the weather.
“That’s when I turn to the storehouse of ideas, the muse’s memory so to speak,” Datz says. “I look back and remind myself. Some of these things have been sitting on my shelf for 15 or16 years at this point, and I think, ‘how could I have not gotten to this before now?’”
Riverside Repose, oil, 8 x 8 in.
He’s getting to them now, intending to produce 16 new paintings for the show from classic ideas ranging in size from 6-inch squares, up to 30-by-60-inch works. Datz has remained true to the blocky, geometric, vivid Southwestern landscapes collectors have come to recognize him for.
Datz’s new paintings will be on view at the gallery from April 26 through May 24, with an opening reception held on April 26 from 5 to 7 p.m. —
Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery 6872 E. Sunrise Drive, Suite 130, Tucson, AZ 85750, (520) 722-7798, www.medicinemangallery.com
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