FINISHING UP - Interview with Leslie Vreeland of The Watch

On Forest Road 642

INTERVIEW WITH LESLIE VREELAND OF THE WATCH NEWSPAPER

link to published article on Wednesday, November 20, 2013 

http://tinyurl.com/mo7lau2

1) What drew you to Lone cone and why 12 views?

I decided that I wanted to study Japanese woodblock printmaking. There was a class at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass titled Japanese Woodblock Printmaking and the Western Landscape! I applied for an artist's small grant from Telluride Arts to cover the cost of the workshop and I had to propose something specific that would relate to San Miguel County in some way. I had been looking at Hokusai's 36 Views of Mount Fuji for many years and decided to use that as a basis for my project, Twelve Views of Lone Cone. Lone Cone is geographically similar to Mount Fuji, a volcanic mountain that stands alone, and is also an important presence in the daily lives of residents of the Norwood area. I chose twelve views to represent each month of the year, but due to unpredictable circumstances it didn't turn out that way.

2) Why two media: woodblocks and paintings?

Like I mentioned above, I wanted to learn a new medium and I had always liked woodblock prints. As an artist who works in watercolor there is a similarity of approach in the sense that the painting has to be somewhat planned out ahead of time, it is not a spontaneous process. I do on-site paintings as a way to familiarize myself with the landscape, the forms, the angles of the land, etc. They are not done as preparatory studies and stand on their own merit. These are the paintings that are in the Oh-Be-Joyful Gallery.

3) I understand you've been working on these since a stint at Anderson Ranch, and continued  

    this work in Spain. Do you consider yourself through with these works now, or can we expect
    more views of Lone Cone? Do you imagine returning to depict this iconic mountain in the
    future? (Did you know Lone Cone was the site of some of the last grizzlies in Colorado before
    they disappeared from our state? very cool spot)

This particular project is finished. I enjoyed painting a new landscape and expect that I will go back to paint again. I think that Lone Cone offers a great, stunning, visual presence in the sense that it stands alone and becomes that iconic mountain. There are other peaks that stand out, like Sneffels or Wilson, but to see the entire mountain rising from the horizontal on the ground is something else.

I did not know that about the grizzlies!

4) Did you take photos of Lone Cone, or are these pieces from drawings? What did you use as    

    inspiration? They strike me as very Japanese. Do you see them that way?

I did take photos, and also brought photos with me to Spain taken by other people. The first few prints were done from drawings, then some photos and then ideas from other artists' works. The longer I was away from Colorado the more free I became to make up compositions and rely more on memory which is something I don't normally do as a perceptual or observational artist. But being away I couldn't just get in the car and take another look. I always refer to Hokusai's 36 Views of Mount Fuji, so I suppose that is why they strike one as very Japanese.