Ed Wintner, a Former Biochemist, Applies a Scientific and Methodical Approach to Art

I have with me artist ed whiner. And, uh, he's actually officially, you are also called doctor, correct? A, a different kind of doctor. Yes, but yes, but by rights, by rights, I do, uh, I do have PhD in organic chemistry. So which as someone who took the very basics of organic chemistry in order to get into medical school, I can say is a very, um, that is a difficult Field. It is a difficult field. I made a lot of good friends in college, um, who were destined to be great doctors, but helping them through organic chemistry, uh, with their Sunday night problem sets. So, um, that was a first career for me. Um, I've always been a painter, always loved painting. Um, but, um, in a monetary sense, uh, the first thing that I did, um, outta college was to work in biotech, um, actually helped, uh, start a company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and, um, then later one in, uh, in Seattle, um, and there was then a point in the middle of my life where it was, do I want to try to start a third biotech and keep going in business? Um, or is there maybe another part of my life that I really haven't explored? And that's when I was lucky enough to just, uh, be able to take the plunge and say, I'm gonna try, uh, being a full-time artist. Um, and, uh, for myself personally, uh, and, and my wife, we said, okay, I'm gonna give myself two years. And if I don't sell a single painting in two years, then, uh, I'll go back to biotech. I, but, uh, actually, um, did not take too long to, uh, find people who really, uh, appreciated and, and like my work. Um, and so I consider myself incredibly lucky that that was true and have painted ever since. So what type of people are kind of tuned into your work? What type of people do you have a sense, like the type of style that you well, I think, uh, so I'm a landscape painter, obviously. Um, I am focused on nature and particularly the nature of new England. Um, uh, they're two sort of really obvious things, um, that I like to focus on in new England, which is the mountains and the coast. Um, and actually we have an example of both of those here. Um, I've been fortunate enough, uh, that in our extended family, there's both a cottage in the white mountains, um, and, uh, in Maine here, um, right on Shaw bay, uh, in Georgetown. And so I've go gotten to as a kid, you know, really spend time, uh, during the summers in both places and then have always, uh, come back. And I think first and foremost, the kind of people who identify with my paintings, uh, enjoy nature in whatever respect, whether or not they've been hikers or, um, have enjoyed the beach. Um, and then also quite a few people are attached to a particular place. They might have, uh, cottage, uh, themselves and have actually been fortunate enough to have a number of commissions of particular play that people are familiar with. So, um, and you know, that's certainly true of, of many landscape painters. If you paint something that someone can identify with a specific place, um, that can really, um, really tie you in, in fact, I, one of my funniest arts stories is, um, from a trip in Scotland, I, uh, did a very early painting, um, of tumble, um, which is north of Edinburg. And, uh, I did, I had taken pictures while on vacation and then came back, uh, to the us painted this picture. And someone in a gallery in Western Massachusetts bought the painting because they had loved, they were actually Scottish transplants and had loved this particular site along lock tumble. Uh, so, you know, I think, um, that is a very long-winded way of saying people who like nature and specific points in nature seems to be drawn to my style of painting. Um, It reminds me of a, a story that another artist had brought up in a prior, uh, conversation that I had about, I think it was a, a porch that had a chair on it and meeting somebody who saw this porch and this chair and insisting that this was her porch and her chair. And how did this particular artist ever, how did he get to her porch and her chair? Right. So there is some real strong emotional connection that people will make to art and to place. Yes. Uh, and, um, um, my, my work certainly, um, owes a lot to, uh, 1920s travel poster painters who were doing exactly the same thing, trying to capture an image, um, and a feeling of a particular destination, uh, to advertise that, uh, to the public, uh, to come. And, um, the, those were mostly lithographs, um, at the time, uh, in, in the twenties and absolutely beautiful some of, uh, of our national parks, um, which have recently resurfaced in calendars, um, some of those old images, uh, but, um, absolutely beautiful renditions of, of the nature of our parks. Um, one of the things that is interesting to me was when they were doing those, which were, you know, done by very, very good artists, they were, um, they come out in this sort of, you know, printmaking, lithograph style, where you have blocks of color, which is obviously what I'm also using. It's not that they were trying so much to have a style or to be more or less realistic. It's just that they had only a certain number of colors to work with. And so they had to use, uh, you know, Plains of color of flat color. And when I developed this, this style, which I'd really been developing in my mind more, uh, quite a long time before it ever came onto the canvas, I was thinking, well, I really love this printmaking style, but what if I were to do it as a painter where I could still use flat Plains of color, but I wouldn't be limited by the number of colors that I could use. And so that's really how I came to this style of painting, which very much uses flat Plains of color, uh, but tries to get sense of light sense of distance and perspective by using many, many gradations, uh, of those colors and really focusing on how the come together to form, uh, contours, um, and silhouettes. Um, Tell me about this, this piece that's, um, next to me, this piece that is Georgetown. Yeah. So, um, Georgetown Maine, uh, is, uh, peninsula, uh, which sticks down south. Um, actually, but as the Crow FLS, probably not too far from Portland, but it's hard to get there by car cause you have to drive all the way down the peninsula. And at the end of it is a place called saga Hawk bay. Uh, and, uh, they're my, um, family, uh, for several generations, there's a cottage there right at the, uh, bottom on the water of saga Hawk bay. And you can watch the water go in and out across the mud flats as you can, uh, in many places in Maine. Uh, and uh, this, uh, cottage happens to be surrounded on three sides by water. And, uh, in the morning you can walk down here and if the tide is out, it looks exactly like this there's sort of little channels that run out. And, uh, to the, to the left of the painting there, that's where sun rises and these gray main rocks take on this beautiful pink sheen. So what as with all of my paintings, whether or not I do them from my head or do them trying to come very closely to a specific place in, in this case, it's, uh, very, very close to, you know, exactly what you have there. Um, when you come down in the morning and I'm trying to capture this sense of the beautiful pink light, uh, that greets you, um, at, when you wake up in the cottage chair. So When I first saw it, it reminded me of the walk that, um, the walk that you can take to get to Morris mountain, which is in that same general area, mm-hmm, , it's, um, taken care of by beats college, but up in the sort of the Popham area. Right, right. One, I think one peninsula over there exactly Right. In that same kind of place, but it's this combination of, uh, it's, it's where the gate really meets the sea and there's an ebb and a flow and the tides will bring the water in and, you know, along the walkway you'll really see kind of the sea grass, the very tips as the, as the tide is in. And then it kind of recedes a little bit. So when I saw this piece, that's, that's really what I was thinking of, especially with, um, kind of more in the, more towards the trees in the back, is that sense of motion and movement of the ocean? Yes. Well, I mean, it certainly, uh, you know, I'm honored when anybody is able to get the sense as you just have of what I'm trying to convey, uh, with the painting. I'm really just trying to, to capture the moment that I felt there, uh, when I'm painting for the three weeks or so, it takes me to do most of these paintings I'm for those three weeks walking around, literally in my head, in this painting back and forth, um, and into the canvas. So I really feel like I've been inside the painting for during the time that I've been doing it. Um, and that's exactly the, the feeling that I'm trying to convey is this sense of the, the waving grasses and the water coming in and out. Um, and then the, the beautiful tree line, which you get in many, many places in Maine, um, often sort of those scrubby Oaks that, that grow along, uh, the sea, the, uh, the seaside, the coast, um, combined with your, a couple of BS that really stick out white, uh, once in a while. So, um, no, I'm, I'm very glad that that comes to you because that's exactly where, where it was painted. So, And then in contrast, you have next to you, uh, this piece that was done, um, of the white mountains and, and you were describing that this came initially from some teaching you had done and a study that you did. So tell me about that. Um, so this, this comes from a completely different, um, history, vantage point in my mind, whereas this comes from a very specific scene. Um, this comes from a collection of ideas that are in my head from spending, uh, many summers, uh, walking in the white mountains. Um, and I was, uh, teaching a class, um, in, uh, Chicago and New Hampshire, uh, this summer, um, a one day class on, uh, mid ground in painting. And we were doing various studies. I had, uh, I actually brought this. So this was one of the studies that I had the students do. Um, and we were working on the mid ground and how, how to connect the, the waterfall to the mountains with the trees and, uh, how to compose this, uh, in this particular example. And I thought, well, if I cut out this middle section, that could be a really nice painting in its own, right. And so, uh, you know, that that little painting became, uh, this painting that you see here. Um, but as I say, this was, uh, done from a lot of memories, uh, in my mind. So is perhaps not quite as realistic as, um, the, uh, the saga Hawk bay painting. I was actually very closely looking at nature. Um, but here, uh, I've, I've titled this, um, the white mountains calling and just sort of this to me is I I'm standing here and saying, all right, uh, where would I like to walk if there's a trail, uh, up, through, up through here. Um, and one of the things I find amazing about the white mountains is that in the relatively congested area of new England, there is this place where you can walk for miles, um, in relative wilderness and, um, really see mostly nature, uh, and, and very few houses or people. And, um, I think, you know, throughout Maine New Hampshire, Northern new England, um, that's one thing that people are really attracted to is the ability to when they want to really just go out into some, something that is a little bit wild. So, And I can see with this piece, um, there is something, especially with the clouds and almost almost a ghost-like, uh, sense of some of the trees that there's something more ethereal, something that this idea of being called makes a lot of sense to me, the way that you're describing it. Yes. Uh, I certainly, when I see a landscape, um, there's sometimes when I sort of see it in my mind, I mean, I know that in, in truth mode of the trees of new England were all cut down 200 or so years ago. And it was, you know, farmland and pasture land. Uh, I'm always thinking, wow, what must have this been like 500 a thousand years ago when most of the trees were 400 years old, um, and, and, and towering, and it was, you know, sort of this absolutely pristine, uh, wilderness. And so sometimes in my painting and certainly here, uh, I may have exaggerated the etherealness, the wildness, uh, sometimes the tallness of the trees, um, to reflect how it might have looked, um, to, uh, an, an AKI Indian, for instance, uh, or native American, uh, apologies, um, that, you know, who were the original, uh, inhabitants, uh, of, of this land. So, So it's interesting to think about, um, you moving from doing early work in painting mm-hmm to then going towards a, what I would say is a very kind of simultaneously concrete and abstract feel old, organic chemistry, and then moving back to painting, which is where you, I don't wanna say it's where you started, but you, well, Certainly as, as, as a kid, that's what I did. Um, I would much rather, uh, at my time I was drawing Darth Vader and storm troopers instead of doing my homework. So, uh, yes, that's certainly where I started. Um, and very early on took, uh, you know, serious painting classes, uh, at the Philadelphia college of art in high school. Um, and, but then yes, moved away to a completely different, um, field, organic chemistry. I loved that. Um, I loved, I, I think that the, perhaps the one connection was if you're going to do, uh, in, in this case, it was drug discovery. Um, you were jumping into something completely new knowing that you may very well fail, um, and trying to go somewhere where, uh, no one's gone before, because, you know, if you're trying to develop a new, new drug, it's exactly that it's, it's a new drug. And, uh, so you have to go in with a complete understanding that you may very well, uh, not make it, uh, particularly on your first attempt and the, um, in biotech where it was all very, um, in this is in the 1990s, uh, very new money, uh, small companies, um, working crazy hours, startups, uh, jumping in there and trying to do new things. It was very similar to when I eventually, uh, stepped away from, from that life into art, it was jumping into something completely new where I had no idea whether or not there would be a success or failure and no idea what waited for me when I, you know, moved from doing a couple of paintings a summer, maybe, uh, just for myself to getting up in the morning and doing it as something that was not only my love, but my job. And I think when anybody does something for, um, an extended period of time, you find many different things as you do that, that you had never thought, uh, you know, you might find, uh, when doing that, and I've found so much new, uh, in art, um, but, uh, through many, uh, failures, as well as successes and finding out what works particularly in this style and what doesn't work. Um, So again, it is this interesting kind of abstract, concrete, abstract, concrete, and this kind of continual honing of the, of the question that you're asking of the form that you're seeking and that ability to move back and forth between that type of, uh, neurologic process is really very, um, it's not something everybody can do. Um, yeah, I, I think, um, I mean, you, you were sort of mentioning, uh, the, the neurologic process. One of the things which I really like about this particular style is it allows me to in depth at how a painting is, is put together. If you take an art course, um, you're often explained how a painter has, uh, created a composition where this line here, or this set of parallel little lines, all point to a specific area of focus that the painter wants you to see, um, or, you know, the curving E and flow of a particular painting. All of that is magnified when you're using a style much more like print making, where those, the intersection of two colors makes a very defined contour. Um, and, and a silhouette is perhaps the most basic form that our brain registers as an object. Um, the, the brain's really good at seeing patterns, um, really good at seeing variations of color and very good at perceiving shapes. And so a silhouette is a single variation of color in a single shape. And even if that shape is very complex and layered with many other shapes, if it's in the same color, the brain puts together that that very complicated shape into something that we recognize as a tree or a cloud or, or a dog, uh, and this style plays with that. Um, and, and I love how you can go from that very concrete idea of, you know, the silhouette of a tree to the extraction of a white pine, which this is obviously, if you see this white pine in nature, it is not all one color. It's a many, many colors, but if your eye sees the silhouette and sees it in the right place, in a painting, your eye almost fills in the fact that, well, yes, this is the trunk of a tree, and it's probably more brown or black than the rest of it, but your brain simply says, oh, that's a white pine in the midst of a landscape. You may or may not like the landscape as it's painted, but your brain's doing that extra work. And so I guess, as a former scientist, I love that layer on top of the art. And it is very easy, then went, uh, to go back to the class and telling people about how I compose a painting. You can very easily point to the lines that I have, because they're so visible between the two colors pointing, uh, give flow to the painting to give focus to the painting. Um, When I look at the piece that is Georgetown, if you, as I'm looking closely, you have different sizes and shapes of small rocks on the sand. Yes. And they're very specific, different colors. Yes. But it, but as you're talking about the brain and how it kind of pulls them all together, if, if I then take kind of a step back and let my mind process the whole, the painting as a whole, then it, it, all of a sudden, it's not these distinct different colors. It's what you've been intending to create, which is the play of the light on these rocks on the sand. Yes. Um, I mean, thank you for, for noticing that it, I, I think, uh, like many artists, I think, uh, I suppose, um, in more modern times, the, the point lists are maybe the best example of where if you look closely in a painting, you see one thing that the artist is doing. And if you just take a snapshot, look at the painting, perhaps from a distance, you might see the greater effect that they're trying to achieve. Um, so, uh, I'm always experimenting with new ways to give the sense, the mood that I want to try to create in, in a given painting. Um, and here it was both the, the highlighted color from the sunrise. Well, as, um, you know, sometimes you'll see when you see, uh, rocks on the sand, particularly in light, that's coming, uh, from the side, they just stand out as, uh, individual, uh, little, uh, tiny castles of rock. Um, and, uh, that's, that's really what this was and the fact that sure, they were in many, many different colors and I chose three or four was simply my way of, of, um, telling this particular story of the image that I saw that morning into the painting. Um, just as, as a side note, um, in, uh, printmaking or in the style that I'm doing here, uh, rocks are wonderful, particularly when they're lit from the side. Uh, and, um, Maxfield parish was amazing at doing this. You only need two colors, you need a light color and a dark color. And if you do the silhouette correctly, you suddenly look like you have, uh, a beautiful rock scape or, uh, Yosemite valley for that matter, uh, or whatever it is. So rocks really lend themselves to this style. Um, and that's one of the things I love to paint. So When did you first become familiar with this 1920s style of lithograph? Um, I would, I mean, I've always liked this, um, uh, for those who know, um, the covers of yes, albums, uh, I believe Roger Dean, um, is certainly someone who has used this kind of, of art. Um, also an artist named Jerry sch from Philadelphia originally, um, has done what he calls stereographs, um, which is sort of halfway between printing and, um, and painting. And, and so I'm just trying to get in the reference influences. I'm certainly not the first person to, to try this kind of painting. And all of this comes back to, um, as far as I'm concerned, uh, looking back toward, um, Asian printmaking, uh, which has hundreds and hundreds of years of, of history and perhaps for most well known as say, uh, the printmaker Hokusai, uh, his wave is almost, you know, common enough to be on t-shirts. Um, so I think I've always been aware of this. It's certainly not how I began painting. I began trying to paint extremely realistically, um, sort of all of the Hudson river school, Frederick church is certainly a hero of mine. Um, but then for me personally, to give a sense of a particular place, uh, this, this style just comes naturally to, to my hand. And, um, that's, that's what I followed. Um, cause I've really just followed this, this style. I wouldn't say it's cer it's certainly not that I've always thought that this would be the way that I would, would end up painting. It's an interesting mixture of references that you've blended into the conversation where you're talking, um, you're talking yes, albums, and those are albums, by the way, for those of you who don't know, we used to have things called records were very large and they needed beautiful art for their covers. Probably some of, you know, it's that it's, it's retro now vinyl, but anyway, cultural re Hummers Come back. Yes, that's true. That's true. They are back now. So, but then you've also talked about, I think we got star wars in there. Yeah. And, um, so I mean, again, it's, it's, you're, you're not, um, in the 1920s lithographs, you're not forcing your mind to stay tuned into one particular or one particular style. You're really trying to kind of bring them all together and create something that is unique to you. Yes. And, um, I think many artists may have a, have a similar story. You know, you look at someone and say, wow, they create did an amazing style. Certainly speaking for myself, I can't say that this was something which I, you know, planned, designed out this just, uh, evolved, um, out of many things that I visually appreciated and finally, um, put together. Uh, but I, I can't claim perhaps as as much forethought as it would imply to say, well, I took a bit of this and a bit of this and a bit of this, and I put them together into this particular style. Uh, but certainly, um, you know, I'm a very visually oriented person and the, when I've seen something, um, that I liked, uh, you know, in my life visually, I remember it, uh, pretty much exactly as it is forever. Um, so, so it, it's not a photographic memory. It is. It's just sort of able the ability to take individual photographs once in a while of something that's really striking. That's a great skill to have. It's not one that I have. the way that I remember things is, is very different than what you're describing, but I can see how it would lend itself to the type of art that you're doing. Uh, and I think that also blocks out plenty of other things, for instance, remembering somebody's name at a party two minutes after they've told me does not, not come in under the heading of things that I remember so that, um, there's other things that sometimes I wish that I had, uh, that this memory is clearly taking the place of, so , well, I'm not that different. I mean, I, I, I think it's interesting that we all kind of coexist in this world and we all assume that everybody sees the world what we do, but we don't even remember things the way that everybody else does. You know, I don't remember names, dates, numbers, or this visual thing that you're describing, but I always remember stories. You can, you can tell me a story, I'll remember it for decades. So it's funny that we all have our own way of interfacing with a, that we believe is somehow common To all of us and is probably not, and is probably not. And I, I think as an artist, you immediately see that because you paint something and particularly when painting it, you know, at the point when I finish a painting at that moment, I believe it's perfect. It's the best that I can do. And there's not another job of paint that, uh, needs to be put on this. And so it's ready. I'm I have done everything I can, it's ready for someone else to enjoy if they want to. And I have seen very specific things in it. I might think that this little part of it was done absolutely brilliantly. And I certainly think that the whole thing works as a composition. Otherwise I would not have said that it's a finished painting. Then someone else will looks at it who might well be my wife, giving it a critique and says, well, you know, this cloud really doesn't work for me. It really takes my eye away from the entire rest of the painting. And I can't see the, the whole, uh, composition you have here, because this is just ruining my vision and to see, you know, what is so obviously a perfect painting for me in a completely different way, uh, immediately keys you into the fact that everybody looks at the world in not just a little bit different way, but sometimes a lot different way. And, um, I think it obviously for, for the first thing you have to understand is that, well not, everybody's gonna like your stuff. Um, on the other hand, uh, there is, if you can, um, go through, uh, go through that take in people's suggestions, uh, you can find commonalities that as someone who wants to eventually sell their paintings, you can find commonalities that a large number of people do want to see on their living room wall. So Ed I've enjoyed our conversation very much. I've learned a lot from you today. Oh, thank you. Uh, you've been a wonderful host, um, and, uh, know I'm extremely happy and, uh, blessed to be at the, uh, Portland art gallery. So, um, so, Well, I encourage people to go to the Portland art gallery or the Portland art gallery website to see Ed's work. I've been speaking today with artist ed Whitner here on radio Maine. I'm Dr. Lisa Bai. And thank you for joining us. Thank you for joining me today, ed. Um, it's been my pleasure. Thank you so much for the time.