Steve Hill was one of 79 U.S. artists who went to Havana, Cuba as part of a special invitational plein air (on-site) painting tour organized by B. Eric Rhoads, publisher of Plein Air Magazine, Feb. 6-13.
It was the largest group of artists to ever visit Cuba and with the specific purpose to paint from live subjects for more than a week. There were 25 spouses, art collectors and patrons along as well.
“We all felt a sense of immediacy to record our impressions of a country that has been in a time warp for over a half century, before everything changes with the new open door policy now embraced by Cuba and the U.S.,” Hill said.
President Barack Obama, Raul Castro and Pope Francis have begun to establish more normalized relations and started talks to lift embargoes that have been in place since 1962. While there is still a long way to go, both countries have re-opened embassies (August 2015 – Havana and Washington D.C.) and U.S. citizens are now allowed to travel in Cuba, under government-controlled classifications that include limited tourism and some educational/religious venues.
Here is Hill’s take on the trip:
“We all stayed at one hotel about a 20-minute bus ride from the old city of Havana, where we painted four of the seven days during the organized tour. My wife, Judy and I stayed an extra three days
just to paint and take hundreds of painting reference photos in the Vedado neighborhood and around the old city. We rented a very nice apt, right across the street from the U.S. Embassy and just 500 feet from the famed Malecon Sea Wall that protects 4.5 miles of the city from the ocean.
Havana has a population of two million people, nearly 20 percent of the 11 million total people in Cuba. We explored as many nooks and crannies as possible there and never once encountered any bad city vibes. People went out of their way to be friendly and help us.
“Our Cuban guide explained that it’s forbidden for Cubans to sell all the old cars, as the government has declared them a national treasure. As visiting artists, we were absolutely thrilled to see tens of thousands of these relics from the 1930s-1950s still driving the streets, wave after wave, like the clock had stopped a half-century ago! Newer cars are totally the exception and the whole “car thing” speaks to the resiliency of the Cuban people to survive with little or no resources. They are expert mechanics and have learned to re-manufacture critical car parts, just to keep them running.
“While Cubans still struggle with their economy (average wage is $90 per month and doesn’t matter if you are a doctor or street sweeper), “The Times They are a Changin” to paraphrase Bob Dylan. Street artists can and do make well over $1,000-$2,000 per month, a total reversal of the professional strata that exist among “visual artists vs. doctors or lawyers” in the U.S. But art materials and supplies are so scarce in Cuba that they are virtually unattainable. Most of their paint brushes looked like hardware store rejects after a bad year in the Mojave Desert. Our group donated several thousand dollars’ worth of oil paints, brushes and pastel sticks to artists we found working around Havana.
“Some of us are exhibiting our work back east for two special invitational exhibits at major galleries for this Cuba trip, coming in May. These smaller paintings are all part of the ‘plein air process’ and will allow me the best reference I can have in my Lopez studio, to the special Cuba light qualities and imagery, to create larger versions.
“In the meantime, I will have several available for viewing, together with a video we have put together from our trip at my own gallery on Lopez. I will plan to have about 40 new paintings from this trip to Cuba, done within the next two months at Windswept Fine Art Gallery, 783 Port Stanley Road, Lopez. Please call in advance to make sure the gallery is open. 360-468-2557.”
A short documentary video was made by the Plein Air Magazine staff from this trip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?V=617LqZdfzVk
His website is www.windsweptstudios.com
