a fellow weekend designer…
Harry Stooshinoff
I came across Paintbox Landscapes one evening on Etsy and was fascinated by the work of Harry Stooshinoff. The interview below is intriguing and somewhat different from our prior “fellow weekend designers.” Tomorrow, I’ll incorporate some of his beautiful work into a small design improvisation; be on the look out! Harry was gracious enough tell us about his work. So, without further adieu, in his own words…
Tell me about yourself. Do you paint full time? Do you have an art degree?
I paint as much as I can which is not as much as you might think. I teach visual art fulltime at a lovely and historic private high school from September to June and I paint on all holidays and any time I
can find otherwise. My current series of small scale works started years ago as a way to start and finish a work in one short sitting….at least, that was a main reason for making a very sustained body of work with the little things. I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in visual art, a Masters of Fine Art, and a B. Ed.. I also did a year of studio study at the Banff Centre, which was great because all sorts of important artists, mus
icians, writers, came to teach short sessions and present their work, and then a new group would arrive to show and tell. It was very exciting and a very useful part of my training. In a sense, all artists are self taught, so it’s important to absorb a great many influences before you arrive at your own way. This is a matter of looking at someone’s intention, and their method…..what is this person trying to do and why?......what techniques are they adapting or inventing to do this?
can find otherwise. My current series of small scale works started years ago as a way to start and finish a work in one short sitting….at least, that was a main reason for making a very sustained body of work with the little things. I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in visual art, a Masters of Fine Art, and a B. Ed.. I also did a year of studio study at the Banff Centre, which was great because all sorts of important artists, mus
icians, writers, came to teach short sessions and present their work, and then a new group would arrive to show and tell. It was very exciting and a very useful part of my training. In a sense, all artists are self taught, so it’s important to absorb a great many influences before you arrive at your own way. This is a matter of looking at someone’s intention, and their method…..what is this person trying to do and why?......what techniques are they adapting or inventing to do this?
How do you choose your subject matter? It appears you are inspired by nature and architecture. Have you had a connection with nature from a young age?
I’m a painter who primarily paints landscapes. I’ve painted many subjects in many styles over the years, 
but landscape has always been important. I grew up on the Saskatchewan prairie and fascination with a sense of distance is still important to me. I recall loving our farm as a boy of 6, and wandering everywhere on that place in all seasons. I recall sitting high in an aspen tree, listening to the wind play with the leaves, and looking at the far off land through the foliage. I think I did that for long periods of time….not just 10 minutes or so. When I had to leave the farm at age 9, I recall climbing to the top of the machine shed and sitting there for a long time, saying goodbye to this hill on the horizon, then the next one, then this tree, and this valley. As a high school student I recall wanting to draw like Constable, going to the Assiniboine river and trying my hand, and being completely impressed with examples of landscape painting masters that I could find in our meager town library. In graduate school, I sat in the grass by the sidewalk of a busy thoroughfare in Calgary and painted expressionistic landscapes on the spot. I was painting other things then too, in a variety of ways….but I recall those landscapes were important. When I moved from western Canada to Ontario, I spent time in an industrial city that seemed ugly and depressing. My w
ay of coming to terms with the place was to make a long series of industrial landscapes, many on large canvases 4’ x 5’. I’d paint all night, starting at about 10:00 p.m. and finishing a big canvas by 6:00 a.m. I have always had to start and finish in one sitting…..there is something about the continuous flow of the enterprise that is important to me. Now, I live in a very beautiful hilly area of Ontario (the Northumberland hills) and landscape is almost my sole subject. I live on the edge of a regional forest reserve and am out in the landscape either walking or driving every day.
but landscape has always been important. I grew up on the Saskatchewan prairie and fascination with a sense of distance is still important to me. I recall loving our farm as a boy of 6, and wandering everywhere on that place in all seasons. I recall sitting high in an aspen tree, listening to the wind play with the leaves, and looking at the far off land through the foliage. I think I did that for long periods of time….not just 10 minutes or so. When I had to leave the farm at age 9, I recall climbing to the top of the machine shed and sitting there for a long time, saying goodbye to this hill on the horizon, then the next one, then this tree, and this valley. As a high school student I recall wanting to draw like Constable, going to the Assiniboine river and trying my hand, and being completely impressed with examples of landscape painting masters that I could find in our meager town library. In graduate school, I sat in the grass by the sidewalk of a busy thoroughfare in Calgary and painted expressionistic landscapes on the spot. I was painting other things then too, in a variety of ways….but I recall those landscapes were important. When I moved from western Canada to Ontario, I spent time in an industrial city that seemed ugly and depressing. My w
ay of coming to terms with the place was to make a long series of industrial landscapes, many on large canvases 4’ x 5’. I’d paint all night, starting at about 10:00 p.m. and finishing a big canvas by 6:00 a.m. I have always had to start and finish in one sitting…..there is something about the continuous flow of the enterprise that is important to me. Now, I live in a very beautiful hilly area of Ontario (the Northumberland hills) and landscape is almost my sole subject. I live on the edge of a regional forest reserve and am out in the landscape either walking or driving every day. 
The subject really is ‘place’…what is this place I find myself in? Place seems important because it sets the emotional tone for everything and suggests what could happen here, in this place. I have
a number of ways of working up ideas in the landscape but the first step is walking without any preconceived ideas. I walk a lot, and as I walk I notice things. A certain arrangement can create a strong feeling or create a strong impression for whatever reason. Usually when something strikes me in a landscape, in design terms, it can be reduced down to a ‘motif’…..a few, perhaps 4-5 elements, shapes, colours, lines, that in combination, create a certain feeling. These days, I use fairly traditional means to go about interpreting the landscape in this way. It doesn’t seem like I’m coming to the end of anything yet, so I expect to be at it for a while.
a number of ways of working up ideas in the landscape but the first step is walking without any preconceived ideas. I walk a lot, and as I walk I notice things. A certain arrangement can create a strong feeling or create a strong impression for whatever reason. Usually when something strikes me in a landscape, in design terms, it can be reduced down to a ‘motif’…..a few, perhaps 4-5 elements, shapes, colours, lines, that in combination, create a certain feeling. These days, I use fairly traditional means to go about interpreting the landscape in this way. It doesn’t seem like I’m coming to the end of anything yet, so I expect to be at it for a while. Do you enjoy the freedom of abstracts? Are your scenes part of your imagination or real life?
Art is a very mysterious thing because on the one hand it is about things in the real world that are so imp
ortant and that have strong impact in every life. On the other hand, art is about itself…it is about the methods, technique, language that is somehow arranged into a picture, and this is largely historical in nature, and a matter of learning and practicing your craft through many years. To make things even more tricky, there seems to be an objective and subjective aspect to everything….this thing I’m looking at is out there, but it is 
also creating a response in me. I’m trying to make something really quite realistic, but it contains my particular response to this little aspect of the world. It’s often very humbling to just look at the wonderment out there. I’m sometimes shocked by what I see in the landscape, and I know that nobody is stopping to notice it….which is understandable because everyone is busy doing other things…. nobody is writing essays about it, and all this landscape floating by takes place silently…it has no soundtrack…it’s visual. I say to myself, look at that…I better get that down!...and I better do it quickly because there’s another special thing that’s going to happen just around the corner, or in that particular sky. Where this whole business of making art gets so tricky is that none of this is simple. Being earnest and hardworking doesn’t guarantee anything…in fact, it may be the kiss of death. You can’t just record in painting. You 
can’t just repeat what you have done in the past. Anything you know in art can only be practiced for so long before you must revitalize it with some new growth. No exciting artist will ever want to do just what he already knows how to do….it just seems to be the nature of the beast. So when I make a landscape painting, I have to continually do it in some way that contains rebirth in the method. I don’t need to throw everything out and start afresh with each picture, but there needs to be some aspect of invention that keeps me searching for that new surprise. Without this sense of surprise, there is no reason to do the work….this desire for surprise is key. As well, I want my landscape to relate to what I am looking at, but not in any obvious or predictable way. All of my work is really abstract in a way, and it’s realistic…the two ideas are not in conflict. Sometimes, in an attempt to revitalize the process, I move even more towards abstraction and memory. I’m currently doing a small series where I’m cutting painted papers and arranging the compositions with no preconceptions at all, except that I’m try
ing to evoke a particular remembered feeling. I start with a memory of an experience at a particular place and let that inform all the design decisions. Now, you can see that making up this new method could be liberating for a certain period, especially after working in a different way in the more naturalistic landscapes. And yet, this method will also come back to inform the way I work on the naturalistic landscapes. All of these issues of the underlying creativity of process are mysterious. Often, artists don’t even wish to touch on them…..understandably, because sometimes too much analysis can mess with the end result. The thing I’m ultimately most interested in is making that piece of magical surprise that relates both to my inner world, and the world out there.
What is your dream job or project?
ortant and that have strong impact in every life. On the other hand, art is about itself…it is about the methods, technique, language that is somehow arranged into a picture, and this is largely historical in nature, and a matter of learning and practicing your craft through many years. To make things even more tricky, there seems to be an objective and subjective aspect to everything….this thing I’m looking at is out there, but it is 
also creating a response in me. I’m trying to make something really quite realistic, but it contains my particular response to this little aspect of the world. It’s often very humbling to just look at the wonderment out there. I’m sometimes shocked by what I see in the landscape, and I know that nobody is stopping to notice it….which is understandable because everyone is busy doing other things…. nobody is writing essays about it, and all this landscape floating by takes place silently…it has no soundtrack…it’s visual. I say to myself, look at that…I better get that down!...and I better do it quickly because there’s another special thing that’s going to happen just around the corner, or in that particular sky. Where this whole business of making art gets so tricky is that none of this is simple. Being earnest and hardworking doesn’t guarantee anything…in fact, it may be the kiss of death. You can’t just record in painting. You 
can’t just repeat what you have done in the past. Anything you know in art can only be practiced for so long before you must revitalize it with some new growth. No exciting artist will ever want to do just what he already knows how to do….it just seems to be the nature of the beast. So when I make a landscape painting, I have to continually do it in some way that contains rebirth in the method. I don’t need to throw everything out and start afresh with each picture, but there needs to be some aspect of invention that keeps me searching for that new surprise. Without this sense of surprise, there is no reason to do the work….this desire for surprise is key. As well, I want my landscape to relate to what I am looking at, but not in any obvious or predictable way. All of my work is really abstract in a way, and it’s realistic…the two ideas are not in conflict. Sometimes, in an attempt to revitalize the process, I move even more towards abstraction and memory. I’m currently doing a small series where I’m cutting painted papers and arranging the compositions with no preconceptions at all, except that I’m try
ing to evoke a particular remembered feeling. I start with a memory of an experience at a particular place and let that inform all the design decisions. Now, you can see that making up this new method could be liberating for a certain period, especially after working in a different way in the more naturalistic landscapes. And yet, this method will also come back to inform the way I work on the naturalistic landscapes. All of these issues of the underlying creativity of process are mysterious. Often, artists don’t even wish to touch on them…..understandably, because sometimes too much analysis can mess with the end result. The thing I’m ultimately most interested in is making that piece of magical surprise that relates both to my inner world, and the world out there. What is your dream job or project?
Hmmmm…..maybe to spend a few years being like the main character in Larry McMurtry’s novel Cadillac Jack…..I’d spend half my time book scouting rare books in many locations in N
orth America, and the rest of the time painting landscapes everywhere. Except I wouldn’t need a Cadillac….I believe in driving economy models. I’d definitely need a GPS because I’m geographically challenged. I follow maps reluctantly, and could end up in California while aiming for Pennsylvania. I’m dead certain I have many thousands more paintings to make before I’m done. I’d paint on location, in the car, and in low rent motel rooms. In a way scouting books is a bit like painting. The point is to find what is valuable, rare, and hidden, using your gut instincts and specialized knowledge.
orth America, and the rest of the time painting landscapes everywhere. Except I wouldn’t need a Cadillac….I believe in driving economy models. I’d definitely need a GPS because I’m geographically challenged. I follow maps reluctantly, and could end up in California while aiming for Pennsylvania. I’m dead certain I have many thousands more paintings to make before I’m done. I’d paint on location, in the car, and in low rent motel rooms. In a way scouting books is a bit like painting. The point is to find what is valuable, rare, and hidden, using your gut instincts and specialized knowledge.
What an honest, from the heart interview! No wonder you can feel his art as well as enjoy it visually. I so enjoyed this one Jordan! Thank you Harry Stooshinoff for sharing your story!
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