On the left, Byron Bradley works the grill. A Monday night fish fry for the art students who attended the Grand Marais Art Colony each summer was a grand tradition. Photos courtesy of the Cook County Historical Society
Capturing natural light and the essence of changing attitudes of the landscape has been a focus of painters since the earliest brush strokes were made. To better achieve this feat, three separate movements in France, Italy, and England in the early 19th century encouraged painters to move their workspace outside to paint “en plein air,” which translates from French to “in the open air.” With the invention of paint in tubes in the 1840s, artists found it even easier to paint outside.
The movement gained momentum and eventually spread across the ocean to places such as California and New York. By the late 19th century, artists had discovered the beauty and ever-changing nature of Lake Superior’s North Shore. Early Cook County residents such as Anna Johnson were well known for capturing the rugged beauty of Cook County’s landscape in oils and watercolors. The widespread practice of Plein Air painting in Grand Marais didn’t start until much later, however.
In 1930, a teenager named Birney Quick came to Grand Marais to fish for brook trout with his father. This trip was instrumental to the continuation and growth of Plein Air painting on the North Shore.
The Grand Marais Art Colony held a clothesline art show and sale, which attracted a great deal of attention from locals and tourists alike.
As a young man, Birney studied at the Vesper George School of Art in Boston, Mass. His teaching career blossomed at The Minneapolis School of Art (later to become the Minneapolis College of Art and Design) when he was hired as one of their instructors. Dreaming of heading back north to fly fish, he successfully suggested the school sponsor a summer art colony in Grand Marais. As one of the first instructors for the ‘Grand Marais Outdoor School of Painting’ in 1947, he brought 20 soldiers studying on the GI Bill to learn the techniques of outdoor painting. For two summers, art students were brought to Grand Marais for an eight-week course where they were housed in local homes, resorts, or cabins. Tuition was $72 for 240 hours of instruction. After the first two summers, the Minnesota School of Art decided to try a new location in Red Wing, Minnesota, for their summer school. In the end, the popularity of Grand Marais drew the program back northeast, and the tradition of painting outdoors was here to stay.
In 1952, Byron Bradley joined Birney Quick as an instructor for the now six-week summer course run out of the old town hall, which prompted the name change to the Town Hall Art Colony. Eventually, the Minnesota School of Art dropped its summer course, so Quick and Bradley decided to run the program on their own in 1959. They renamed their business the Grand Marais Art Colony and moved to the former Maple Hill School when the old town hall needed to be torn down. Soon, they were able to relocate to the former St. John’s Catholic Church on 3rd Avenue West, where the organization still resides.
Two distinct traditions developed from these summer art classes. One was a fish fry for the students on Monday nights with a public art demonstration following. (Birney would occasionally have enough fish to share from his forays with students to brook trout streams to paint!) The other tradition was hanging artwork along a rope at the end of the session. The ‘clothesline art show and sale’ was born.
Painting in the great outdoors, of course, is not without its challenges. As reported in the News- Herald in 1958:
“The Coast Guard came to the rescue last week when Joan Hill’s painting blew into the lake. She went home and donned a swimsuit intending to swim out to get the picture. She changed her mind when she put her toes in the cold water. Then she called the Coast Guard. They accommodated her and retrieved the painting.”
Another minor outdoor painting mishap occurred when Neil Sherman, a well-known contemporary Plein Air artist in Grand Marais, had to worry about the fate of a hummingbird that dipped its beak into his palette, unfortunately choosing the toxic cadmium yellow!
Over the years, the focus of the Grand Marais Art Colony expanded from teaching outdoor painting in the summer to hosting short courses year-round in all varieties of art forms. Its roots in Plein Air painting have not been forgotten, however. In 2002, the Art Colony hosted the first annual Plein Air Grand Marais Competition and Exhibition. Honoring tradition, a fish fry was included as one of the events. The focus of the annual festival, as defined in a 2008 Art Colony brochure, is “to have fun in Cook County while enjoying our incredible scenery and making beautiful artwork.”
A new Plein Air event was added in 2009 to honor the year-round nature of beautiful landscapes. Held at YMCA Camp Menogyn in January, the Winter Plein Air competition and exhibition is for hearty painters willing to brave frigid temperatures. Other opportunities, such as a guided three-day trip into the BWCAW with local artists Neil Sherman and Nancy Seaton, provide Plein Air students an opportunity to explore the Cook County wilderness with expert instruction.
Thousands of Plein Air artists have come through Grand Marais, either drawn on their own to the raw beauty of the place, or through organized events such as competitions, art classes, or retreats. The tradition of teaching and forming friendships through festivals and events is still going strong in Cook County. How fortunate for Grand Marais that 18-year-old Birney took a fishing trip which later brought his teaching talents north to plant the seed, which has spread the joy of Plein Air painting for generations to come.
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