Lakeland Mirror

Issue date: 11/12/09 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Media Credit: Suguru Takebayashi One of John Hubbard's paintings currently on display in the Bradley Building.

Media Credit: Suguru Takebayashi

On Oct. 30, when it was too early to see snow, the Bradley Building's lobby became snow-covered landscapes. John Hubbard, a professional artist and professor of art at Northern Michigan University - Marquette, held an art exhibition to let Lakeland enjoy his new paintings. More than thirty people gathered for the exhibition on Friday night. Hubbard often drew still life and fish in the past, yet he has been concentrating on landscapes of Wisconsin and Michigan over the last three years.

There were more than twenty pieces on display at the exhibition and most of them were paintings of trees. "I like trees," he said. "There's no sound. They are peaceful."

Some of those paintings portrayed dark, silent landscapes of wintry forests and others of luxuriant trees with vivid colors. All Hubbard's paintings look so detailed that they look like photographs. No living things are included. It's so silent in there. If you stand in front of his painting, you would be absorbed into it and feel as though you're standing alone in a forest.

Hubbard is originally from New York. After receiving his MFA degree at Syracuse University in New York, he taught art at a small school in Florida, and in 1969, he moved to Michigan. Since then he has been teaching at Northern Michigan University for forty years.

During his speech at the exhibition, he received several questions from his audience. Every time somebody asked him a question, he made the audience laugh by saying, "Good. I'll give you an A," and "Well, I'll give you an A minus."

One of the questions he was asked was about his creation process. "I don't do any preparation work," he confessed. "I just did this [a piece on display] last week."

A surprising fact about Hubbard is that he is such a fast painter. Though his painting is detailed and the canvas is not small, he can get a painting completed in one day.

"I don't feel I need to plan," he said. "I just jump into it and take my chances. I don't know how it's going to work." He said drawing quickly makes paintings look "spontaneous."

"There is a nice atmosphere to this campus," he commented. "I was not intimidated because it [the audience] was small."

As is clear from Professor of Art Bill Weidner's comment, "He is a real good colorist. Hubbard's use of colors is outstanding." Weidner added that using a variety of colors in one piece requires high-level technique.

"Paintings have to have a variety of hue (colors), value (how light or dark the colors are), and intensity (how vibrant or dull), and John is really good at that," Weidner said.

The most important-and the only important-thing in order to become a good painter is, according to Hubbard, to draw as much as possible. He left advice for Lakeland's art majors: "If you don't practice, you don't get better. Practice every day."

To find information about John Hubbard, go to Northern Michigan University's website, click on the page of School of Art and Design, and find the faculty link. Hubbard is going to hold an art exhibition in Rochester, Mich. in March.

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