by Wolf Schneider
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Yellow forsythia and pink fruit trees are blooming early in
Santa Fe. I’ve been missing Munson Gallery, where I used to admire Russell
Chatham’s misty tonalist landscapes. Having read on sfgate.com that Chatham was
broke and living back in California’s West Marin County in remote Marshall
(population: just 50), I convinced my mom Helene to drive there with me
recently when I was in the Bay Area. Maybe we could buy a little Russell
Chatham painting.
Our drive was pastoral -- two hours of marshlands, green
hills, and cows. Peaceful wide-open farmland. We dipped down right into
Marshall at the Hog Island Oyster Co. (fresh oysters, and that’s it) on Highway
1. Two buildings away was the house where Chatham had last been seen painting: J.
Shields & Sons: Dealers in Coal & Feed. I knocked. I called out, “Russell!”
We spotted a canvas frame in the upstairs window. But no response.
I asked at the Oyster Co. if Chatham was around -- “Never
heard of him,” said the salesgirl. “Yeah, I think he’s somewhere around here,”
vaguely replied a guy barbecuing oysters. We had fish tacos (disappointing) at
The Marshall Store, where the waitress shrugged, “Don’t know him.” There wasn’t
much else to Marshall. A few houses. Some boats in the water. Shells underfoot.
No cell reception, but Tomales Bay was clean and glistening. Cuter towns to the
north (Bodega Bay) and south (Bolinas, Stinson Beach, and Point Reyes Station,
with its Station House Café). Maybe Chatham has moved on to one of them -- more life of the mind, more gustatory diversity.
On the plane returning to New Mexico, the teacher seated
next to me commented, “Santa Fe has a lot in common with Marin County -- an
interest in organics and health things. Nobody can plant genetically modified
organisms in Marin County. It’s against the law.” Back home, I called Munson
Gallery, which is now Meyer East Gallery (http://www.meyereastgallery.com/home/).
They’re no longer representing Chatham, but they do show Marc Bohne, whose
moody, layered landscapes have some of that ethereal quality.
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| Photographer: David Alfaya, Taken in Artist Studio: Gregory Lomayesva |
Wolf Schneider has been editor in chief of the Santa Fean,
editor of Living West, consulting editor of Southwest Art, and also blogs at
www.wolfschneiderusa.com.
