Carl Judson - Guerrilla Painter Notebook

The "Burbs"

Suburbia, a popularly negative icon of our culture, can be a great place to paint. It’s quiet and safe and people tend to leave you alone, unlike other more urban
environments.

New Subdivision Going Up
Fort Collins, CO
Carl Judson © 1993
Oil on upholstery fabric, 7½" x 10".

King of the Road
Santa Cruz, CA
Carl Judson © 1992
Oil on mahogany, 9¾" x 10¾".

Horse Trailor with Pay Phone
Marin County, CA
Carl Judson © 1993
Oil on linen, 7½" x 10".

There is a sort of “pop” overtone to the subject matter that keeps me from taking my painting too seriously and allows room for some irony and humor.

Of course, the stage for “pop art” (of which guerrilla painting in the suburbs is a very distant cousin) was originally set by the Impressionists, whose choice of
everyday subject matter was as controversial at the time as their use of paint and treatment of light.

Parking Lot, UCSC
Santa Cruz, CA
Carl Judson © 1993
Oil on jute, 7½" x 10".

I’m not suggesting that landscape
painting in suburbia is all that artistically daring, but there are lots of opportunities

to explore interesting patterns of shape and color, and few critics, no matter what else they may have to say, will accuse the
resulting paintings of being too trite or saccharine.

For me, suburban painting is usually unplanned. I’m on my way to or from somewhere with some time to spare when I see something interesting. I stop and
open up my pochade box, which I usually have with me, and paint right from my pickup seat.

I often carry panels that are smaller or larger than my pochade box. Just because my pochade box is a certain size doesn’t mean I’m necessarily limited to that size.
I put the wet painting on the floor or the seat beside me until I get home. I find vertical formats effective occasionally in my “burbscapes.”

Suburbia isn’t just an American phenomenon. Two of the suburban scenes (right) are from Cochabamba, Bolivia, and outside Paris on the Seine.