Have sketch book, will cycle.
Wichita artist Andie Schmidt is following the Arkansas River from Wichita over 500 miles to its headwaters at Salida, Colo., on a bicycle. As he goes, he takes time to create small paintings of the sweeping landscapes, unique buildings and other landmarks along the way.
“I just want to document my journey,” Schmidt said Monday afternoon as he prepared to paint a picture of the Jack Kilby statue in downtown Great Bend. In addition to the small sketch book fill with paintings, he shoots videos and take photos, posting them to Instagram at andieschmidtart.
“Art is about communication,” he said.
He left a month ago, but the end to his journey is undetermined.
“I started out just planning on going to the headwaters,” he said. “But, this has been such an incredible trip that I may just keep on going west.”
He camps in communities along his route. Sometimes he spends one night and, like in the case of Great Bend this week, he will spend an entire week.
“Everywhere I’ve been, everyone has been incredibly kind and generous,” he said. They stopped and chatted with him, offered him full meals, allowed him to camp in their backyards and offered suggestions of things for him to paint.
“There are so many great stories,” he said. He started out as an artist on a personal quest, but he has wound up finding colorful folks as well as colorful surroundings.
“There are a lot of great people in America,” he said.
Schmidt is a professional artist, but has shunned the traditional indoor studio. He has opted instead for the wide open spaces that sprawl out before him and he pedals along rugged gravel roads. He avoids riding on the main roads to get a better feel for the world around him.
“I am an plein-air painter,” he said, noting he harks back to the works of the old masters such as Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. “I’ve done a lot of research and want to emulate them.”
Basically, this means he paints what he sees while outdoors. He carries a small homemade easel made from a cigar box, and it contains his paint tubes and provides a place to set his notebook-sized tablet.
His paintings utilize watercolors and gouache, an opaque watercolor paint.
He captures the landscapes and structures he spots along his path. But, he also learns the stories behind many of the subjects, adding to his appreciation of the region.
As a Kansas kid, Schmidt said he hasn’t traveled much. “This is a new adventure for me.”
He plans to leave Great Bend Saturday for Larned, Kinsley, Dodge City and points west.