VIVA Gallery Takes a Look Back at Watercolorist’s Work

The Valley Institute of Visual Art wanted to mark the third anniversary of its VIVA Gallery in Northridge with a major show by an important local artist.

After considering a number of names, the board of directors decided to celebrate by mounting a retrospective of the work of 85-year-old George Labadie, a longtime resident of Woodland Hills and a much lauded watercolorist.

According to artist and board member Susan Kuss, VIVA plans to have such retrospectives annually. “Although VIVA supports computer art and other new, high-tech art forms, we feel that one of our major reasons for existence is to honor and promote the purists amongst us,” said Kuss, who organized the Labadie show.

Labadie, a member of the American and national watercolor societies and a founder of the Valley Watercolor Society, was chosen for the excellence of his work and for his contributions to the artistic community. In addition, Kuss said, he is a great teacher with a gift for “setting free that forbidden artist in so many people.” She also praised his ability to capture the small moments of human experience. “It’s the small moments that make a difference,” she said, “and he honors that.”

Surprisingly, this will be Labadie’s first one-man show.

A tall, thoughtful man, Labadie has painted since he was young. Trained at Los Angeles’ prestigious Chouinard Art Institute and elsewhere, he remembers spending an entire month painting in Mexico with a friend. But for much of his life, Labadie had to earn a living and could paint only in his spare time.

As an art director in a series of advertising agencies, he was luckier than many artists because his day job honed his aesthetic sense and brought him into contact with other creative people. Long ago, he recalls, he worked on an ad campaign with an especially talented young photographer: “You’ve probably heard of him,” he said of Edward Steichen.

In 1981, Labadie was able to retire and do what he had always wanted to do. Trained in all the familiar media, he had one “first, best love” and that was watercolor.

Working in what is generally regarded as the most demanding medium, Labadie has produced the occasional abstract painting, but most of his work is realistic. He estimates that 80% of his paintings are of people, because they are unique in ways pigeons or oak trees never are.

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Labadie looked at one of his paintings recently and remembered he had tried to capture the alabaster shimmer of the model’s skin. Fabrics often figure in his work, because he relishes challenges and they are difficult to reproduce. Ask yourself how you would paint a dancer’s net tutu, as Labadie has done in a number of paintings.

He rarely paints nudes. “I’m afraid I get bored to death with so much skin,” he said. “I want some color. I want some design.”

During World War II, the Army tried to make an engineer out of Labadie. He took engineering courses at Caltech, but quickly realized he wanted to paint, not design, airplanes. During the war he began teaching art, first at Long Beach City College, then at adult schools. Whenever possible, he’d spring his students from the classroom and take them to the beach or a park to paint.

“It was so much fun, and they were so enthusiastic,” he said of the thousands of students who painted beside him over the years. “I react to enthusiastic people. Otherwise, I go flat.”

Students praise him for teaching them how to paint like themselves, not like him. “There’s no one way to paint,” Labadie said. And he mistrusted his own teachers who claimed there was.

“I once took an oil painting class, and the teacher said, ‘All shadows are purple,’ ” he recalled. “As young as I was, I knew that was wrong. And I instantly lost respect for the teacher.”

Labadie talks about his favorite medium like a fond lover. “The greatest painting in the world is a watercolor,” he said, waiting a moment for his audience to guess, then declaring: “The Sistine Chapel!”

Artists who work in other media are often awed by watercolorists. The conventional wisdom is that one wrong brush stroke and a watercolor is ruined. Labadie insists that’s not so. He remembers working alongside another gifted watercolorist who did an otherwise superb portrait with an awful head.

“He patiently removed that entire head,” Labadie said.

The required method entails taking a brush, filling it with water and carefully lifting the offending section off the paper, stroke by stroke. The artist painted a wonderful head the second time around.

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When Labadie is painting, he is transported. “I get so wrapped up, nothing can stop me,” he said. He remembers being so caught up he kept painting after the model had left. “When you’re on a roll, when it’s coming together . . . “ He searches for the right word. “It’s . . . I don’t want to say ecstasy, because that’s corny.”

Labadie’s work has long been facilitated by Jean Labadie, his wife of 62 years, who is also a fine watercolorist. “He’s the kite, she’s the string,” Kuss said.

Labadie, who no longer paints, is obviously proud of the work he has produced. But he knows the process has been as important as the paintings. “It’s the doing that counts, not the end result,” he said. “It’s the doing.”

You could call it ecstasy.

The VIVA Gallery is at 8516 Reseda Blvd. in Northridge, (818) 576-0775. The exhibit of more than 70 of Labadie’s paintings opens Wednesday and continues through Jan. 27. An opening reception will be held Jan. 7 from 2-5 p.m. A painting donated by the artist will be raffled off to benefit VIVA.

Spotlight runs every Friday. Patricia Ward Biederman can be reached at valley.news@latimes.com.