We Say Goodbye to Camille Przewodek

The plein air world lost a beloved painter this week when Camille Przewodek passed away from a sudden onset of liver cancer.

“I’m devastated,” said Eric Rhoads, CEO and publisher. “Camille was one of the greats of our generation and will be fondly remembered as one of the greats of all time. Without her encouragement and support there would be no PleinAir Magazine.” Eric first met Camille around 1999, when he would drive to Petaluma to study art and she taught concepts of using color blocks. “Her work stood out – you could pick it out across the room at any venue because she painted so differently and in her own unique style.” Eric said that when others discouraged him to publish PleinAir Magazine, she encouraged him and helped refine the concepts for it.

Camille was a plein air artist in the tradition of Monet. Her aim, she once said, was “to capture the light key of nature — the quality of light on a subject as determined by various factors such as time of day and atmospheric conditions.” She would then refine the composition of some paintings in the studio.

One thing that separated Camille from other artists is that she deeply understood advertising, likely thanks to her background in illustration and marketing campaigns before moving into fine art.

She intentionally branded herself as a plein air “colorist,” a term which she said helped her better define who she was as a painter. “Landscapes are brimming with color,” she said. “Why would I dumb down nature by dulling her magnificent symphony?”

In addition to her art training at Wayne State University in Detroit, and earning a BFA in Illustration at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco, Camille studied painting with master colorist Henry Hensche at the Cape School of Art in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

For 25 years, Camille shared a studio with her dear friend Carole Gray-Weihman. “We even owned a house together in France and ran an art school for many years,” Carole tells us. “Ironically, we were in the process of moving out of our studio this month as our lease ends next week. We had hoped to reconnect more deeply as we made space in our lives for more fun and less business. With our pending house sale in France and returning to work in separate studios, we had already started to renew our friendship during PACE. At least we had that week together where she was on cloud nine after winning the PleinAir Salon show.”

In our interview at PACE, Camille said that winning the competition had been one of her major goals for over a decade because, although she was established, getting publicity was a key to staying successful as an artist.

Camille was a Signature Member of the Laguna Plein Air Painters and the California Art Club; and a Master Signature Member of the American Impressionist Society, Oil Painters of America, and American Women Artists.

She authored the book “Mondays with Camille, Capturing the Key of Light in Color,” taught at Plein Air Live and the Plein Air Convention, and was a guest on the Plein Air Podcast with Eric Rhoads (episodes 3 and 235). She also released the five-star rated art video workshop “A Colorist’s Guide to Painting” with Streamline Publishing.

Her approach to capturing the colors and light effects of nature garnered extensive coverage in numerous books and magazine articles, and her paintings have been featured in national ad campaigns for clients Alfa Romeo, Target, Loews Hotels, and others. Her painting “Sonoma Farm Vista” will be featured on the August-September cover of PleinAir Magazine.

“Today we lost one of the great women of plein air, Camille Przewodek,” said Mark Fehlman. “She was the first artist that I connected with at the Laguna Invitational and I always looked forward to sitting in the back of the room at PACE and talking about politics and painting. She was no shrinking violet. She loved and respected he husband and partner Dale, and always told me about all of the wonderful things that he did. We all loved and respected Camille and she will be sorely missed. We all hope to see her in painters heaven.”

“There is no way to know the number of artists whose lives she touched, but she certainly inspired me and will continue to do so,” said Lori Putnam. “It goes without saying that she was a tremendous artist … Camille knew her stuff inside and out. She could see and paint like no one else I have ever met. She lives on in our hearts. What a legacy.”

“Color that expresses the light key of nature can make even the most mundane subject strikingly beautiful,” Camille said. “My paintings could be called ‘celebrations of mood,’ and I often go back to the same location at different times of the day in order to capture its mood in literally a whole new light. Windows and doorways both hold back and let in light. They intrigue me, as do shadows, which take on an ‘objectness’ even though they are insubstantial. Shifting light is my passion.”

Helpful Links:

• Visit Camille’s website
• Watch her most recent interview with Streamline Publishing, part of Art School Live with Eric Rhoads: “Start Strong to Make a Great Painting”
• Listen to her most recent Plein Air Podcast interview with Eric Rhoads
• Learn about her art video workshop, “A Colorist’s Guide to Painting”