Heath Massey
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(530) 400-0619
I first developed the sketchbook habit as a student of landscape architecture at Rhode Island School of Design in the late 1970s. Subsequently, as a practicing landscape architect, I used drawing as an essential design tool, to visualize a design and to communicate with clients. After joining the faculty of landscape architecture at UC Davis, I taught drawing and drafting, along with design studios and courses in landscape history. It was the kind of drawing that has pretty clear rules; a means to an end, not the end in itself. But taking a sketchbook on hikes or when traveling, I would draw more subjective impressions, as a complement to the precision of photographs.
Now retired and living in San Francisco, I sketch even more subjectively, foregoing the rules and aiming for something looser, less precise, more intuitive. Drawing is still my foundation, internalized over decades, so I love working with pastels and every painting begins with sketches. And landscape is still my favorite subject, although I’m looking at landscapes differently now too, foregoing familiar “scenery,” focusing on the over-looked and the mundane, on color and light, paint and brushstrokes. For me a painting is always a work in progress, a challenge, a learning curve.