Plein air April won't be the same without Waynesboro artist Steve Doherty
M. Stephen Doherty died of a heart attack on Nov. 12, 2022. At the time of his passing, he and his wife, Sara, lived in the Shenandoah Valley in Waynesboro, Virginia. Over the span of his life, Doherty interviewed every major living artist in the last 50 years, including Andrew Wyeth.
Doherty was editor-in-chief of American Artist magazine for 42 years
Editor-in-chief of PleinAir Magazine for seven years
Launched three art magazines: Watercolor, Drawing and Workshop
Authored several books, including:
"The Art of Plein Air Painting: An Essential Guide to Materials, Concepts, and Techniques for Painting Outdoors," 2017.
"The Artist in Nature: Thomas Kinkade and the Plein Air Tradition," 2002.
"The Watson-Guptill Handbooks of Landscape Painting," 1989.
"Dynamic Still Lifes in Watercolor, the Art of Sondra Freckelton," 1983.
April is known within the art world as plein air April where artists paint outdoors (or if unable, indoors) every day for 30 days. This will be the first April without Steve Doherty and he will be missed.
If you're out this month painting, take a selfie of you and your work and send it to us at localnews@newsleader.com. In honor of Doherty and plein air April, we'll add the photos to a gallery we'll update throughout the month.
Reporter Monique Calello had the privilege of getting to know him when he became a member of the Shenandoah Valley community. She recently learned of his passing and sends her condolences to his family.
As a tribute to Doherty, she and The News Leader would like to share a story she wrote about him in 2015.
(From The News Leader Archives; original publication date, Dec. 31, 2015)
The art of living – Waynesboro artist shares perspective
This story is from our annual selection of "Newsmakers." With your input, each year our newsroom profiles members of the community who may not be in the public eye, but are part of the key pool of citizens moving forward the projects and topics our area cares about.
WAYNESBORO – All of the colors on the palette combine in the landscape to form a community. Artist M. Stephen Doherty has used many platforms to act as a medium to build communities – in print, in pixels, in paint and in person.
You may know Doherty without knowing it. You may have seen him talking to artists and art lovers at Beverley Street Studio School or the Shenandoah Valley Art Center. You may have passed him on Route 64 or 250 as he drives hikers of the Appalachian Trail into town for a visit as part of the Appalachian Trail Angels group.
It just so happens that the guy who drives sweaty hikers to Waynesboro and helps you pick out just the right color to use during a painting workshop has been an influential editor of American Artist and now PleinAir magazines for over three decades.
Doherty began working with American Artist in the days when magazines were built by hand. It was up to him to do interviews and to pose questions that the readers who are artists might have.
"At the time they wanted to hire from the professions that were covered by the magazines," remembers Doherty. "Instead of hiring a journalist, they wanted somebody who was an artist. I was there to look out for the reader's interests. With a special interest magazine you really need someone who is sensitive to that particular audience. I loved it."
As an artist himself he was using the medium of print to expand the connectivity among painters. Doherty was acting as their intermediary. Eventually he became the editor-in-chief and continued at the magazine for 31 years. It left him with little time to devote to his own work, which is plein air painting. Doherty ventures out on the side of the road with an easel and paints outdoors; it's natural light, it's landscape and it's in real time.
"Art is an active enterprise," he says. "I was writing about it, but I was not directly connected to making art. I really missed the most important part of the creative art process, which is making an object and at the same time interacting with other people."
Doherty and his wife, Sara, lived along the Hudson River in New York for many years.
"The difference is the private property," he says. "So when I was looking for something to paint, I'd have to gravitate towards parks."
That's when he and his wife decided to move to Virginia. They really wanted to be in a town and wanted a space for a garden because Sara is an avid gardener. A friend hooked them up with an agent.
"I met an artist named Ron Boehmer. When I got home I had a big package of material from Ron with real estate brochures of Harrisonburg, Staunton and Waynesboro. He had mentioned the various groups and art centers and said if you want to explore the Shenandoah Valley, you can find whatever you want in terms of finding artists, places to exhibit, places to paint and places to draw from the model."
They planned a trip south with the intention of driving down and stopping at several cities.
"We drove down and started our search with an agent at 9 o'clock on a Saturday and at 5 o'clock she brought us over to a house in Waynesboro. By 7 o'clock we made an offer on the house." That was three years ago.
Doherty decided to move south because it offered new horizons, both figuratively and literally.
"I come here and most of this land is still being farmed for animals and crops for grapes so there are these broad vistas. There's lots of places to pull off the road with unlimited opportunities. What I try to do when I go out is to judge the light. I can go on top of the mountain or inside the mountain. I can include barns and animals, streams. It's an abundance of good subject matter for painting."
But it's not just the landscape that appeals to him. What Doherty likes is the fact that they are connected to the people here. He's lived in places for twenty years where he didn't know the people who lived across the street. Here he feels like people exhibit a pride of place. They are one with where they are and that informs their work and their daily interactions.
"In a major city or suburb you don't find that sense of community as automatically and thoroughly as you do around here. Even the tradespeople, their business depends on doing a good job. That's the practical reason to be a good neighbor. Whatever their job is they want it to be a positive impact on the people in their community. We're happy to share that enthusiasm and that sense of purpose. It doesn't exist everywhere."
In 2010, Doherty started working on PleinAir magazine, a completely digital operation.
"We don't have an office," he says. "Nobody works near each other; we all do our work independently and transmit files electronically. Going from four magazines to one gave me the time to be more involved in making products and also sharing what I knew about art with other people."
Doherty also volunteers at Shenandoah Valley Art Center and Beverley Street Studio School.
"My wife and I kind of jump in with both feet so to speak in terms of volunteering because it is a good way to meet people," he says.
One way Doherty helps to support the local art groups is to teach art workshops. In March, he is going to offer a workshop at the Rockfish Valley Community Center to get more people to the center.
"This is a way of reaching out to people who are interested in the visual arts. That's what I like doing. What I want to do is encourage more people to consider art as a form of expression in their lives. I get as much out of this as the people who take the workshops."
As satisfying as it is to him, it creates a net positive result for the community.
"All of us in some way or another want to make a positive difference in the lives of our community. We all find ways of doing that to the extent that we have the time or money or resources to make that happen. We've been pleasantly surprised on how pervasive that is in this area. People are very generous. There is a strong sense of community around here and that makes it easy to want to be a part of that whole activity."
Doherty's enthusiasm and generosity extends beyonds the boundaries of the arts.
"We wanted to get to know more people and volunteering is one way to do that. We feel very fortunate to have incredibly wonderful neighbors and friends. People who have been in the theater, the military, the government, artists. The Valley brings together people who have lived and worked all over the world. It's one of the wonderful things about life – to get together and share things for the betterment of the community."
The Doherty's also became part of the Appalachian Trail Angels, which is an informal group that offers rides to hikers into town or back up the mountain to restart their hike.
"Anybody who has the fortitude to hike the Appalachian Trail is usually a very interesting person to get to know. Last year we gave rides to about 200 hikers from May through July."
Doherty's most recent exhibit continues until after the new year at BSSS Gallery. They are planning to do a plein air event in April and share the experience.
As far as long term forecasts regarding the development and expansion of this arts outreach, Doherty says, "The one concern I have frankly is that Waynesboro is a very diverse community and yet when we go to the symphony or the choral society concerts it's a lot of old white people. Over the years I worked for and with people from an Indian background, black, Jewish, Muslim, atheist, lesbian, gay and in that kind of environment — on the one hand, differences disappear. On the other hand, you develop a sensitivity to everyone's point of view."
This is a sentiment which resonates here in the cradle of the Republic. It harks back to a foundational principle.
"You know what the founding fathers wanted as the model was E pluribus unum – out of the many, one," says Doherty. "They wanted people to come here and maintain their cultural backgrounds, their religious backgrounds, and yet recognize we are all one. There is nothing wrong with the model In God We Trust but it may make it harder to go back to the model E pluribus unum. It's this general feeling that we are not one."
Doherty feels that the most productive path lies in things that are inclusive and celebrates the fact that we live in a community where people come from all over the world and each brings their own rich experiences.
"The brightest future lies in the concept of E pluribus unum."
Doherty earned his masters from Cornell University, was an art teacher at a public elementary school in the '70s, served as editor-in-chief of American Artist magazine for 31 years, and is now editor of PleinAir magazine. He has exhibited his painting in solo and group exhibitions, judged art exhibitions, given lectures and written a dozen art books. He is currently writing a book on plein air painting. Sara Doherty is a master gardener and a member of the Rosecliff Garden Club in Waynesboro. They are both members of the Waynesboro Newcomers Club and volunteer at Wayne Theatre Alliance.
This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Plein Air April won't be the same without artist Steve Doherty
