Saturday, November 13, 2010

Nature As An Artist's Subject

By Christopher Sanchez

Drawing horses as much as she loved riding them was what a female artist loved when she was a child. She has many years of experience as an artist and early training that eventually led her to a career involving painting horses and other subjects of the natural world. She has a number of pastel and watercolor paintings carrying images of horses, reindeer, hens, and dogs.

She was only 11 when her family from Philadelphia moved to the present county. Her sister and mother painted as a hobby just like her father who was a commercial artist. Considered to be real important to an artist by her father is drawing. In the structure of the animals she paints, such are evident details.

Her love of painting animals has expanded to painting dogs and cats. She and her loving husband have two large dogs and a cat at their present home. She often paints pets for private commissions as well.

What distinctly stands out in her paintings is light from the bright white of daylight to the darker amber hues of evening. What she considers important in her paintings is a sense of light. This is the reason behind her preference for watercolor. She said that watercolor is a series of transparent washes that go over the paper. Through the paint, the white paper becomes vibrant. Light is created in a different way with oil paint. By painting everything around it, light will be revealed.

Considering the use of watercolor, artists need to paint around what is white. It is necessary for artists using oil to first paint in the dark shadow and then add the light. Taking on the challenge of luminosity in oil paintings is what the artist wants to deal with in her career. Considering her love for the impressionists, she wants to have some time to paint in oil.

Today, her inspiration is drawn from her move from the former town to the present location at the countryside. She takes pictures of old farmhouses and landscapes in the foothills as she explores the back roads. What she is concerned about is the tearing down of the old farmhouses. She feels almost an urgency to paint some of these old houses to acknowledge them and hopefully protect them. What she adores is the historic architecture.

When it comes to this artist, she is also passionate about still life paintings. Texture and detail are subtly suggested, rather than painted in a realistic, photographic style. Her paintings of pets usually focus as much on the animal's facial expressions as on the detail. She attended a known school of fine art and the Maryland institute college of art in Baltimore. Her professional painting career began when she was 25 even if she was a nurse for much of her career. Through the years she established her credentials as a painter in the areas of architectural subjects, florals, portraits, and pets. She still works one day a week as a nurse though.

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