Studying Under a Local Artist
I had the privilege of studying under an incredible artist in Clayton, Ga for two days in the summer of 2020. Libby Matthews is a talented landscape and still-life painter. She has a way of creating energetic compositions that are somehow simultaneously just as serene. I hadn't painted with oil paints since my study in Florence, Italy two summers before. It was intimidating to get back into oil painting, but it also felt like we had never been separated. Shamefully, I hadn't completed an oil still-life since my college days, so this was a significant learning experience for me.
En Plein Air Workshop in Florence, Italy
In the summer of 2018, I had the opportunity to live and study classical outdoor painting in Florence, Italy. With Florence as my backdrop, the travelling painting course physically took me to the gardens, surrounding hilltops, and plazas of one of the world’s richest cities in terms of scenery, art and culture. The course was taught by an expert instructor, which gave me insight into the concepts and techniques of “en plein air” painting, or outdoor painting.
Painting for only 2-3 days in each location, I quickly learned how to observe and directly record my personal impression of the world around me. My daily routine would include selecting and drawing out a composition, finding and mixing color values, organizing my palette, and applying the paint in a specific sequence. While painting outdoors sounds remarkable, it was no small feat.
This experience was a seminal moment for me in my painting career, as it has directly inspired the subject matter of the series that I am currently working on. The current series of paintings is inspired by my en plein air experience, but the paintings depict abstracted memories of the landscapes that I saw while traveling through Italy.
Painting for only 2-3 days in each location, I quickly learned how to observe and directly record my personal impression of the world around me. My daily routine would include selecting and drawing out a composition, finding and mixing color values, organizing my palette, and applying the paint in a specific sequence. While painting outdoors sounds remarkable, it was no small feat.
This experience was a seminal moment for me in my painting career, as it has directly inspired the subject matter of the series that I am currently working on. The current series of paintings is inspired by my en plein air experience, but the paintings depict abstracted memories of the landscapes that I saw while traveling through Italy.
"Italian Memories" Series
A painting series inspired by my memories of living in Italy.