Featured Artist Nancy Lane

Artist Nancy Lane creates a sense of wonder through paintings that capture the beauty of the outdoors. Visit her website to view more of her work.

 

 

As a child growing up in the country, I spent lots of time outside. I was allowed to roam far on my own in forests and fields, staying out until dark. Exploring abandoned barns and quiet forests was a favorite adventure. I learned to observe closely, for the world was a beautiful place. My paintings reflect the sense of wonder I felt as a child in the great outdoors.

 

 

I paint in watercolor and oil. Painting outdoors has increased my ability to depict fleeting moods of light and atmosphere. It has clarified how a color can evoke a happy or a subdued mood through the subtlest shifts in its temperature. Light and shadow are tools I use to evoke moods such as melancholy, joy, energy and contentment.

 

 

Hours spent in the studio painting from live models have humbled and inspired me to share their character through subtle brushstrokes. Looking closely for the right values, shapes, color and composition to suggest their personality is the challenge I present myself.

 

 

A deep empathy for the land and its creatures is a driving force in my work. I am drawn to paint what I see around me—everyday people, animals and countryside. Every day I watch the light as it falls on my landscape and pay attention to the feeling that it evokes, hoping to recreate that in a painting. I look for animals or figures outdoors, asking myself if they suggest a story for a painting.

 

 

I often tune in to my subconscious before sleeping or waking to prospect for images which I can make real. Sometimes these are childhood experiences with nature that I try to compose into a painting.

 

 

Today we are so overwhelmed with the pace of life and the demands of participating online. Creating handmade art is my form of rebellion to a 21st century life so disconnected from the physical world—it’s my way of connecting to my natural environment.

 

 

Painting demands that you slow down and look at something with complete focus and patience, until you feel a part of it, feel sympathy for it. It demands your emotional response, and your best effort to recreate with paint the dignity and essence of the living things before you.

 

 

I hope that my art calls attention to the importance, beauty and fragility of our very real natural world, with the ominous threat of global warming. A felt connection to the land and its creatures is essential for human happiness.

 

 

I want viewers to sense in my paintings the enveloping presence of the landscape—its rolling hills, its creatures, the water, the wind and the sunlight. I want them to feel a part of the paintings, remembering their own experiences with the outdoors. If people are suffering from nature deficit, perhaps a painting can awaken that connection, and encourage greater compassion for this wild, generous earth that is our only true home, and only hope for survival.

 

Artist Nancy Lane invites you to follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

 

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