Louisa McElwain Biography
I have lived and painted in New Mexico since 1985, working outdoors under a wide variety of conditions, open to the impulse of changing light, wind, heat, cold, insects, forces of Nature which bring life into my paintings. For me, painting is a dance to the tempo of the evolving day.
Usually, I paint off the back of a pick-up truck, which gives me access to many wonderful places, and provides a way to stabilize and transport large canvases. Here in the West it seems that the canvas is never big enough. To include my entire field of vision at arm's length, 60x90 ins. is about right. I paint with knives and masonry trowels, which allows me to work fast. Each painting is completed in less than 4 hours, regardless of size, as permitted by weather and light.
Painting large canvases outdoors invites another interaction with Nature as, inevitably, insects, particles of plants and soil end up on the painting. I see these as valuable contributions to the work. Sometimes I put little stones, bones or pieces of glass and plants into the paint, in the same spirit as the Navaho weaver who incorporates things into her blanket to bless those who will receive it, and as a way of acknowledging the temporality of things.
My process is an inquiry into sensuous potential of paint. To explore the mystery of sensation, to touch that which is known but cannot be measured, understood yet indescribable; the act of painting is an expression of my connectedness with God and Nature. I am Nature.
Statement
"I paint outdoors in all sorts of conditions, open to the impulse of changing light, wind, heat, cold, insects and all forces of Nature that bring life into my paintings. A painting, for me, is the sum of innumerable commitments to an idea, made in a dance to the tempo of the evolving day. It is a kind of "captured" choreography, an entire ballet one can behold in a single gaze.
I am interested in exploring a way of describing my experience of places in Nature, without subordinating the marks and strokes of paint to the motif. Paint and the gestures that move it are made to the rhythms of Nature through Time, each with its own identity as paint, yet contributing to the meaning of the work as a whole. My chosen tool for applying paint to canvas is the knife, for two primary reasons: to curb my ability to describe objects, and to move paint with velocity, articulate delicacy, and sensuous impasto. To describe my experience, I rely on my understanding of how the interaction of color creates light, and my education in drawing to establish tonal weight and space.
My deepened relationship with a few beloved places continues to entice me to paint increasingly evanescent events of Nature, to take greater leaps into larger canvases, surrendering to the inquiry, and to paint with ever more trust and joy. The awe I feel for the magnificent and the mysterious manifestations of Creation is the compelling force in my work, and is what establishes my rapport with so many people who are deeply moved by this aspect of their lives here in the West. During the process of painting large canvases outdoors, the interaction with Nature introduces insects, particles of plants and soil into the paint. To acknowledge the simultaneous levels of reality around me, I sometimes deliberately introduce elements into the paint, like bits of broken beer bottle, bone, earth, stones, grass or charred wood. Anything stuck to the front of the canvas is part of the work.
It is my experience of “wonder” that I explore, rather than a position about visual reality, as a “realist” would. It is the question that interests me, not the answer. My commitment to artistic integrity precludes my affiliation with any association of artists. As I continue to develop my own voice, I strive to keep my work free from the influences of other schools, styles or movements. Out of my education and experience I have blended two distinct ideas, the respect for materials and gesture held by the action painters of American abstract expressionism and the expressive breadth and reverence for Nature of the romantic composer Johannes Brahms
I reject the presumption that the validity of contemporary art is commensurate with its ability to “challenge” the viewer, to provoke, repulse or offend, and question the motivation of artists who adhere to that school of thought. Rather, I strive to balance the beauty of the paint with the beauty of the motif, to create paintings that gratify, nourish and empower. I celebrate the embrace of the divine mysteries.”
Born
1953 Nashua, New Hampshire
Residence
New Mexico, since 1985
Education
1990 Santa Fe Institute of Fine Arts, NM Master Class with Wolf Kahn
1977 BFA, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
1975 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME
1974-1973 Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA
1973 Nera Simi Drawing Studio, Florence, Italy
1971 Hampshire College, Amherst, MA
Mount Holyoke College, sculpture with Leonard De Longa
Selected One-person Exhibitions
2007 Booth Museum,
Atlanta, GA, "21st Century Regionalists,
Art of the New West"
2006 Manitou Galleries, Santa Fe, NM “Divine
Mysteries”
2005 Manitou Galleries, Santa Fe, NM “Painting
in the Present Tense”
2004 Medicine Man, Santa Fe, NM “Let Me Enjoy
the Earth”
SEGI Fine Art, Scottsdale, AZ “Terra Cognita”
2003 Medicine Man, Tucson, AZ “Along the Pilgrims’ Path”
2002 Medicine Man, Tucson, AZ and Santa Fe, NM “Audience
with a Cloud”
2001 Vanier Galleries on Main, Scottsdale, AZ “At
An Ever Changing Origin”
Medicine Man, Tucson, AZ “Flights of Enchantment”
2002-1996 Karen Mitchell Frank Gallery, Dallas, TX
2002 “On the Plane of the Present”
2001 “Smaller Works”
2000 “Fifth Annual Solo Exhibition”
1999 “Perceptions of the Miraculous”
1998 “Ecstatic Revelations”
1997 “Dancing to the Tempo of the Evolving Day”
1996 “Landscapes from the Heart”
2000-1991 Contemporary Southwest Galleries, Santa Fe, NM
2000 “Viva, Painting in Celebration of Life”
1999 “I Am Nature”
1998 “Between Earth and Sky”
1997 “Exploring the Mystery of Sensation”
1996 “Bold Seer”
1995 “Impassioned Perceptions”
1994 Sensuous and Delicious Color”
1993 “Range and Cloud Towers”
1992 “Badlands, Violet and Gold”
1991 “Exhibition of New Works”
1993 San Juan College, Farmington, NM “McElwain
Paints New Mexico”
1991-1986 C.G. Rein Galleries, Santa Fe, NM
1990 Robert Allen Fine Art, San Francisco, CA “Learning
From Mother Nature”
1989 Rein-du Bois Gallery, Houston, TX
1981 Graham Arader lll, Philadelphia, PA “Fishes
of the East Coast”
Selected Group Exhibitions
2007 Booth Museum "21st Century Regionalists, Art of the New
West"
2006 New Haven Art Center, New Haven, CT “Particular Places” Honorable
Mention
2005 Phippen Museum, Prescott, AZ “Homecoming: Outside the West”
2004 Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson, AZ “100 Years-Painting the
Grand Canyon”
Chaparral Fine Art, Bozeman, MT “Visionaries”
NM Wilderness Alliance, “Wildlands Painted!”
2003-2004 Palos Verdes Art Center, Palos Verdes, CA “The
Wild West”
2002 Chaparral Fine Art, Bozeman, MT “Masters in Montana"
1998-2002 Kneeland Gallery, Ketchum, ID "Plein Air”
1997, 1995 Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ "Women Artists of
the West"
1995 Ian Lewis, Scottsdale, AZ "Western Academy of Women Artists"
Hampshire College, Amherst, MA "25th Year, Alumni Exhibition"
1993 Mongerson-Wunderlich, Chicago, IL
1988 Southwest-East, London, England
1984 Marion Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
1977-1975 BFA Program Exhibitions, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
1975-1969 Weston Arts and Crafts Association Shows, Weston, MA
Selected Collections
Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
St. Vincent Hospital, Santa Fe, NM
Pepsi-Cola, CA
AT&T, CA
Nokia, TX
INA Corp., PA
Peat Marwick, CA
NATO Headquarters, Brussels
Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Sands, TX
University of Texas Law School, Austin, TX
Philadelphia Zoological Society
American Embassies: Sanaa, Bogota, Singapore, Bahrain
University of Pennsylvania, PA
Coors Brewing Co, CO
Selected Publications and Credits
Focus Santa Fe, May, 2005 “Exploring the Mysteries of Sensation
in the Landscape” Wolfgang Mabry
The Santa Lucia Preserve Oil Painters10,000 Purchase Prize, May 2004, Carmel,
CA
Rio Grande Sun, Oct 2002 “Cuarteles Painter Likes to Shovel it
on” Joe Czarek
Southwest Art, Feb, 2002,”New Mexico Regionalists” Gussie
Fauntleroy
Art Talk, Feb. 2002 featured artist
New American Paintings, winner, Oct 2000
Southwest Art, cover February 2000 "A Life in Full" Gussie
Fauntleroy
Focus Santa Fe, 1997 "Dancing to the Tempo of the Evolving Day" Charlotte
Berney
Southwest Art, 1993 "Satisfying Surfaces" Sally Eauclaire
The New Mexican, 1993 "Exploring the Wild Places, Palette Knife
in Hand" Gussue Fauntleroy
Southwest Profile, 1992 cover "Sensuous and Delicious Color" John
Villani
Santa Fean Magazine, 1992 "Palette Knife Wizardry" Ralph
Luce
The New Mexican, 1991 "McElwain's Paintings Resonate w. Nature's
Unadorned Beauty"
The New Mexican, 1991 "The Art of Collecting" Robert Graybill
The New Mexican, 1991 "In Search of a Particular Moment in Time" Russ
Whiting
The Denver Post, 1990 "Critic's Choice" Steve Rosen
Southwest Profile, 1989 cover "Beautiful and Telling Marks" Sally
Eauclaire
TIME Magazine, January 1986 "Breaking Out of the Box" Kurt
Anderson, Cover
Architectural Record, 1985 "Learning From Mother Nature" Deborah
Dietch