Louisa McElwain
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!”
2003-4 Palos Verdes Art Center, Palos Verdes, CA “The Wild West”
2002 Chaparral Fine Art, Bozeman, MT “Masters in Montana"
2002-1998 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 $10,000
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
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.”
Louisa McElwain
