"Casamia" landscape painter's retreat on Louisa's farm in New Mexico: historic log house, and studio available by the week,  painting excursions and coaching.

Lovely restored bunk house with one bedroom with queen select comfort bed, bath, fully equipped kitchen with laundry, Living room with wood burning range, satellite TV and internet. Pick organic vegetables in adjoining garden, fresh eggs in hen house.  Many farm motifs, animals, ponds, buildings and views to inspire your work. Open air hay shed-studio, $2400 per week for a single person. This includes daily private coaching sessions and at least one painting trip with Louisa. Additional charge for a second painter.

For more information, Email Louisa at:   louisamcelwain@hotmail.com
For booking, please contact Kathrine Erickson, Evoke Contemporary: 505-995-9902,  ke@evokecontemporary.com




Curriculum vitae:  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