Alison Haley Paul |
Artist’s Statement Once, while talking about the sky in my painting, a fellow painter said, “But you live in San Diego! The skies are always blue! How boring!” And my only thought was, ‘What? You obviously don’t look up then, do you?’ But I do. I look up. I look out the window. I drive to areas where I know I can see uninterrupted views. I take photos. I look up the weather on the internet. I have a cloud poster in my studio. This series started after seeing a show about clouds. How fun I thought. So I started taking photos of clouds as an experiment for my son’s art class. But I noticed that every time I painted a landscape, the sky was a dominant element. But I still am intrigued by the land and nature’s artistry everywhere I go. I keep coming back to those open fields, lagoons and hills of color and I am inspired by Mother Nature’s teachings every time I look. I go looking for paintings. I get excited on a day with an interesting sky. So I go out driving where ever I am (California, Texas, Rhode Island) and when I see an interesting view, I pull over and take a photo. Or sometimes I sketch and then paint. Or sometimes I pack everything up and walk into the lagoon to paint. But I usually get very distracted by all the color and texture around me and go wandering off to explore and don’t get much painting done. Or sometimes I’ll go for a walk with my camera and not get much walking done. The paintings start in my head. I’ll look at a particular view and think “How I could paint that? What part is the most interesting to me? Color? Texture? Scale? Shapes? Shadows? That is what nature whispers to me about a painting. Then I can visualize it. I sketch it out and my version of that vista becomes a painting. My style would have to be called ‘Sort Of ’. Sort of impressionistic, sort of realistic, sort of abstract. Even though the canvases are not small, I used a very small palette knife for the majority of the paintings in the series. Everything just clicked when I found that teeny little knife. Lots of detail and control became possible and allowed me to express myself and my feelings about landscapes. I want my work to remind people of the old saying of ‘bringing the outside in’. So that by hanging one of my paintings in your home, I inspire you to take a moment to enjoy our environment even if you are not able to be outside. As it is always changing from morning to evening and by Man’s will or Nature’s, I want to remind you to enjoy it somehow. Some people enjoy the outside by climbing mountains, going on safari or white water rafting; no thank you, no way, not me, I paint. Painting brings so much to my life; joy, a sense of accomplishment, gratitude and makes everything around me brighter somehow. I know each person has their own experience of a painting, but I sincerely hope that my work will bring them happiness. Thank you for viewing my work. |