ARTIST’S STATEMENT
A quiet contemplation of nature, looking for the light and emotion it evokes, deliberate obliteration, reduction, scraping away to reveal.
I react to the moment when light becomes color. Whenever I can, I try to start a work on location (en plein air) where I find a direct and spontaneous response to the moment.
I paint in oils and occasionally pastels. I seek to evoke the mood instilled in me by the trees on a hill or how the swaying grass of a summer meadow meets the cool shadows of the woods. Flecks of light in the forest capture me. I react to the emotional energy in the colors.
It is not about the specific place but more about the way the light at a particular time moved me. Simplification and reduction brings a quiet personal abstraction: shards of light and color, fleeting images seen out of the corner of one’s eye while passing by.
Both my French mother and grandfather are/were plein air painters and I have always painted. I have a visual memory etched into my mind from childhood from a book on Matisse of the cobalt blue lining of an open violin case in the deep interior shadows of a house in Nice. I am moved by the works of Edward Hopper, Diebenkorn, Wolf Kahn, Morandi, Bonnard, Vuillard, Cezanne, Wyeth, Fairfield Porter, Edwin Dickinson … to name a few.
To see more of my work, click on the "Paintings" tab and click on gallery to see the paintings. Please contact me with any questions.
For a “virtual” studio tour photographed by Meredith Perdue, owner of The Willard Gallery in S. Portland, ME, click on link below:
https://www.thewillardgallery.com/journal/ariane-luckey-studio-tour
Q&A:
How do you typically describe your landscape paintings? My landscape paintings are about a sense of place but not about creating an image to represent the place. They are an impression. Blurred, as if in motion. Passing by.
What drives you to create? Shapes, shadows, color, mood, light catch my eye as I pass through the beautiful pastoral countryside I am lucky enough to live in. The impressions of a moment in time stay with me, and become the kernel of an idea. A remembered landscape held in my heart and mind. What starts out as a reference to a specific place and moment in time is transformed by my process of abstraction.
What does your process look like? My process usually starts with a quick charcoal thumbnail sketch, loose and legible (probably only to me). If possible, I like to paint a preliminary study on location with a direct and spontaneous response to the moment.
My color studies, on panel and recently, on paper, come next. I work quickly and often in series. Back in the studio, it is all about staying Ioose and holding onto the initial inspiration, losing edges (and then finding some of them again).
How does the Litchfield County landscape influence your work? The barns, rolling hills, meadows, trees, cows that grace the landscape feel like heaven and I am grateful to be passing through. All of it inspires me.
Who are your favorite artists? My favorite artists are Edward Hopper (landscapes), Robert Henri, Diebenkorn’s California landscapes, Wolf Kahn, Andrew Wyeth’s Maine watercolors, Morandi, Bonnard, Vuillard, Fairfield Porter, Edwin Dickinson, Albert York. Recently have been looking at Nicolas de Stael’s works. I could go on and on.
How do you know when a work is finished? That is good question. It is a mysterious part of the process. Personally, I love the loose unfinished piece of a painting as much as the resolved corner. I like seeing the hand of the artist involved. It is a game of chicken.
What feelings do you hope your art might evoke for a first time viewer? I hope my paintings would evoke a memory of a place, a moment, a feeling.
Favorite museum? Musee D’Orsay.
Are there places you’d like to visit someday specifically to paint? Anywhere along the Maine coast.
How do you spend your time when you’re not painting? Making sure my two Jack Russell terriers have the best day possible, every day. Taking long walks with my husband on country roads. Spending time with my two grown children whenever possible. Gardening, cooking for family and friends. Hiking. Reading.
an observation of my work:
The Territory of Light
Firstly, there is something to be said about the feminine in the work, the softness in the gesturing that feels as if the subject is unfolding, and not just grasped. The subjects often chosen are strong, sturdy, yet by being rendered in a more subdued tone, feel mysterious, quickened with weather, time, and an intimate history. They are, indeed, alive before the viewer, but exist and remain in the territory of light as you so aptly talk of a space where light becomes colour. It takes a fine soul, a sensitive and accomplished one to have the quicksilver dexterity, and openness of spirit to record this, and, indeed, to even know it is there.
— Nancy Anne Miller
www.bermudapoet.com
www.amazon.com/author/nancyannemillerpoet
