Liz Maltman, En Plein Air Pastels Featured in January at UU Gallery
Posted on 07. Jan, 2009 by Meg Vermillion in Art exhibits, The Arts, Visual Arts
Liz Maltman
Liz Maltman, gives the impression that the “open air” is the only studio she needs. She discovered painting “en plein air” in 2004 and has been enamored with it ever since. Liz works primarily in pastels, favoring their immediacy, vibrancy of color and portability in the field. Her goad in painting a landscape is not so much to paint it exactly as she sees it but to capture the essence of the scene in the feeling that a particular day and moment evokes.
Originally from Chicago, Liz moved to Fish Creek in 1974 after completing undergraduate degrees in Art History and Psychology. Since then, she owned and operated several businesses, notably The Magic Jacket (1982-98), as well as her own ongoing business in interior design and decorative painting.
In 2007, Liz was chosen to participate in the first annual Peninsula Art School, Plein Air Festival. She is very pleased to have been juried in to the 2009 festival at the school.For several years she has been a featured artist at the Francis Hardy Gallery Arts Collectors’ Showcase Exhibit. Liz won awards for both her landscapes and portraits in a number of juried exhibitions and is honored to have her work in both private and corporate collections throughout the country. Her work is represented locally at Margaret Lockwood’s Woodwalk Gallery in Egg Harbor. She is also adding acrylic paintings to her representations, however, the works in the UU Gallery exhibit are only “en plain air” pastels from 2008.
Door County Style Editor’s Exclusive Candid Interview with Liz Maltman…
Liz at work en plein air
Editor: What is it that will first make you start to think about a particular place as a possible subject for a pastel painting?
Liz Maltman: Hmmmmm. I’m not sure what it is that draws me to a scene or subject. Some artists I’ve painted with or known, will look for a scene for example, with a strong diagonal (maybe a road) and a very distinct and tall tree and a horizontal fence and… (in other words they require very specific things to exist in a scene). I am definitely NOT looking for that kind of thing in a subject. I may instead be attracted by contrasts or strong lighting or the clouds floating by… I’m not really sure.
I’m more interested in the feeling or sense of a scene, the sense of magic maybe. If the scene needs a diagonal from a compositional standpoint, i’ll just make that up. I often paint while turning 360 degrees. As I said before, I’m not really trying to render a scene in a representational or “realistic” way particularly. I often paint with a friend who is much more of a realistic artist than I am. We will be painting basically the same landscape. She’ll come over after a couple of hours of work, look at what I’ve done, start laughing and exclaim “What in the world are you looking at?”
Sometimes I’m more interested in a way in painting the spring breeze or the feel of the wind or something. (This probably sounds really dumb. I’ve not really tried too much to articulate or even really understand what I’m doing! As said before, I’m really experimenting all the time.
Editor: Do you love or fear skyscapes? Paintings of the water? What do you think is the most challenging and perhaps most difficult subject to approach?
Liz Maltman: Skyscapes? For some reason I’ve never actually tried doing a “skyscape.” Most of my landscapes include a greater (often much greater) proportion of land (or water) to sky. But it’s not that I don’t like the sky! or that I “fear” doing it. I’m definitely more attracted to whimsical sort of skies though, rather than a very dramatic (although beautiful) sunset. I definitely tend to present more of the whimsical or magical aspects of a scene or person (I love doing portraits, although I don’t always do portraits en plein air!) than the “serious” or dramatic scene. I love doing water although I was quite “fearful” of water at first, probably because I love the water so much. It felt intimidating. And it probably is the most challenging subject matter. Actually I’d say water is the most challenging subject matter, but also the most fun, partly for that reason. I have so far sold any water piece I’ve done fairly quickly. And I do mean to do more and more water pieces, hopefully some from actually on the water (from a sailboat or kayak}. Now that would be challenging, to work from my kayak!…
Editor: Do you like including people, birds or animals in your landscapes?
Liz Maltman: I do like to include people, birds and an occasional dog in my landscapes. I am actually including people more and more, but often there aren’t any hanging around the scene. If there were, I’d probably put more in. Actually, I’m making them up more often than I used to. One of my favorite paintings which is kind of folky, has a dog in it which I’d seen earlier in the day and taken a photo of.
Editor: Who are your favorite artists or from where do you draw your greatest inspiration?
Liz Maltman: My favorite artists are all pretty much from the early modern era (l890-l920) in particular, the Fauves (bright colors) especially Braque (before his cubism period), Derain, and Vlaminck, as well as the Nabis painters of whom there were few. My favorites are Pierre Bonnard and Vuillard. Also, I of course, love Van Gogh and Kandinsky (especially his early work) (actually I think he was part of the Nabis group, now that I think about it. But, my all-time most favorite painter in the world is Odilon Redon, a contemporary of these but definitely his own person. Alot of these painters worked in the decorative arts as well as fine art, which is something I do as well and probably find inspirational in their art. Many of them were colorists as well which I also find inspiring.
One thing I like especially about Redon is that he often worked in pastel, which is my medium of choice at the moment… Long before I ever actually did any paintings, when I used to just think that one day I would really like to do some paintings, I knew I would do them in pastel – I think mostly because of how much Redon’s pastels affected me, even as a kid. So, I guess I would say my greatest inspiration comes from Redon’s art, as well as the other art mentioned. But also it comes from the current subject (landscape or person) I am painting. I paint almost exclusively from life, so that life, is the great inspiration.
Editor: Who have you studied with or are you a self-taught artist?
Liz Maltman: I am pretty much a self-taught artist. Everything I do I mostly look at as an experiment. Some experiments have more successful results than others. I have however, taken some classes at the PAS over the years which include several with Mike Judy (a really close friend), two with Craig Blietz, one with Lynn Gilchrist in plein air
which is where I really got inspired and one with Emmett Johns, although he forgot I was in the class. It was supposed to be plein air but it rained all week. The rest of the class was using photos indoors but i went outside anyway and he forgot I was out there. Actually, by the last day he remembered.
The public is invited to the UU Gallery any Sunday following services, from 11 am -12:30 pm. Additional Gallery hours are on Mondays, from 1-3 pm at 10341 Hwy. 42, Ephraim. For more information or if you have an interest in being considered for an exhibition, phone 920.839.2606. Visit the Web site to learn more at www.uufdc.org.
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