Artist Statement - Laura Holzschuh
Eight years ago, I was introduced to painting with oil paint. As soon as I began using this versatile medium, I was totally captivated with it. Even though oil paint is still my main media, I work in oil pastel, colored pencil, and occasionally artist marker as well. My work is about bringing the beauty of everyday subjects of nature into focus through fine art paintings and drawings.
My work encompasses the desire for the viewer to look and look hard at what is depicted. There are simple things in our world that are absolutely beautiful, but are often overlooked. Whether the subject is of a particular kind of vegetable, fruit, flower, landscape, or bird; they are all worth representing in paintings and drawings. My working process is both working plein air and from photo references. I primarily use the alla prima or wet into wet technique. This suits my needs, especially when moving some parts of a piece back into space, in addition to keeping foreground parts close for additional depth. The texture of oil paint is expressive and energetic and I relish that, therefore I use an impasto style when manipulating the paint. Along with revealing the beauty of the subject, I want the audience to see the beauty of the oil paint medium itself. An “ordinary” subject painted in this way reveals my passion for the subject and the medium.
My paintings have always been about appreciation of nature, but over the years, my focus has changed. Currently, my paintings are close studies of the subject represented on the canvas. My experience is that through oil paint, I am representing subjects (such as tomatoes and apples), that may be seen as dull or not worth painting. My work is trying to get the audience to really look because beauty surrounds us on a daily basis. I create work in this fashion because it is my way to communicate and express my values with the public. The viewer looks and due to the larger scale of the subjects and the way they are composed on the canvas or paper, can understand the intended focal point of the piece. Give the viewer nowhere else to look but directly at your subject and then they will see the object(s) expressed in a unique way.
Over the years, there have been many influential sources affecting my work. The most important art historical influence is beyond a doubt, the Impressionists and Post Impressionists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries’. They also liked to work using impasto and light was one of the most important factors in their work. For my pieces light is an important issue, because light affects the changes in color, value, shadows, and color temperature that I represent on the canvas or paper. They too shared the belief that ordinary everyday objects and life are worthy subjects for a painting.
My experience from being around vegetable and flower gardens is one of the reasons for the infinity of my subject matter. There is nothing like the experience of harvesting potatoes, picking cherry tomatoes off the vine, or assembling a large perennial bouquet from a cutting flower garden in June. There is a certain element of both touching and seeing in my paintings. One cannot actually touch the work, but I want the viewer to have the impression that the real object has the texture that I portray.
My work encompasses the desire for the viewer to look and look hard at what is depicted. There are simple things in our world that are absolutely beautiful, but are often overlooked. Whether the subject is of a particular kind of vegetable, fruit, flower, landscape, or bird; they are all worth representing in paintings and drawings. My working process is both working plein air and from photo references. I primarily use the alla prima or wet into wet technique. This suits my needs, especially when moving some parts of a piece back into space, in addition to keeping foreground parts close for additional depth. The texture of oil paint is expressive and energetic and I relish that, therefore I use an impasto style when manipulating the paint. Along with revealing the beauty of the subject, I want the audience to see the beauty of the oil paint medium itself. An “ordinary” subject painted in this way reveals my passion for the subject and the medium.
My paintings have always been about appreciation of nature, but over the years, my focus has changed. Currently, my paintings are close studies of the subject represented on the canvas. My experience is that through oil paint, I am representing subjects (such as tomatoes and apples), that may be seen as dull or not worth painting. My work is trying to get the audience to really look because beauty surrounds us on a daily basis. I create work in this fashion because it is my way to communicate and express my values with the public. The viewer looks and due to the larger scale of the subjects and the way they are composed on the canvas or paper, can understand the intended focal point of the piece. Give the viewer nowhere else to look but directly at your subject and then they will see the object(s) expressed in a unique way.
Over the years, there have been many influential sources affecting my work. The most important art historical influence is beyond a doubt, the Impressionists and Post Impressionists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries’. They also liked to work using impasto and light was one of the most important factors in their work. For my pieces light is an important issue, because light affects the changes in color, value, shadows, and color temperature that I represent on the canvas or paper. They too shared the belief that ordinary everyday objects and life are worthy subjects for a painting.
My experience from being around vegetable and flower gardens is one of the reasons for the infinity of my subject matter. There is nothing like the experience of harvesting potatoes, picking cherry tomatoes off the vine, or assembling a large perennial bouquet from a cutting flower garden in June. There is a certain element of both touching and seeing in my paintings. One cannot actually touch the work, but I want the viewer to have the impression that the real object has the texture that I portray.