Artist of the Month Elizabeth McCarthy with Hacienda del Sol.
Elizabeth McCarthy – January 2015
Linda Strauss-Lewis
Elizabeth McCarthy, the PebbleCreek Art Club’s January 2015 Artist of the Month, grew up in Wisconsin and majored in art at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. If you have the opportunity to see Elizabeth’s exceptional paintings in person at either of the PC Clubhouses, it will surprise you to learn that after college she did not practice her art. Instead, she spent three years as a flight attendant with Northwest Airlines and the rest of her career as a Financial Consultant for US Bancorp Piper Jaffray in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota.
It was the Art Club’s good fortune that five years ago Elizabeth visited friends living in PebbleCreek. She was so impressed with our facilities and beautiful homes that she decided to become a snowbird and rent in PC. She rented for four years and then finally purchased a home in PebbleCreek one and a half years ago.
Elizabeth is a pastel artist. She says she got started by purchasing a tiny set of pastels at Michael’s and signed up for her first pastel class at our art center with professional pastel painter, Liz Kenyon. She now has hundreds of pastels and to improve her technique, she has taken more classes from Liz, classes from Don Rantz and with Sharon Adamy, PebbleCreek’s own award winning pastel artist.
Elizabeth uses the classic technique that many of the Impressionist painters such as Monet, Degas and Mary Cassatt used and many current pastel painters use today. Here is how she describes this technique: “I begin by making a small thumbnail sketch drawing, finding and defining my focal point. Then I do a small value study using blacks, whites and greys to define my lights and darks. After this, I’m ready to begin my final painting. I begin with a full size value study in color on my favorite surface, Kitty Wallis sanded paper. I lay in my darkest darks and then I use denatured alcohol and paint over the pastel wetting it down. Once this first layer is dry, the color becomes almost a part of the paper and it is receptive to adding additional color. Next I use a variety of soft and hard pastels to create highlights, which give my paintings the vibrancy and life that I like.”
“I usually paint landscapes from photographs that I have taken over the years.”
The painting shown here, called Hacienda del Sol, is one of Elizabeth’s favorites. Notice the brilliant color she is able to achieve using the techniques described above. It’s quite clear why she won the People’s Choice Award at the PC Art Club’s April 2014 Meet the Artist Fine Arts Show and Sale. Good for you, Elizabeth!
I like this quote from our January AOTM: “Living in PebbleCreek is so much fun. One of my PC friends says living here is like retirement on steroids. Every morning I wake up and wonder what fun thing I am going to do today.”