Teaching or Making Art: A Creative Endeavor by Lolette Guthrie

A fascination with psychology and the process of learning…have been driving forces in my life and in my art. I’ve been a teacher for much of my life and always a painter. For me, the creative process is similar in both endeavors.

As a teacher, I loved discovering how to successfully reach a particular child — by building up knowledge layer upon layer through constant evaluation, experimentation and revision. As an artist, I have created images by building up a work layer upon layer, constantly evaluating and revising until I am satisfied that what I have created is true. It is almost a form of meditation. I love the concentrated stillness of making marks on a page or canvas; And, I love playing with those marks to create interesting layers, texture, and visual energy. Sometimes, my work is pure abstraction; more often it is representational. Always, however, I strive to create exciting and thought provoking visual metaphors and to explore the unique beauty of the natural world.

I currently divide my time between painting landscapes in oils and pastels, and producing commission portraits. In my portraits, I try to capture the person behind the image. My landscapes are explorations of the many and varied faces of nature: the changing colors; the changes in terrain, water flow, times of day, seasons and weather; the changing effects of light and atmosphere. Regardless of the subject, I strive to discover and convey the essence of what I see. I hope that through my work I can help viewers to be open to the incredible beauty and diversity of the world around them.

To see the range of my work, view my website. To see the work of other OCAG members, see the OCAG website.