February demo artist Gwen Meyer Ethelbah

I love landscape in all its variety. Each part of this country has a different language of color, line, and mass. The deep forests, arid high desert mountains, exquisite lakes and skies, are all quite different. This particular painting speaks to my experience growing up on the banks of the Carmel River, where we played, swam, and were terrified of the crawdads we could see moving along the bottom. A very favorite painting.

In love with the Southwest

   I was raised in Carmel Valley in an artist’s household, but I wasn’t supposed to be an artist. Even though art was an everyday experience in my life, my family decided I would become a scientist like so many of my relatives, and indeed, I worked my way through UC Berkeley in a science lab (it was fun!). It really upended my family’s dynamic when I became an artist instead.

Being the major breadwinner ate into my forward motion during the succeeding years, but I never stopped painting. I explored incredible American impressionistic art up close, particularly the West Coast artists.  I could stand in their footsteps, see what they saw, and what choices they made. My mother was also part of the Monterey and Carmel artist community in the early 1900’s, and of course her work influenced me, particularly in terms of what makes a painting.

      I have become involved in several arts organizations, particularly Women Artists of the West and Plein Air Painters of New Mexico, serving in several positions in both. I have chaired several shows and instituted the first online blind jurying for WAOW.

     In 2005, we moved to the Pinetop area in Arizona to “retire.” We loved the area and had been vacationing there for years, painting and fishing, dependent on the weather and the appetites of the fish. I opened Joyous Lake Gallery in Pinetop that year, held shows, both local and national, and created “Paint the Aspens,” a plein air show celebrating the local fall color.

      It’s hard to underestimate the impact of the work of Maynard Dixon, Edward Hopper and impressionists on both coasts on my art language. In particular, I resonated with Dixon’s authentic depiction of the Southwest’s barren geography. Modern teacher-artists who were also influential: Mary Bentz Gilkerson, Kevin MacPherson, Emil Gruppe, Rachel Pettit, John Carlson, Stephen Quiller, and of course, my own mother, Flora Macdonald, who studied with Armin Hansen and in the ateliers of Europe. Mostly, though, my style has been formed by study and the hours at the easel - the miles of canvas so necessary to a creative practice. 

    Landscape remains the major focus of my artistic vision. My intimate forest scenes are balanced by expansive lake and sky scenes. I focus on the presence of the land. According to my collectors, my work has a strong sense of place. You can usually tell where I painted if you have been there yourself – or you think you have.

     I recently moved with my childhood sweetheart, now husband, to the mountains of New Mexico, and I am learning to love the new visual language of that part of the Southwest. Impressionistic realism, though, continues to be a descriptor of my work, and a steady painting habit makes it happen. 

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Contact Gwen by email at pentemeyer@gmail.com