Rebecca Croft: Pushing Between Dark and Light

Oil painter Rebecca Croft

“Painting for me is a new exploration every day,” says Rebecca Croft, Gallery Underground's featured artist this month, of her process.  “It takes my mind to places that it would never otherwise go.  I love to travel and represent my memories of places in my paintings, expressing nature through color and light with individual brush strokes to represent a place or thing."

Growing up as an army brat, Rebecca has lived in many places in the world, but makes her home in Arlington, Virginia with her husband and two children.  She has traveled extensively and likes to paint from her photos as well as “Plein Air."  Having grown up moving from place to place has obviously inspired Croft to paint the many places she has experienced.  Recent trips to Africa and Italy have brought forth a treasure trove of exotic paintings, including her recent Italy series, hanging in the gallery this month. "There is nothing like visiting monuments at night, " she says. "The Coliseum was just gorgeous all lit up."

Night at the Coliseum, oil by Rebecca Croft

She says of her style, “Influenced by the impressionist movement, I strive to push my paintings more towards the abstract as opposed to realism.  Each stroke should count."

Impressionist Tulips, oil by Rebecca Croft

Croft was always interested in art, and tossed the idea out to her parents as a college major, but they insisted she major in something they felt more confident would lead to a job. So she majored in business, primarily because learning languages came easily to her and French went along with business classes. She did not revisit art again until her youngest child began school full time; she began taking classes in drawing and painting, and a decade later, "my passion has taken me to the place where I want to share my work, and I'm now selling my work in galleries and online venues." 

Trees with Lavender Fields, oil by Rebecca Croft

"Recently, changing my palette has moved me to push between the dark and the light," she says. "Painting requires total focus that brings me total and complete peace. No other endeavor is the same except possibly reading a really good novel that you don't want to end."

--Sandi Parker, Gallery Underground Co-Director

Color: Joy and Torment

Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment - Claude Monet

Color. It can be an artist's friend, or worst enemy (trying to mix a color you see in your head but cannot replicate, for example). It can make - or break - a painting. It is often cited as the single most compelling reason a buyer will choose a painting. Many artists are known for a particular palette, or set of colors they return to over and over. Think of the subdued greens and browns of the Hudson River School artists, or the bright primaries of Matisse. What makes an artist gravitate toward certain colors? The answers are as varied as the different paint shades and range from personal preference to the rules of their game.

 

"Pink Sky Over Marsh" oil by Rebecca Croft

Some artists use the colors they are continually drawn to in life. "Bright colors make me happy. I’m not drawn to subdued colors," says Gallery member artist Rebecca Croft. "I’ve never liked fall colors like yellows/oranges/browns and don’t buy clothing or decorate with those colors either. I just prefer the pinks/purples/blues/greens."

Member artist Sybil Bedner-Ostrowski says she is more drawn to an analogous palette, or three colors that are next to each other on the color wheel, with one being the dominant color, which tends to be a primary or secondary color, and one on either side of the color. For example, red, red-orange, and red violet. "I think my favorite mixed oil color is terra rosa and Naples yellow, that emulates lamp light and the afternoon sun," she says.

"Almost Home" oil by Sybil Bedner-Ostrowski

Iconographer and Gallery member Laura Clerici also prefers brighter colors, but her palette is largely dictated by the icon art form. 

"I find myself using the same colors, because the palette is relatively limited by tradition. EVERYTHING in an icon has meaning, including color," she says of her work. "Canonically, certain colors are generally associated with different figures. The Archangel Michael's outer robe is usually a bright red, rather than maroon or blue-red. Jesus always wears an orange-y or gold ocher garment -- because it is supposed to represent "cloth of gold" which is associate with Jesus as the King. He is only shown in white twice, in the icon of the Transfiguration (where the text says his garments were bleached whiter than anyone could make them) and in the Resurrection.

"Lady of the Sign" by Laura Clerici

"You can vary it a bit, but it has to be intentional - what are you trying to say about the figure? For instance, in a Madonna, Mary always wears an outer robe which is largely red, but it can be purple-sh, cherry red, maroon or a brownish red. Each color says something different about who she is. The more blue/purple talks about her close association with the Divine; the more red the color makes a statement about her humanity, and by association about Jesus' nature." 

In addition to being influenced by the art form, color is also influenced by the medium. "Now I am using acrylics more and more, says Bedner-Ostrowski. "And it is wonderfully satisfying to experiment with the oddest color combinations and then just cover it up with another combination until I'm happy."  

Any gallerist will tell you that there is no predicting what colors will draw customers in. This bright abstract by gallery member Nan Morrison, hung near the front of the gallery one month, caught the eye of everyone passing by. Conversely, our solo artist Nihal Kececi's subtle palette is similarly packing them in. 

"Moulin Rouge" acrylic by Nan Morrison; "H Street" acrylic by Nihal Kececi

On the sixth day, God created the artist, realizing no doubt that He had far from exhausted the uses of color. - Robert Brault

~ Sandi Parker, Gallery Underground Co-Director