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