Land scape
Gail Factor
CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
along the Pacific coast. Later, some of these impressions, or vestiges of them, would make it to the canvas. As mentioned, her life drawings were also studies that transmuted into abstract form, signifying earth, sky and water.
Rigorous in process and structure, my mother painted almost every day of her life. The exception would be if she were travelling or when family would visit( and in those instances her creative eye was still at work). Her studio always had two large easels set up; multiple canvases rested on them, poised as works in progress. Oil paints and palettes were always out on the table. She spent from two to eight hours a day in the studio, at times possibly more. She alternated between painting in silence and with music to accompany her process. Her musical selection was diverse- anything from classical Bach to Motown hits. The choice must have been informed, on any given day, by personal vagaries, but I also believe the subject matter of a painting and its personal import to her had an unconscious hand in the musical preference or silence. Wherever she lived, she had a studio on site, separate from her house. Her atelier was always a place of focus and, in a way, a spiritual space for her. This actually was palpable to anyone entering her cherished workspace.