instructors are available. She also says that she learns a lot from reading Pastel Journal magazine. Winford is open about her inspirations and generous with sharing her process. Until recently her paintings have been exclusively rendered in high quality pastels, displaying vivid colors and soft texture. Using 400 grit sanded paper to maintain the marks, she begins with a sketch using harder pastels, which she brushes with rubbing alcohol to fill in any bare paper. She then uses increasingly soft pastels beginning with darks and working colors throughout the painting. Inspired by French impressionists, she often places different color marks next to each other and leaves them unblended.
“ Water and clouds are always a challenge,” she admitted.“ You need to leave space for clouds and‘ tree holes’ and use different amounts of pressure to vary color saturation.” One way to keep herself from becoming complacent is to work on more than one piece at a time.“ I can leave a painting for a while if I’ m not sure what it needs. Then return to it with fresh eyes.” This past year she took an online abstract class just to try something different.
Winford’ s artwork is predominantly representational. In addition to pastoral scenes
featuring winding roads and weathered barns, she depicts close-up clusters of coneflowers or brilliant orange poppies, among other images in nature. Her attention to detail and accurate colors reveal her talent for gardening. To visit her studio is to also experience her elegantly landscaped yard, which encompasses two town lots.
“ I just love painting landscapes and capturing the light that moves around a painting,” she writes in her Artists Statement.“ Colors have always captured my interest, and I am always working on ways to have color speak out in my paintings.”
One of the challenges for artists, today as well as in the past, is marketing, or as some would say,“ the business of art.” Some artists believe that marketing is easier and more accessible using the internet, but the competition to attract attention is fierce. Winford photographs and frames her own work and maintains a website at lorywinfordfineart. com.
Whenever she questions herself about the quality of her work, Winford refers to one of her favorite quotes from well-known historical French impressionist Claude Monet.“ My advice to young artists is to paint as much as possible, for as long as possible, and never to be afraid of painting poorly.”“ In other words,” Winford says,“ Just do it!” Although she sells her work directly from her Here’ s Home Studio, Lory Winford’ s paintings can be found in the Hoosier Artist Gallery on Jefferson Street in Nashville as well as Stillframes Art and Design in nearby Columbus. •
May / June 2026 Our Brown County 59