Louisa McElwain had been a resident of New Mexico since 1985..
Anvil II, oil, 58 x 72. |
By Gussie Fauntleroy
Assorted animal sounds—the sporadic shrieking of cockateels, the soft scuffling of a lop-eared rabbit across the smooth floor, and the chattering of a guinea pig named Albert (as in Einstein)—fill the room, along with warm sunshine filtering through flowers and tomato plants on the south windowsill.
They wanted to paint like the Louisa McElwain.
McElwain’s life, like her art, is about expressing fullness—eyes wide open, all senses en-gaged. It’s the way she paints. With the back of her Toyota pickup or van set up as an outdoor studio, she matches the spirited, impetuous northern New Mexico sky and land with her own energetic style.
All her paintings are done en plein air, even 9-foot-wide canvases that she clamps onto boards on the side of her van to make an enormous, wind-resistant easel.
El Pedernal,oil, 38 x 38. |
With nearly 15 years of painting outdoors in New Mexico behind her, McElwain has developed the technical skill, familiarity with patterns