Serenity, beauty, nature — Baton Rouge artist Elayne Kuehler’s idyllic and picturesque landscapes and flowery still life paintings transport our imaginations into a more peaceful and bucolic world that reminds us that in nature beauty is all around us. We simply must be patient and look.
As evident in Kuehler’s paintings, “serenity and beauty” inform her palette and compositions. “Serene,” she says, “as in tranquil, peace on earth, orderliness as in easy with no complications. Beauty, abounding endlessly in nature.”
The Baton Rouge native first studied art at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond and later with various distinguished artists such as South Carolina’s Barrie Van Osdell and Louisiana masters Auseklis Ozols and Carol Peebles. As Kuehler says — Osdell helped her “with symmetry in drawing,” Ozols “with color,” and Peebles “with portraiture and the figure.”
She learned those lessons well. For instance, her images of a peaceful sunflower-filled meadow, a radiant sunset on a Louisiana lake, and twisted surreal live oaks in warm misty light portray natural uncluttered landscapes devoid of human presence. It is a painting style in the long tradition of romantic realism.
“I am a realist and I am in love with beauty,” she says. “Beauty mesmerizes me. I see it in nature. I it see in even in banality. And to that, I add imagination.”
Like many artists, Kuehler believes the best way to truly see the nuances of the natural landscape is to paint on location where the “fresh air,” environment and atmosphere fully envelop the senses. To capture those nuances, she prefers the warm tones of early mornings or late afternoons when the “light is beautiful” and “long shadows add lovely patterns to the composition.”
There is a “but” however. Because pesky insects and constantly changing light can affect the composition, she often starts a painting on location and then completes it in her studio to the calming strains of classical music.
She also paints her flowery indoor compositions from life, not photographs. “If you compare the photograph of a still life to the real still life, everything is different, the color and the values,” she says. “Painting still life from life teaches one all about color, values, edges, reflections and beauty.”
Paintings created from life have a “magic quality,” Kuehler once wrote. “Painting in nature and from the brilliance of life is a very serene and an extremely nourishing place to be and serves as a great inspiration to me.”
Working from studios in Baton Rouge and Mandeville, Kuehler’s art has gained considerable recognition in regional, national and international juried competitions. In addition to awards, she is a member of several prestigious art organizations including the International Guild of Realism, the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club in New York, American Women Artists, the Portrait Society of America, and Oil Painters of America. She also has taught art for over 20 years.
That continuing success is based on an active and open imagination that is constantly thinking of new ways to express and approach that love of nature.
“I can think of so many things I want to paint that I will never catch up,” she says. “It is what I do. I have a need to capture the beauty of the story. Whether it’s the color scheme, the perspective or the composition, each painting is a challenge.”
And, she continues, “What could be more interesting than that?”
For more information, elaynekuehler.com.
