Images from a recent trip to Italy are the core of LaNell Arndt’s new exhibition of paintings titled “Faces of the World”. During the trip, Arndt completed over 50 plein air paintings. For her upcoming show at The Gallery at Round Top in Round Top, Texas, the artist has chosen 20 of the best works from this trip to Italy and other journeys in the central Texas region and to the Badlands of West Texas to put on the show.
She continues, “I put myself in the experience, whether I am working en plein air or working in the studio. I am in the place, in the time, in the moment.” Often rising before dawn, Arndt, like the masters before her, heads out with easel. paint and brushes in hand. Working sometimes with the onslaught of bugs, snakes, and the ravages of cold, rain, and heat, the artist seeks that perfect image, that moment in time that speaks resonates something special.
Brush stroke to brush stroke, colors melt together and reflect images from across the world. The paintings of LaNell Ardnt depict the intimacy of experience and actuality. The viewer will find exquisite subtle passages contrasted against descriptive, vibrant color. The touch of the artist rhythmically vibrates across the canvas in each brush stroke, deep, rich, and direct.
Arndt’s oil paintings stop the viewer and carry him to a simple moment in time. They depict a quiet landscape discovered in passing or the resonating, gentle moment felt by a couple whom has shared a lifetime together. The artist describes her works as the “voicing of the experience.”
When asked what attracts her, what draws her to a painting, she responded, “I think it’s almost a mood. Sometimes it’s the brightness, the light, or the color. And other times it’s the stillness found in the gray tones. It’s painting from the heart and soul. If you paint what strikes your heart, it comes out on the end of the brush.”
