MONIQUE PARRY ARTIST INTERVIEW

I grew up in a small town in New Hampshire far from any museums and galleries, and I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t drawing. From a very young age, I identified myself as an artist.  I remember loving N. C. Wyeth’s illustrations in books and the wonderful illustrations in Post magazines.  My mother was quite artistic and I would often look through her portfolio of drawings.  When I was thirteen, I won a scholarship to a program at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.  The train trip into the “Big City”, the Museum and the classes just blew me away.

While I was in high school, my family moved to Manchester, New Hampshire, where the Currier Museum is located and where I saw Robert Henri’s painting “MARYANN AND HER BASKET”.  I “painted” a copy of it with oil pastels.  After all these years, I still have that piece.  The New Hampshire Institute of Art is where I took my first classes.  I continued to take classes and painted intermittently while I was raising my family.   In the mid-80’s, I put aside other endeavors and began to paint seriously. I had some wonderful teachers in New England including Don Stone and Betty Lou Schlemn.  In the mid-90’s my husband (who is also a painter) and I spent six months at Ecole Albert DeFois in France, studying classical painting, spending the daylight hours in a north light studio working on figurative and still life drawings and paintings.  

As I always believed that a growing artist is one who continues to study, I began to participate in workshops with excellent instructors at the Scottsdale Artists School in Scottsdale, Arizona.  They include Joni Falk, Robert Johnson, Sherry McGraw, Kim English, Nancy Chaboun and Ray Roberts.  Don Demers is another influential and very supportive instructor.  One of my favorite artists is John Singer Sargent who made painting looks effortless, an illusion.  I admire the old still life paintings by Chardin and Cezanne. Georgia O’Keefe’s influence shows up in my floral watercolor paintings.

The ideas for my paintings are continuously evolving.  Putting things together in pleasing arrangements is something that I have always done.  One arrangement gives me the idea for another.  A favorite or new object, fresh flowers from my garden, a trip to the farmers’ market, a piece of beautiful cloth—any of these can be the starting point for a still life painting.  I take many close-up photographs of flowers and other vegetation and these photographs are the inspiration for my watercolors.  

My paintings are intimate, realistic and painterly.  Even the plein air landscapes are of something close up—the sides of a building, a single tree, very rarely are they panoramic views.  While value and composition are the bones of my paintings, light and color are what I hear viewers comment about.

My still life painting process begins with fresh flowers, produce, a new pitcher or vase, or a concept that inspires me.  I then set the stage---arranging the various elements, adding, taking away, rearranging, and looking for a balanced variety of shapes and lights and darks.  I also view the set up at eye level or from above until the composition is pleasing and I can visualize the set-up as a finished painting.  This process takes quite a while to develop. 

 I stain the primed white canvas with a wash of warm transparent pigments, usually a combination of Indian Yellow, Burnt Carmine or Alizarin and Indigo.  Using the same colors or burnt sienna, I block in the composition checking the components for size, relationship and placement.  When I am satisfied that the parts work as a whole, I begin painting; building up the paint letting the brush and the paint describe the form.  This initial arranging and block-in are crucial to a successful finish; it is most important to take this time in the beginning to feel certain that the concept is workable.  As I continue, I concentrate on light, value, design, color, paint quality, and edge treatment. I use artist grade oil paints by Winsor & Newton, Gamblin, Rembrandt, Utrecht, Liquin medium, natural bristle brushes and mongoose brushes mostly flats and filberts. 

An artist’s life is full of challenges most of which can be put into two categories.  The first has to do with the actual craft and growing as a painter:  what direction to go in, how to best learn the techniques, staying on task, dealing with “painter’s block”, and honing your skills to be able to best express what you want to say.  The second has to do with marketing which uses an entirely different set of skills. 

I have many favorite paintings.  In analyzing why they appeal to me, I find that it is mostly about light.  The subjects rarely are the reason a painting speaks to me—light and the emotions evoked are.

My career has been interesting with many milestones and surprises along the way.  Some highlights are a solo exhibit at the Heritage Plantation on Cape Cod, a cover illustration for Organic Gardening, a painting published in International Artist’s Book “100 Ways to Paint Flowers and Gardens”, the time spent studying and painting in France, having paintings in a Salon International Exhibit in San Antonio, Texas, and an Oil Painters of America Exhibit in Naples, Florida.

When people see one of my paintings, I would like them to begin to notice that the things that surround us in our everyday lives are beautiful.  It is akin to stopping to smell the roses. 

I continue to work on my still life paintings in oil and on my floral watercolor paintings with great anticipation as to where the journey will take me.  Also, I am preparing for several watercolor workshops which I teach in Maine during the summer.  When I am teaching, I tell my students not to think of the painting they are working on as a product—a gift for Aunt Mary or an award winning painting.  The most important thing is to enjoy the process of painting and developing their skills.