If you are visiting or working at FAHC – Fletcher Allen Health Care, Burlington, VT, please enjoy some of my landscape inspired artworks in the hallways. Refreshing to the spirit in these shorter days. The exhibit ,in two locations , will be up from November 20th, 2012 through March 2013.
http://www.fletcherallen.org/about/art_exhibit/
Fletcher Allen reporter Erica Houskeeper sat down with artist Lynda Reeves McIntyre of Shelburne to talk about her paintings exhibited in the McClure Connector on Level 3. A studio art professor at the University of Vermont, McIntyre also served as UVM’s Director of Art Education for 26 years. She is a painter who weaves her training in painting, dance, Buddhist study and aesthetics into her teaching. She prefers to work outdoors, sketching and painting in mountains, deserts and on beaches around the world.
Q: How would you describe your work?
A: When you work outdoors the way I do, there’s almost always a story related to the painting. Usually, it’s about the people I meet or my experience along the way. My work is about being very present, giving a visual voice to my experiences and sharing that with other people. Most of my works celebrates beauty – sometimes tumultuous beauty – but my paintings are not dark. Ultimately, my work is a joyful expression of my relationship with and gratitude for the world we live in.
Q: What are some of the locations of your paintings?
A: I love being outside. I do a lot of traveling, and I’ve worked on site in China, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Martha’s Vineyard, Mount Shasta in California, the Colorado Rockies, Hawaii, Venezuela, France and right here at home in Vermont and New York’s Adirondack Mountains. I don’t bring canvases on site, but rather sketch on-site and paint later.
Q: Where do you enjoy painting the most?
A: My favorite places to paint are in Italy and the Adirondacks. I love to hike and my heart is really in the mountains. My husband died when we were hiking together in Sardinia, Italy many years ago, so I feel like my soul is in Italy. I travel there every year to paint.
Q: What inspires you?
A: I never feel uninspired. I don’t have the freedom to go to the studio on a whim because I teach, so my time in the studio is always very deliberate. Still, I may think I’m going to paint for two hours and wind up in the studio for eight or nine hours because I’m totally swept up in what I’m doing.
Q: What kind of response are you receiving from the Fletcher Allen exhibit?
A: My father was a physician and painter, so there’s a real connection for me between healing and art. My mother died of lung cancer when she was in her 40s. When I would visit her, I remember seeing paintings in the hospital, and they had a profound effect on me. The work I am displaying now at Fletcher Allen is getting a great response, and I’m hearing from people I’ve never met. The paintings in the exhibit are of places that are somewhat abstract, but also recognizable, soothing and inviting.
Q: You have led a very rich life by traveling the world and following your passion. If you had to describe your experience in words instead of on a canvas, what would you say?
A: On my tombstone, I hope the epitaph reads: “She made beauty, she made friends.”
