A Love Affair with Landscape

by Lorena Pugh, painter

I have worked for years as a contemporary still life artist, rethinking the traditionally narrow definition of still life. I've enjoyed a comfortable degree of success, particularly for my four-foot pears wrapped in translucent tissue. Being a mid-career artist with national or international recognition, as I am, switching subject matter is a big deal after working for years to gain a following.

But it was love. A love affair that began two and a half years ago in a rural village in France, where I painted the beautiful landscape for seven weeks. Coming home to Narragansett Bay, I saw endless opportunities to grow as a landscape painter. I wanted to paint big waves and little coves, octopi and cormorants. I reached out to Save the Bay about some kind of collaboration for a show.

I thought of Save the Bay because in the summer of 1986, I did my first swim across Narragansett Bay. That was in the early days when kayaks and wetsuits weren’t ubiquitous. You dodged ores from 100+ rowboats and shivered in your skimpy suit, but it was wonderful, and I was hooked on open-water swimming. Over the years, I have developed a deep appreciation for all that Save the Bay does to make our Bay a good place to dive into.

Supporting Save the Bay with my paint strokes as well as my swim strokes meant we needed a venue, preferably a large space for those BIG waves I wanted to paint. The art gods smiled on us, because in a matter of weeks, the director of Dryden Gallery in Providence asked if I would like a solo show in their Grand Gallery—300 liner feet of wall space for paintings I had yet to create. I said yes, and grasping the enormity of what I just agreed to, nearly blacked out.

Dryden Gallery was more than happy to share proceeds with Save the Bay and so the biggest professional undertaking of my life began.

I started painting small plein air pieces in January 2017. Plein air painting is done outside, entirely at the sight, and over the past year and a half, I have relished spending time just looking and recording what I see along the shores, observing the changes in the water and air and the migration of life around the Bay.

Over the winter, I finally got those BIG, life-sized waves out of my head and onto canvas. One is 24 feet; the other is 16 feet. And a painting of a cloud reaches about 10 feet.
I bought a nautical map of Narragansett Bay and have put stickers in areas I have painted and in areas I want to paint. It will be included in the show so guests can find where each painting originated.

Now, with the good weather and only three months until the October 6^th opening, I am heading back out to paint like the wind!

I will have close to 200 paintings by October, yet there are hundreds more I would love to paint. Our Bay is so rich with life and beauty; I hope you will come celebrate that with me at Dryden Gallery on October 6 for the benefit of Save The Bay and Narragansett Bay.