Meet Lori Putnam

Artist’s Statement

I often create small preliminary sketches and studies on location in pencil, gouache, or oil. While some of these are completed works in themselves, that is not my primary goal. Turning away from photo references, I paint large oil paintings using only these intimate resources, my memories, and my soul. What interests me is rarely any specific subject unto itself. Instead, I am captivated by interlocking shapes, color harmony, and precisely related tones. When seen up close, my paintings are abstract marks of color that only come into focus as the work is viewed from farther away.

I find myself at home wherever I am at the moment, traveling extensively to paint all over the world, and visiting certain areas over and over again. Gathering information about a place's specific flora and fauna, atmosphere, light, and harmonic color palettes provides me with the resource material I need to create large paintings in the studio.

The earliest seeds were planted in my brain as a child wandering through the woods and playing in the streams near my home in Middle Tennessee. There were hours spent observing, learning, and drawing nature. I believe those quiet times were preparation for the work I do today.

Everywhere I go to paint is my favorite place. It is as if it becomes part of me and me of it. For instance, because I have painted in many different deserts, I take great care to interpret cacti primarily found in Arizona, differently than those primarily found in New Mexico. Looking at the light color and quality as it lands on the Eastern Sierra's white granite is completely different from Colorado's Rocky Mountains or the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee. These are just a couple of examples of how working from life on location help fine-tune later studio works.

I consider studio time my creative time and rarely rely on photographs. Instead, I compose pieces using my art notes made in oil, gouache, or pencil. This is why my paintings seem so personal, and uniquely my own.

Working in a modern impressionist style of thick and thin energetic brush strokes, my paintings are best appreciated when viewed in person.