On display this Spring in the Living Room Gallery of the Tualatin Public Library will be the watercolor paintings of local artist Nola Pear. Come and delight in the textural beauty and grace in artworks that capture birds nestled in their woodland habitats and florals which mimic the soft and delicate loveliness of the actual plants from nature. Several still life paintings are so sumptuous, you will want to reach into the frame to pull out an apple or persimmon to munch on. Nola demonstrates a level of uncommon accomplishment in a medium that has been called “that most difficult” of painting mediums.
Nola isn’t just a painter. She is an artist. There is a difference. Just about anyone can paint, believe it or not. Anyone can follow steps and create a pretty picture. A visual artist who communicates beyond the brush strokes, however, is in another league altogether. It’s the same kind of difference you encounter when you hear someone singing a song and hitting all the right notes versus a virtuoso who breathes emotion and life into the music.
This accomplishment is, of course, the result of an almost spiritual devotion Nola brings to her work. She is a serious student of the discipline, always increasing her understanding of the forest (art in general) and the trees (techniques and the elements of art.) Classes and workshops and YouTube occupy her free time in addition to painting, painting, painting. Someone once called it “miles behind the brush,” and she has earned platinum status if we play out that analogy.
Nola’s style is loose and mysterious, and you see it in the interesting variety of edges both lost and found in each work. She is also a fan of experimenting with unusual textures which sometimes involve salt, granulating mediums, or both. If you are not a painter yourself, you’ll enjoy the effects. If you are an aspiring artist, you will look at Nola’s work and ask yourself, “How did she do that? Nola’s finished artworks are deceptively simple-looking but the skill to create them has been a life’s journey. Nola has a reverence for what is beautiful, sacred, and eternal, and that is her music behind the art.
If you are interested in learning more about the Living Room Gallery program, please contact Angela Wrahtz at angela.wrahtz@comcast.net. This program is funded in part by the Tualatin Arts Advisory Council.
