New show at the Tualatin Library features artistry of Terry Schmidt, science teacher and painter
This October, the Living Room Gallery in the Tualatin Public Library will host its first new art show since the pandemic lockdowns, and it is pleased to display the artwork of local painter, Terry Schmidt. You will enjoy her collection of work which reflects a life of curiosity, science, observation, teaching, artist exploration, and progress toward a unique voice in art. In this diverse collection of paintings, you will see a sampling of calligraphy, watercolor portraits, and characters from the natural and literary world.
Terry shared a favorite art memory of a lively instructor and the plein air (painting outdoors) class she taught on oils and color theory. Terry says, “I fell in love with painting as an experience in nature. Each trip was an adventure out into the world, into nature, and I got a painting, too!” She described, “the squishiness, the gooeyness, the tactile nature” and the peculiar odor of oil paint that got all over everything–your clothes, your face, your car. The weather and outdoor environment was its own challenge. The weather might blow your painting off the easel and down the beach or drench it in rain and snow. To this day, one of Terry’s favorite paintings was produced on an unusual midsummer day on painting trip to Utah with friends. The weather was expected to be warm as they painted outside, but the temperature dropped suddenly and it began to rain, then snow. All the while her instructor held fast and reminded the class: “It’s oils. You can paint in the rain.” Looking at the painting brings the whole experience back.
Now our featured artist spends more time with watercolors. She still prefers to paint from life rather than photos because, “Painting from life is so much more involving. The light shifts, and you shift, and you have to be a little quicker about it to capture your subject before it moves and is gone.” But she will take inspiration from whatever source material sparks her imagination.
Terry grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles with lots of sunshine and her best friend across the street. She would describe it as an ordinary childhood, but to me there was nothing ordinary about the closeness of her family and the richness of spirit and learning her parents provided.
Terry was especially close with her father, a physicist who worked on our country’s defense systems during the Cold War. As Dad trimmed the roses, his gifts as a natural teacher poured out, so as a small child Terry learned about aphids and Japanese beetles, plant names and cloud types. They’d watch rockets shot up from Vandenberg Air Force Base and talk about the interaction of light with the rockets’ exhaust. Her mind opened up to the large and the small, from black holes to the structure of the atom.
She went to college at 16 and pursued a degree in mathematics. She met her husband in college and after they married, she left college for a time and they had a daughter. Terry lost her husband early, so she returned to school to earn a teaching credential to care for herself and her child as a single mom. She taught elementary school for ten years and then middle school science and sometimes math for the next twenty-two years. She is a STEM person ahead of her time, thanks to her father’s early influence.
While teaching science, Terry took art classes to feed her expressive and creative side which may have flowed from her mother. Terry began with calligraphy—its technical nature, the beauty of the lines, appealed to her. As she developed her skills in this discipline, it led to the next thing. Words and other lines rendered with deftness and grace need other embellishments and a background, which led to painting. Over the next twenty years, Terry took every art class she could including many semesters of life drawing, giving her a well-rounded background in studio art.
Why make a special effort to see this art show? You will observe an artist whose style is a blend of her keen scientific eye because she observes the details as well as the lyrical combination of elements that bring her calligraphy and rendered images together. The Frankenstein’s monster portrait is really fun and may surprise you.
If you are interested in learning more about the Living Room Gallery program at the Tualatin Public Library, contact Coordinator & Gallerist Angela Wrahtz at angela.wrahtz@comcast.net. This program is sponsored in part by the Tualatin Arts Advisory Committee.
