Barbara Craver: Artist's Statement

I find painting faces and figures to be interesting and challenging. Working on pieces for this show, "Friends and Neighbors", has taken me in unexpected directions. Rather than laboring over a person's likeness I tried to explore people doing everyday things, people in landscapes, and finally using the human figure as the jumping off point for abstraction. Its all been a lot of fun and I plan on continuing this journey.

While I continue to enjoy landscapes and plein air painting, the figure has its own mystique. I believe that as human animals we are connoisseurs of the human image, able to accurately judge a likeness or realistic depiction. That is a challenge as an artist, it is so easy to get it wrong. But I have also taken it as a challenge to see beyond strict realism to explore the picture itself, the interplay of the background with the figure, the challenge of suggesting the figure with light and paint with as little information as possible. I also found places and situations here in Juneau that are familiar to me and to honor the beauty of everyday places and activities.

For the past eight years I have worked primarily in pastels, however while working on murals for Thunder Mountain High School, I was able to work with the wonderful colors and properties of acrylic paints and also was able to really practice on the beautiful faces and typically teenage postures of my high school models. Each different medium is like a new musical instrument, and after a couple of years of working with acrylics I am starting to find my own way of using them.

Although I enjoyed making art as a child, I let my inner critic take over in high school and I diverted my attention to other pursuits. It took the brilliant teaching and vibrant artwork of Jakki Koufman in the late 1990's to give me the inspiration to explore art as an artist myself. I hope that others who are interested in exploring the making of art will take advantage of the rich opportunities here in Juneau. Classes can be found here at The Canvas, in life drawing sessions, workshops, classes at UAS, and painting with the Plein Rein Painters on Saturdays at 9 at A&P. I firmly believe that it takes desire and practice rather than talent, to reap the rewards of creative activity. Its never too late to get started!

Constance Baltuck Hartle: Artist's Statement

I've lived in Juneau almost half my life now, which, for a person in her 50's, is a pretty long time. It's hard to imagine a more artist-friendly community. Soon after arriving I had my first show at The Orpheum, a theatre/coffee shop/gallery now long gone.

Since then, I've shown my work at Ad Lib, Annie Kaill's, and the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council Gallery, I’ve worked as an artist-in-the-school for the Juneau School District, and I’ve fallen in with a great bunch of plein-air painters who demonstrate, every Saturday, just how artist-friendly friendly artists can be.

Over the years I've worked in watercolor, pastel, acrylic, and oil, and my paintings have generally been the landscapes and flora of Southeast Alaska. Recently, I've also been painting more distant landscapes, working from small paintings and sketches made while hiking in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

Over the years I've incorporated figures into a lot of my work, but only rarely have they been the main focus. When my friend Barbara Craver asked me to join her for this show, primarily of figure studies and portraits, I automatically said yes.

I love life drawing. Trying to capture a likeness or the beauty and complexity of the human form has given me some of my most challenging and most rewarding experiences as an artist.

Ever since high school, I've made sketches of the people around me, wherever I lived or traveled, waiting in the airport or for a bus, in parks, cafes, at the pool, or in a garden... I love catching these quick sketches. They hold a moment of time and place that would otherwise just vanish!

When I paint landscapes, I feel free to play around with my subjects, color, and composition. I rarely limit myself to anything like strict representation. All painting is interpretive, but some of the paintings I've done for this show go beyond interpretation of the real world into the land of dreams and imagination.