Lynda Evans: REMEMBRANCE
October 6-28, 2023
Lynda Evans: REMEMBRANCE
Opening reception: Friday, October 6, 5:00-9:00 PM
Gallery hours: Monday-Friday 9 AM – 5 PM and Saturday, 10 AM – 1 PM. Additional hours: Fri Oct 13, 5-7 PM; Thu Oct 19, 5-7 PM; Thu Oct 26, 5-7 PM
I have given the title of REMEMBRANCE to this exhibition of selected archival pigment prints of original works I have created over the last 20 years. Only original works that have previously been purchased or collected, and are no longer available to the public, are now available in print form.
I work primarily in the genre of Figurative Realism, in a photo-realistic style that a friend coined: “Presence Realism”. Oil paintings on canvas, or charcoal, multimedia, or photography on paper, are crafted in a very detailed, life-like portrait. However, it is the presence of the subject that drives my work.
The horse in all its beauty and grace and nobility reminds us to remember and reconnect with values long forgotten. When science & reason devalued and destroyed the innate wisdom of the body, great gains were made, but at the loss of the genius, power, and intimate connection of our body/mind/soul information. Humanity lost its’ connection to the rhythms of nature. As the age of mechanization and industrialization developed, intimate daily connection with nature was lost, and with it a conscious, responsible, interdependent relationship with the earth disintegrated. The horse, so central to life throughout history into the Twentieth Century, kept us connected to nature. Now, the horse, no longer central to our life style or economy, asks us to remember and reclaim what we have lost.
REMEMBRANCE is my personal “WHY”.
Why do I paint and draw? Why the human body? Why figures in water? Why am I now drawing and painting horses and other animals? Such different subject matter, but the reason is the same.
I paint to REMEMBER who I really am, and who we are. I paint to articulate the nature of humanity, and the nature within all of life. I paint to connect with all that is interconnected by that divine, energetic, flow that creates us all…that creates human, animal, ALL period. Dylan Thomas says it beautifully: ”the force that through the green fuse drives the flower”.
I believe we are spiritual beings in physical form. This is not about the story of flesh, in all its heroism, search for meaning, hopes, fears, addictions, and movement into ultimate disintegration. It is about the illusion of flesh, and the possibility of the heights to which the human spirit may rise. Remembrance is about the flash of understanding that happens when we recall we are not separate, but ONE. It is about our Divinity.
Remembrance is also a call to action… a reminder to keep something alive.
I paint to let soul bubble up and sing.
Lynda Evans: Figurative Realism
I was born in Knoxville, Tennessee where I received an undergraduate degree from the University of Tennessee with a triple major in fine art, art education, and human services, also earning a Master of Theology from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts. The human figure became prominent in my paintings and drawings in the late-1990’s, at which time I spent a decade in independent study and mentoring with internationally renowned artists and teachers; particularly, painters Hugh O’Donnell and Robert Sherer, also Jean Houston, scholar, philosopher, and author in Human Capabilities, and Robert Moss, historian, author, and creator of Active Dreaming. It was this intensive melding of creativity and spiritual exploration that gave grounding, energy, and form to my artistic journey as I explored the conscious and unconscious nature of humanity.
I enjoyed working with the human form artistically, but a moment of inspiration hit me when I was reading a Boy Scout manual on life-saving techniques and realized that the accompanying photographs of figures in water captured my holistic (body, mind, soul) approach to BEING HUMAN. My own underwater photographs, and large-scale oil paintings, and charcoal drawings from the series: “Sea Series” and “Emergence”, are typical of this time.
Although my work became firmly grounded in the genre of Figurative Realism, it shifted dramatically after 2003 when family illness motivated me to return to my birthplace of Knoxville. It was there, urged by a collector’s commission request to paint a dream of “great white horse charging directly into her body”, I knew I would have to accept this commission. Several years previous, I had experienced the identical dream during a shamanic healing ceremony in which I was mysteriously and instantaneously healed from a partial paralysis on the right side of my body.
Working on the White Horse commission also catalyzed a childhood memory: I believed I was a horse. I did not just play horse, I was horse, and named myself “Eclipse” though I had no idea what it meant. My imaginary world stayed alive through my drawings and paintings. Forceful parents and teachers alike wanted a very different world for me, forbidding my relationship with horses. Presently, it is no surprise that in the last 15 years, equine subjects have dominated my figurative work.
Today, my desire as an equine artist is to give voice to the soul of the horse. I want the viewer to be able to hear the silent language of the horse, to receive their wisdom, and to even learn to speak “horse”. The look of the eye, the twitch of an ear, the tightening or relaxing muscle, the flaring nostrils or nudging soft velvet muzzle … all communicate. I believe that as the viewer connects to a sensory experience of the horse, they may feel an inner movement into a still, timeless space where they realize a deep, peaceful harmony, and perhaps intuitive guidance. In this way, the ancient myths of the horse as a heavenly messenger revisit us, carrying us on its back to seek a new reality that is actually in balance with the authentic self, one another, and the earth that supports us. Personally, my ongoing relationship with horses has proven to be a coming home to what is most precious, enlivening, and empowering within myself.
Currently, I have returned to my home-town, Knoxville, Tennessee, after residing in Santa Fe, New Mexico. If you would like information about purchasing or commissioning an original art work, contact my gallery representative at BENNETT: roberts@bennetthome.com
Or contact me directly through my website: www.lyndaevansstudio.com
Select Archival Pigment Prints are also available