Trisha Adams, Jewels from the Garden, oil
Trisha Adams
It was a long, circuitous route that led Virginia-based artist Trisha Adams to a successful career as an oil painter, translating her subjects into bold and colorful artistic expressions, evoking the intangible beauty and joy of life.
Trisha Adams sees with the eyes of an artist. She does not look at her subject with the intention of duplicating it on the canvas. Instead, wielding a brush or a palette knife, she translates the scene before her into a pattern of shapes and colors, light and dark, observing relationships and nuances that ordinarily might escape others.
"The painting is never an exact copy of the subject," says Adams. "Rather, it's my take on what I see, and with a step back from the canvas, it transforms into people, places, and things."
Trisha Adams, Home Beyond the Lavender, oil
Pursuing a Fine Art Career at Midlife
The road that led Adams to oil painting was a long one. After college, she had her own graphic design company for many years, but eventually tired of the all-nighter deadlines and lack of design control, yearning to create her own vision at her own pace.
After selling the company, she and her family moved to the country where she home-schooled her two sons and took a special interest in what she calls her "homesteading period." This included making cheese, wine, soap, and raising chickens and goats. But when her boys grew up, she was once more looking for fulfilling activity.
"I was 44 and began exploring with painting on pottery and collage," Adams says. "It all began innocently enough when I noticed an empty picture frame and decided to make something to fill it. I created a collage, entered it in an art show, and the piece sold. That's when my thoughts turned to becoming an artist. In fact, it turned into an obsession. I thought about painting all the time. I even dreamed about it in my sleep."
Oils became her medium of choice, and she rapidly progressed through workshops, classes, and learning from others' feedback. "I was fortunate in that my first art instructor encouraged me to paint in the way that came naturally to me."
Trisha Adams, Standing Tall, oil
Trisha Adams, Big Fish in a Small Pond, oil
The Power of Light in Painting
Adams describes her work as contemporary impressionism, "representational with a dash of abstraction." Her paintings evoke a sense of exhilaration through her choice of vivid colors and bold strokes. "I'm drawn to subjects with strong light and shadow," she says. "Dramatic light makes a dramatic painting. Not only does strong light create value contrast, which grabs the viewer's attention, but it sets up the complementary color scheme found in light and shadow. I also prefer nature's irregular shapes over man-made buildings with hard, straight lines."
Valuing Intangibles
Explaining what she attempts to convey to the viewer through her art, Adams says, "Good art evokes a feeling. Growing up, I loved science. I remember my chemistry teacher saying, 'As far as science is concerned, if it can't be measured, it doesn't exist.'
"My journey to think like an artist involved a shift away from this purely empirical way of thinking, and learning to value the intangibles such as beauty, happiness, and humor. Art exists in the realm of intangibles, or feelings. Some try to achieve this connection through subject matter; I try to garner that response through the way it's painted with color harmony and lost edges (which allow the eye to move through the painting creating an exciting sense of energy and movement).
"Good art is also interesting," she adds. "For example, if you ask people to paint a flower, most will paint each individual petal. They paint how they know it's constructed. But what if you paint how it looks? Paint how the light catches the tip of a petal and doesn't seem connected at all; while other petals might join together in a block, and so on."
Trisha Adams, Summer Sunset, oil
Advice for Artists
Adams is a fountain of information for aspiring artists. She conducts workshops, writes blogs, and offers webinars on YouTube. We asked her what advice she offers her students on how to become a successful artist, a subject she knows well.
"Decide to learn from others. Enroll in local art classes or online courses. Sure, you can paint on your own and perhaps discover the principles of painting, but how much faster could you progress if the principles were explained to you?
"Resolve to paint every day. Imagine how much more quickly one could accumulate experience.
"Be fearless. Take risks with your paintings. It will help you grow. If you have a good painting, don't stop there, keep working to make it an awesome painting. You may risk ruining it, but ask yourself if you want to be a good painter, or an awesome painter?
"Experiment. That's where you'll find your unique style.
"Embrace failure. It's part of learning. If a painting doesn't turn out well, don't forget about it completely. Wait six months and look at it again. See if you have any ideas to improve it. It will help you gauge your progress and, if you've progressed enough to solve the problems of that painting, you'll know how to solve those problems in future paintings.
"Get out of your comfort zone. After a while, you'll become proficient at a certain type of painting. The temptation will be to stick with that. While a successful painting is gratifying, remember to stretch yourself. If you're proficient at still life, try a portrait. If you can knock out a landscape, try a city scene. Learning makes painting fun and that's why you'll enjoy it for a lifetime."
See more about Adams' artwork at @trishaadamsartist or www.trishaadams.com.
All artwork © Trisha Adams, shared with permission.