Central Coast-based artists Kris Buck and Karen McLean-McGaw have been friends and painting partners for more than two decades, but this month’s exhibition at Gallery Los Olivos marks the duo’s first joint show.
“I’ve known Kris and painted with her for over 20 years, so it really is natural to show our work together,” said McLean-McGaw, who became a member of the gallery in July. Buck, on the other hand, has been a member for around 10 years. The pair first became acquainted with one another through a mutual connection, Buck said, and hit it off right away.
“Karen and I met through my husband; they’d gone to high school together,” Buck told the Sun. “We became fast friends through our love of painting.”
While Buck primarily works in soft pastels, usually with a watercolor underpainting, McLean-McGaw uses both watercolors and oils to create her vivid landscapes, still lifes, and figurative works. Although she’s studied artists like John Singer Sargent and Winslow Homer over the years, McLean-McGaw rarely labels her own works under a specific umbrella in terms of category or influence.
“I’ve been painting for so long that I don’t really think about an artistic style. It’s kind of like handwriting—it becomes your own,” said McLean-McGaw, who is excited for exhibit viewers to see the duo’s paintings completed during their most recent trip to Limoux, France. Their first trip together was in 2002, a voyage they’ve repeated once every other year since then.
Titled Home and Away, the pair’s first joint exhibition will showcase both their local landscapes as well as those created while traveling abroad.
“The inspiration for the title came from our reminder of not only the painting we’ve done locally throughout the Central Coast, but also how many painting trips we’ve done together over the years,” said Buck, whose landscapes range from capturing the canals in Venice, Italy, to the lake regions of Lugano, Switzerland.
“It’s a reflection of our long history of painting together,” McLean-McGaw agreed. “In France, Italy, and here at home.”
For McLean-McGaw, painting while traveling isn’t just about creating works abroad; it’s also about gaining a fresh outlook on capturing local areas after returning home as well.
“We love to travel and paint, but that also allows us to bring a fresh eye and deep appreciation for what we see in our local landscapes,” McLean-McGaw said.
During these trips, both artists often paint on canvases a bit smaller than usual, Buck added, but they feel assured in the opportunity to expand on their initial works later.
“We’re usually working in smaller sizes—8-by-10, 9-by-12, 11-by-14—due to packing size limitations, and then we can create larger pieces from those field studies,” Buck said.
An additional layer Buck appreciates about their travels is making genuine human connections with people they’ve met along the way, she explained, even when language seems like a possible barrier.
“Our travels have made for some magical adventures where we’ve been invited into people’s gardens to paint or into their homes for a cup of coffee—even when we couldn’t communicate as well as we’d hoped,” Buck said.
Over the course of their biennial trips to Limoux, France, the travel destination they’ve frequented more often than any other, the town has basically become a second home to the pair, McLean-McGaw said.
“Kris and I have developed many friendships in the area, so it does feel like a home away from home,” she said.
Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood believes home is where the heart is. Reach him at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 14-21, 2019.