No matter what Kris Buck is currently painting, that piece tends to be her favorite—in the moment at least.
“Picking a personal favorite painting is like choosing your favorite child, it can’t be done,” Buck said. “But while you’re in the process of painting that painting, it gets your full attention, patience, and affection.”
This year marks the return of Buck’s biennial collaboration with her friend and fellow pastelist Deborah Breedon; their show, Summer Bloom at Gallery Los Olivos, highlights both studio and plein air paintings created by the duo. Both artists are longtime members of the gallery as well as the Pastel Society of the West Coast and the Pastel Society of America.
One of the reasons Breedon said the they both consistently embrace the summer theme for this particular show is their mutual admiration for not only the season itself, but the transitions that bookend it.
“There’s that transition from spring into summer and summer into fall that attracts me, and my paintings for this exhibit will show all of it. I love how the landscape changes from one beautiful view to the next,” Breedon said. “Looking at the colors of summer change into fall, from greens, reds, and yellows to burnt orange, browns, and ochre, and there’s dryness and straw-colored weeds.
“In other words, you don’t have to paint the perfect poppy or green tree—a fallen tree trunk with its bare branches lying in the sand or grass can also be beautiful,” she added.
For Breedon, the biggest difference between organizing this year’s exhibition compared to 2019’s was the added challenge of discerning when and how to paint together during the pandemic. But these complications also resulted in a new, diverse range of subject matter, she explained.
“It took a few months to figure out where to safely paint outdoors. Once we did, it was lovely, as being able to do something outside your home after being sequestered was heaven,” Breedon said. “Kris and I live about an hour from each other so one of us would travel to the other, or meet somewhere in the middle. I think this made a difference because it expanded our painting territory, providing lovely new views of south and central Santa Barbara County.”
Buck said her and Breedon’s painting expeditions over the past several months provided a much welcomed escape from the turbulent atmosphere of 2020.
“I’m really proud of this show and what we accomplished during a very difficult year,” Buck said. “When we were able to go out and paint together, it just felt so normal, when things were far from normal.
“One of the new things we did for this show [compared to 2019’s] was to take one of the wall panels and assemble a salon-style collection of small field-study paintings, which is really fun,” Buck added. “And on another panel, we combined three of our paintings, which are all about poppies. I love that panel.”
Buck and Breedon had the opportunity to paint these poppy pieces together on location at the Santa Ynez Valley Botanical Garden, “when the poppies were in their full glory and begging to be painted,” Buck said.
Once painting in group settings outdoors became gradually more feasible during 2020, Buck and Breedon began to meet up with other members of Gallery Los Olivos as well, including Neil Andersson, Morgan Green, Linda Mutti, Terri Taber, and Carol Talley.
“During the pandemic, it was so great to have contact with them and be able to paint—masks on and social distancing,” Breedon said.
Summer Bloom premiered at the gallery on June 3 and is scheduled to run through June 30. The duo’s paintings on display are also available to purchase, but prospective buyers better hurry.
“One of Deborah’s paintings sold as we were hanging the show, even though the gallery was closed,” Buck said. “An out-of-town couple was watching us through the windows and asked if they could come in for a peek. The painting reminded them of the Central Coast, and they had to have it.”
Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood is a proud summer baby. Don’t forget to wish him a happy birthday in August at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jun 10-17, 2021.