There’s a mantra written on local artist Karen McLean-McGaw’s easel that has influenced all of her paintings since the 1980s.
“Tell me a different truth” is the phrase, which McLean-McGaw adopted from famed watercolorist Timothy J. Clark, who she once studied with.
“Every time I start a painting, I am reminded to look beyond the obvious and find the deeper meaning for myself and the viewer,” said McLean-McGaw, whose latest duo exhibition with frequent collaborator Renée Kelleher is titled A Personal Point of View, and is currently on display at Gallery Los Olivos.
“I think Renée and I both approach the subject with this in mind, and each painting becomes our own personal point of view to be shared with the viewer,” added McLean-McGaw, who’s been friends with Kelleher for more than three decades.
The two artists met while attending a Santa Barbara-based painting and critique group meeting during the late ’80s.
“We were both watercolorists during that time,” recalled Kelleher, who now only paints with oils.
“I switched to oils as my medium of choice. I’ve not looked back, as I find oil painting freeing and rich in depth of color,” Kelleher said. “Karen also paints with oils now but still does her beautiful watercolor work as well.”
McLean-McGaw said she loves “the transparency and fluidity” of working with watercolors, but enjoys working with oils as well, thanks to “the texture and depth I can achieve with opaque paints.”
Differing media preferences aside, both McLean-McGaw and Kelleher have a mutual affinity for plein air painting on location. One of McLean-McGaw’s favorite places on the Central Coast to set up her easel for the day is at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara.
McLean-McGaw has a fond memory at the site where she completed Summer Afternoon at the Music Academy, one of her watercolor landscapes included in the new Gallery Los Olivos exhibition—which premiered in early November and is slated to remain on display through Nov. 28.
“This day was especially special. Not only did I have beautiful light but the musicians were practicing in the garden as I painted,” McLean-McGaw said about her experience painting Summer Afternoon at the Music Academy. “It was magic.”
Like McLean-McGaw, Kelleher is a big fan of light and the way it affects different surfaces, and aims to capture those subtleties in her artworks.
“Light is what makes us see shapes, and wonderful value changes draw us into a good painting,” Kelleher said. “My goal is to achieve that.”
Kelleher’s work on display in the new duo show includes traditional landscapes, such as her piece Hillside Vineyard, along with a collection of more intimate works that capture candid or “mundane” moments in time, the artist said.
“I like to paint the mundane: the unmade bed, the beautiful taffeta gown tossed on the chair, an ancient tree with peeling bark, or yellow cabs in the streets of NYC,” said Kelleher, who studied under prolific artist Garin Baker while living in New York. “I think viewers might see my paintings as quirky sometimes.”
One of Kelleher’s unmade bed scenes, Cocoon, was inspired by her husband “cocooned” under a blanket “to stay warm on a chilly night,” she said.
For Kelleher, one of the goals behind showing her artworks alongside pieces by McLean-McGaw in A Personal Point of View at Gallery Los Olivos is to show how two artists—who often paint with one another—can tackle similar subject matter with different approaches and end results.
“The theme of A Personal Point of View is about how we artists ‘see’ our world,” Kelleher said. “We can set up side by side to paint and yet capture a completely different perspective on the subject before us.”
Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood wants to hear your perspective. Send comments to cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 10-17, 2022.
