Constantly inspired by her surroundings, Valley Art Gallery’s current featured artist is always on the lookout for potential subjects, no matter where she is or what she’s up to.
“If I have time, I’ll sketch. Otherwise, I’ll take a picture,” said local artist Elinor Plumer, who often refers to her own drawings and photos before starting a painting in her studio space at her home in Orcutt.
Plumer’s artworks are the focus of Valley Art Gallery’s latest solo exhibition at the Santa Maria Airport, where the gallery periodically hosts showcases of artists working in various media. The exhibit debuted in February and is scheduled to remain on display through the end of March.
Displayed across a wide wall in the airport’s lobby, an arrangement of both watercolor and acrylic paintings by Plumer provides an interesting contrast between her uses of the two disciplines, and two different eras in her life. For decades, Plumer primarily worked in watercolor before switching to acrylic painting about three years ago.
“I just kind of wanted to make a change,” said Plumer, who described her watercolor style as strict, careful, and precise, and her acrylic approach as more freeing and experimental in comparison.
“I felt that a bit of whimsy would turn me loose from my own self-imposed standard of perfection. Watercolor requires a great deal of patience and planning; as much as I love the fluidity of the discipline, I felt that adding more playfulness to my work would increase my creativity,” Plumer said. “I decided to experiment with acrylics and found out it allowed for more spontaneous movement.”
Between her watercolor and acrylic paintings, one notable similarity is that Plumer often captures animals in both media. Her featured paintings in the airport exhibit include the watercolor piece, She’s Beautiful and She’s Mine, in which Plumer illustrates a quartet of ostriches, and the acrylic painting, Board of Directors, which shows a trio of crows.
The latter was inspired when she saw some crows that looked like they were deliberating over something serious, as if they were in the middle of a board of directors meeting, Plumer said, recalling the inspiration for the recent painting.
Plumer’s transition to acrylic painting happened around the start of the pandemic. One of her acrylic pieces in the show, Splash, simply depicts a wave crashing upon a rock in the middle of the ocean, based on a thought Plumer had during a beach day.
“That was during COVID. I went down to Pismo Beach and I found that rock and thought, ‘Oh, that’s what I feel like. I’m stuck, stuck here, waiting,’” Plumer said.
Originally from New Jersey, Plumer has lived in Orcutt since the 1980s and became serious about painting after taking classes instructed by Nat Fast and George Muro at Allan Hancock College.
Later, Plumer herself taught art courses for several years as part of Hancock’s extended community education program. If she ever decided to get back into teaching, Plumer has a specific kind of class in mind.
“I was thinking it would be fun to do a class with art and meditation,” said the artist, who meditates “a little bit,” but not nearly as much as she paints.
“Painting is my relaxation,” Plumer said. “Art is a wonderful thing. It’s therapeutic, it’s meditative, it’s healing, and if you’re worried or concerned or fearful about something, you start painting and everything goes away.”
Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood finds writing to be therapeutic, most of the time at least. Send comments to cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 2-9, 2023.
