Artist Profile: Brenda Pinnick

By Ellen Samsell Salas

Plein air artist Brenda Pinnick sets out in the early mornings, the back of her SUV loaded with a wagon, tripod, linen canvasses, and her pochade box, which carries her oil paints, palette, and brushes. She’s looking for beauty. One day an aging barn might catch her eye, another a home, a church, or a landscape — any subject where light interacts with shapes and color to create value, depth, and a sense of place.

“It’s about our everyday world, looking beyond. The more I paint, the more I see beauty everywhere I look,” she said.

Pinnick is especially drawn to painting subjects that won’t exist much longer and conveying the life that has transpired within those places. Often, as she paints, people approach her and share stories of who has lived in a home. She is especially gratified when her paintings help people find beauty in what had seemed ordinary or even unattractive to them.

When a site catches her eye, she might explore, walking around buildings, always looking for interesting shapes, leading lines, and light. Some days, she completes mini sketches or studies to capture the light.

“The light changes a lot in three hours. The shadows, which are an important part of the design, become too different, and the color of the light changes,” she explained. “Morning light is softer and warmer, then it becomes harsher as the day moves forward.”

Pinnick first applies neutral, semitransparent colors to get the big shapes in place. From these studies, she paints finished canvasses in her studio. Other days, she paints alla prima, completing a painting in one session, on-site.

Once she begins, Pinnick is immersed in her painting, focused on making one decision after another, capturing every detail about the scenes she paints.

“It’s a full sensory experience — you can feel the wind, hear the birds. it’s an all-encompassing experience,” she said. “It’s magical.”

Pinnick prefers oils to other mediums because they allow her to achieve the translucency that adds depth and vibrancy to her works. And, she carries only primary colors, mixing them to create whatever hue she needs, layering the paint, beginning with the transparent tones that allow the white of her linen canvasses to show through, almost creating a glow. She then moves to using more opaque tints while still allowing some of the transparent colors to emerge.

On gray days, when the light isn’t optimum, Pinnick will paint a still life in her studio, using a spotlight to illumine her subject, which is often flowers.

“They’re fun,” she enthused. “Because they’re indulgent color. I can use red right out of the tube. You can’t do that in natural light.”

While looking at Pinnick’s works, viewers are transported. They might see a landscape or a structure that reminds them of a childhood memory. They might feel the warmth of the sun, as it bounces off a roof. They might hear the trickle of water, as it moves over stones.

Whether painting an old family home or the back of a storefront, Pinnick says her art “is about connections to places, looking for and reacting to beauty in unexpected places and unexpected ways.”

For more information about the artist, please visit BrendaPinnick.com.