Lucy Finch

My lifelike "Rattlesnake" portraits of women from Northeastern New Mexico, my "SensoryScape" paintings celebrating our sensual world, and my realistic, luscious, soft pastel "Storied" still life paintings - which use symbology to explore my observations and experiences, oftentimes in unexpected and/or humorous ways - all reflect my life as a cisgender, post-menopausal woman of British and German ancestry who came late to waking up and seeing the systemic white male patriarchy in our world. To create my realistic paintings, I work in a black box studio with real subjects (limited use of reference photographs) using techniques dating back to the Renaissance, including the sight-size method (painting the same size as the object observed), a black mirror, mahl stick, plum lines, and a viewfinder. One painting takes weeks or months to complete. I studied at the Masters’ Atelier of Drawing and Painting under Nancy Lucas-Williams in Port Townsend, Washington. Currently, I live in New Mexico, where my artwork has been selected for multiple juried shows around the Nation.

When I was in college, I studied art history and never realized that over 95% of the artists presented were men. I was ridiculously naïve. Now, as I do my own self-study of women in art history, I feel a connection across time. Many of these artists struggled to balance their partners’ needs, family obligations, and finances with time in the studio, just as I do. Seeing how they succeeded in creating beautiful art, often simply for the sake of creating art—without recognition, sales, or institutions to support and promote them—inspires me. I’m lucky to be creating art when there is more appreciation for the female perspective. Even so, the struggle continues. Perseverance and grit are necessary. My soft pastel paintings explore my life, and my art is my voice. I hope that someday my art will be a bridge for future artists to understand they, too, are not alone, and their artistic journey is worth the struggle.