"I am inspired by the natural environment' says plein air painter Vicky Lentz. "I believe in living connected to nature. Everything about New Brunswick rural living is connected; it's the buildings and how people work the land. That’s what inspires me."
Vicky Lentz, once a member of the RCMP, was posted to the city of Edmundston in 1987. She relocated in 1999 to where she now lives and paints full time. Visitors are welcome to drop into her forest studio gallery tucked amongst the sugar maples of a 12-acre woodland property in the Saint-Jacques area of the city. But call ahead; because she's probably somewhere out in the wilds. "There's ample engaging beauty and magic in these quiet Canadian vistas to wear out a million brushes," says Lentz, who works almost exclusively in oils. "I like the strength and luminosity of oil paint. When I put down a stroke of color I want it to stay there."
"When I first started painting in 1997, I dug out the 10 tubes of oil paint my father gave me for Christmas when I was a kid, and I signed up for a week-long painting workshop.
Several Canadian galleries exhibit her landscape paintings. In New Brunswick stop into Edgewater Gallery in the Miramachi, Seacoast Gallery in Saint Andrews and AMMOA (l'Agence de Mise en Marché d'oeuvres d'art) in Moncton to view her work. Also check out the exhibit in the lower entrance lobby of the Edmundston Convention Centre.
Many collectors in Canada and abroad have her artwork in their private collections. Her painting, "Farms of the East" was presented to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, during her 50th Jubilee visit to Canada in 2002.
Plein air painting is not for the timid. Lentz recalls a hair-raising out-of-province painting excursion "I was about seven km in on an old logging trail," says Lentz, "I heard what sounded like a war siren. Then I heard yipping and yapping all around me. I was surrounded by a pack of wolves." Abandoning her easel, she ran for her car. There was a wolf poised with head down, just 30 feet ahead. It was looking right at me." After reporting the incident to park officials she waited for a while then returned, finishing her painting.
"I am thinking more about environmental issues and making statements," says Lentz. "I want to make people aware of the beauty out there. I think we are in the middle of changing the way we visually bring in information. I bring up the sensation of the environment; explore it on canvas, without making it figurative. I want to experience the textures, colours and the collage of the subject matter."
(506) 735-0010
www.vickylentz.com