Pam Perras

Although I love painting anything that grabs my interest, my favorite subjects to paint are landscape, figure and portrait. Painting the landscape en plein air is incredibly challenging—the light changes, bugs bite, and wind can knock over an easel. But it's also extremely rewarding—I love being outside, hearing birds sing, smelling flowers, marsh, earth and trying to paint a piece of the vastness of nature. It's also nice to meet a passerby who shares a passion for the outdoors. In my plein air paintings, my goal is to capture the special quality of light and place and my own emotional response to it. When I paint or draw people, my approach is the same as when I paint nature: I try to celebrate and honor the qualities of the subject at a unique moment in time. I prefer to paint and draw from life whenever possible, since the personal connection with the subject can make the finished work quite special. Since that's not always possible, I'm experimenting more with painting techniques, using my plein air paintings, life studies and photos as references.