Howells Paints Scenes She Hopes Are Timeless

Urban sprawl isn’t exactly what comes to mind when looking at Judith Howell’s lushly rendered, bucolic landscapes. But it’s definitely on the artist’s mind, fueling her desire to capture and exalt pristine pockets of untouched land, places that increasingly are being swallowed up to development. Howells, who grew up in eastern Pennsylvania, fondly remembers the rolling hills of her youth. ‘The area was filled with such gorgeous farmland,’ she said during a recent interview in the studio of her Huntington Palisades home. ‘Now there’s one shopping center after another.’ The artist reiterated these sentiments when she spoke last Saturday at the opening of her exhibition ‘Local Colour,’ at Schomburg Gallery in Bergamot Station. ‘I’m concerned about the degradation of land,’ Howells told the audience, adding the startling statistic that 40 acres of open land is lost daily in the state of Massachusetts. ‘I don’t see my work as being overtly preaching, but environmental issues have been part of my psyche and awareness since I can remember.’ The exhibition, showcasing 19 new oil paintings, is divided between East Coast work’Howells and her husband, Ted, have spent time on Martha’s Vineyard every year since 1979’and closer to home scenes in Southern California. The pictures exude a sense of calm and solitude, qualities Howells hopes also awaken a sense of vulnerability. Color is used in a rich, evocative way with lavender-hued hillsides and orange-infused fields. ‘I try to put a lot of myself in the paintings,’ said Howells, who describes herself as a contemporary realist, while recognizing hints of Impressionism in her work. Howells is a plein-air painter, working directly from nature in the tradition of many 19th-century landscape artists. She first was introduced to the style while attending Wilson College in Pennsylvania in the late ’60s, but didn’t make painting her artistic focus until decades later. Her circuitous career path included working as an art educator in public schools and at the Newark Museum and earning a master’s degree in printmaking from Montclair State University. ”When Howells moved from New Jersey to the Palisades in 1991 with her husband and two sons (now both in the their 20s), her interest in painting was reignited. ‘I discovered and fell in love with the California Impressionists,’ she recalls. ‘It opened up a whole new world for me.’ ”Equipped with her pochade box, a portable ‘suitcase’ of essentials for outdoor painting, Howells liked to travel up and down the California coast from Laguna to San Luis Obispo tracking radiant sights. These days, she stays closer to home, favoring views literally in her own backyard’Portrero Canyon’and in Topanga and Malibu Creek Park. ‘I’m drawn to the luminosity of a setting,’ Howells said. ‘I choose places that are intimate and often overlooked. They’re not necessarily postcard scenes.’ Her method often involves spending several hours outdoors creating 6-inch by 8-inch studies, works she refers to as her ‘index cards.’ The studies, exquisite records of color, atmosphere and light, are then used as the basis for larger works painted entirely in the studio. ‘I can be more introspective and have time to think about composition with the larger work.’ ”’Learning to paint is hard work,’ said Howells, who sometimes invests as much as 14 hours a day in her studio. ‘I’m constantly honing my skills.’ Learning to say goodbye to the finished product is another matter. ‘You come to realize how wonderful it is if someone else gains pleasure from the work.’ ‘Local Colour,’ which also features the work of painter Lee Webster Shaw, continues at Schomburg Gallery in Santa Monica through February 2. Contact: 453-5757 or visit www.schomburggallery.com.