Sun, Nov 08 2009
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Published September 23, 2008 03:01 pm - She calls herself an “impatient realist.” When you see her art, you recognize immediately the realist part. But “impatient” …? Light, Color, Composition Theresa Rankin Ranks the Elements, Prepares for Midwest Gathering of Artists By Rebecca Kanan She calls herself an “impatient realist.” When you see her art, you recognize immediately the realist part. But “impatient” …? “I like to paint everything,” says Carthage artist Theresa Rankin. “I’ll get this feeling in my stomach that tells me I just have to paint [what she sees]. Even if I wait, the feeling won’t go away.” Rankin ranges widely in choice of subject, although she seems most inspired by landscapes. “It’s the light usually that will really grab my attention,” she says. “Then comes the color, and after that the composition… The painting takes on a life of its own once I get into it.” Using oils allows her to paint the light right into her scenes. “There’s just something about the way light works on oils. It’s not the same in acrylics or watercolors,” she says, demonstrating with a finished landscape that springs to life in the room’s natural light. California-born and frequently transplanted, Rankin says she knew she wanted to be an artist at age six: “I’ve always drawn since I was a little kid.” Rankin received art scholarships and studied with various artists (“mentors”) in Hawaii, Utah, and Arizona, but it wasn’t until the past six or so years—after driving an 18-wheeler for ten years, hauling logs in Oregon, giving birth to five children in Hawaii, and working in Utah and Kansas--that she started doing more with her art. “I looked at the fact that I was getting older and wouldn’t work forever,” she says. “And there was art. It was always there waiting for me…. So, seven or eight years ago, I said, ‘Okay, this is what you’re gonna do.’” Now, she paints for a minimum of four hours at a time. She took some more lessons and “doors have opened. I’ve been fortunate,” says this grand- and great-grandmother. When she isn’t painting at her home studio, she might be teaching at Spiva Center for the Arts in Joplin or artCentral in Carthage—or she might be playing the piano to revive her creativity. Her classes often focus on the potential in the individual. “I think I could teach anyone to draw,” says Rankin, whose students have been as young as 10 and as old as 82. “What happens when I teach is that I’ll see something in someone, and I will encourage them to go that route. I don’t want them to all paint just like me,” she says. You have to express what you feel, she says, but learn the basics of composition, color, and control first. “Everyone in the beginning when they start painting has the desire to recreate exactly as they see,” notes Rankin. “But after you start to study other artists and become familiar with other art, you get tired of what you’re doing and want to try other things. You veer toward a style of your own.” Her own style has evolved into “realism with looseness,” which probably only comes about because of (despite her “impatient” label) her patience in blocking in the shapes of color and adding the details. 
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