Maggie Renner Hellmann
Recently, we enjoyed meeting award-winning California artist Maggie Renner Hellmann, who combines the point of view of a colorist, impressionist and expressionist. She has been painting most of her life, studying illustration at San Jose State University, classical fine art at the Lorenzo de’ Medici Art Institute in Florence, Italy, and impressionism with Ovanes Berberian in Idaho.
"Plein air painting or 'painting from life' is my way of seeking oneness with nature. I can feel the magic of nature feeding my energy through sun and wind, temperature, sound and movement. Painting is also, my way of drinking in nature’s gift of freedom. I paint that freedom through color, brushwork and composition."
She travels and exhibits inter-nationally, and offers workshops in California, the southwest, Colorado and France. Her most recent blog post shows her and her husband Lou at the Grand Canyon, painting in the snow.
Her husband is a world-class climber (rock, ice and alpine), instructor and guide who is also an artist. He started drawing as a way to become familiar with the topography of a mountain, and it evolved into multi-media representations of his climbs. The borders are coded notes about the experience of each particular journey.
"If the climb of the mountain went well, that is if I did not encounter lightning, avalanches, rock fall or major storms then the symbols are uniform and set in calm sets of four. On the other hand, if the climb was a ‘Full-On’ experience then the symbols will have a frantic note."
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