The Fine Art of Edwina Lucas
There is a human desire to capture the flower’s bloom at its fullest glory, the fleeting moment before it starts to fade, the allure not its perfection but its authentic expression of itself. Fine artist Edwina Lucas, luckily, comes to the rescue to capture this essence in her gorgeous oil paintings. Reminiscent of the Dutch Masters but with a wonderful fresh and vibrant take, she infuses her personal energy and appreciation of the life cycle to capture this vitality on her canvases.
Lucas states, “My work is about being awake. It is about living life with your eyes wide open. It is about noticing everything; from the way the sunlight hits a houseplant to the way an ocean wave can bring you to your knees.”
With both a grandmother and mother who are avid gardeners, Lucas says, “I grew up around flowers. It was important to our family to surround ourselves with beautiful things, and I think that’s somehow in me.” Edwina learned that her mother’s skill in curating her garden was not only for its beauty, “She is always curating it and composing it with the idea of painting it in her mind.” In a world of East End landscaping of boxwoods and hydrangeas, this sort of lush garden is most appealing.
Edwina had early support from her mother, Maryann Lucas, an accomplished artist as well. “When I was going to college to study my mother said, ‘Follow your dream. It’s not going to go away. Best to fuel it and feed it with an education and immersion.’” The lovely duo still shares a studio to create their artwork. For Edwina, it is ultimately a gut reaction to pick and immortalize her floral subjects, “There can be stunning flowers but they’re not going to make a great painting because no one is going to believe them. I love a meaty, droopy rose.”
Her training and education including time spent in Florence gives her a solid foundation yet room to experiment, “I think you have to learn the rules then kind of forget them.” If you look closely at her paintings, you see her masterfully controlling foreground and background, “The drama is in what’s lost and found.”
While she enjoys the controlled setting of her spacious studio, Lucas also explores the experience of en plein air painting which presents its own challenges. She sees a kindred spirit in her husband who is a surfer, “There are a lot of similarities,” she explains, “With both plein air painters and surfers you are a slave to nature. The conditions have to be right, but when the stars align it is magical to co-creature with nature.” Her work reflects both when the universe is her stylist and when she consciously picks and positions her floral subjects as sculpture.
An aficionado of oil painting, Lucas know the pros and cons of this medium, “Oil is magnificent in its ability to be built up or taken down. The surface is remarkable and has a silkiness to it. The con is it’s expensive but I’d rather spend the money on that then another shirt,” she adds with a smile.
Lucas has exhibited at The Grenning Gallery, M & M Fine Art and Ille Arts as well as finding buyers on Instagram. After all, who would not want to live with all this natural beauty. Ultimately there is art you can appreciate and art you actually want to live with. The art of Edwina Lucas is art you definitely want to live with.
