Washington Artist Ariane Luckey Shares Artistic ‘Soliloquy’

In the world of literature and theater, a soliloquy is defined as a dramatic or literary form of discourse in which a character talks to himself or herself or reveals his or her thoughts without addressing a particular listener. It was a device used frequently in dramas, and used to great effect in particular by William Shakespeare in such famous speeches as “To be or not to be” in “Hamlet,” and Juliet’s “O, Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?”

The literary device fell out of fashion, however, in the late 18th century, when tastes shifted toward realism.

Washington painter Ariane Luckey has not only revitalized, but redefined the term with her latest exhibition of paintings and pastels, aptly titled “Soliloquy,” which opened last weekend at the Minor Memorial Library Community Gallery in Roxbury. Instead of using words, Ms. Luckey discloses her feelings through paint, sharing with viewers her painterly view of our region’s historic architecture and its sweeping vistas and sylvan meadows, her brilliantly colored landscapes reminiscent of renowned representational painter Wolf Kahn.

She works, she said, to “celebrate the moment when seeing and feeling become one,” focusing her brush on the effects of light on the picturesque landscapes that surround her.

“I react to the moment when light becomes color,” Ms. Luckey explained of her work. “By working primarily on location, I find a direct and spontaneous response to the moment. I paint both with pastels and oil paints and try to evoke the mood instilled in me by the trees on a hill that make me think of sentinels or how the swaying grass of a summer meadow meets the cool shadows of the woods.”

The show will continue through Saturday, Jan. 19, during regular library hours, when the Community Room is not in use for a special program.

Just before her opening last Saturday, Ms. Luckey said she was looking forward to her first exhibition at the Minor Memorial Library, where natural light bathes her work in a warm hue, offering further dimension to the landscapes she has painted. But, in many ways, painting full-time has been a long time coming for the artist, who earned a B.A. in studio art at Smith College in Northampton, Mass. The self-proclaimed self-taught artist said her art was put on hold—or rather put into the closet—for years.

“I was always painting, but much of my work was kept in the closet,” she recalled. “Once my kids went to school, I was able to pursue it again. When my kids were little, I always said, ‘I wish I had time to paint.’ I suppose you should be careful what you wish for, because now I’m painting full time.”

Inspiration, she said, comes from the works of Monet, Cezanne, Bonnard, Hopper, Kahn and Diebenkorn, among others. But her biggest inspiration, perhaps, comes from the countryside around her Washington home. Actually, it’s her mother’s old home, a rustic structure set “way back in the woods, away from everything.” But, she said, its surrounding landscape has been an extraordinary muse, sparking the creativity within.

“It is the light and the color that draw me to a subject, the way light suffuses the landscapes in color and the moods they evoke. My work is expressive and loose in application, but there is a strong underlying composition. My paintings are loosely representational, celebrating the moment when seeing and feeling become one,” she explained of her work in an artist statement. “I try to capture the transitory quality of light in a moment with fleeting impressions. I frequently paint en plein air, which brings a direct and passionate response to a particular moment—the light changes, my hands get cold. … My goal is to share a simple enjoyment of the moment with the viewer.

Each painting, she said, begins as a pastel painted en plein air. “It’s like a dance. A very passionate dance,” Ms. Luckey explained. “Then I do a work in oils. Two winters ago, when we had all of that snow, I started painting in the studio and I discovered the joy of painting indoors, which is a very different experience.”

Ms. Luckey said she was introduced to painting on location by her mother, a plein air painter in San Francisco. Her mother’s father was also a painter who, she said, painted exquisite paintings in a style similar to the Hudson River School of painters.

Luckey has shown her work at the Washington Art Association—most recently in its 60th annual members show—at Carole Peck’s Good News Café in Woodbury, at The Silo Gallery at Hunt Hill Farm in New Milford, and at the Gunn Memorial Library in Washington, as well as other solo and juried shows throughout the region. Her painting, “Into the Hill,” was selected as the poster image for the 2010 “Celebration of Connecticut Farms.”

“Through her vibrant, high-key palette, innate sense of design and impressionistic method of mark making, Ariane creates pictures that are very engaging and pleasant to view,” said painter Robert Lenz, a juror of the “Still Life” show in which Ms. Luckey participated at The Silo Gallery in 2010. “Whether intentional or not, I see influences of Wolf Kahn, Henry Twactman and Pierre Bonnard. … I would hope that she will never lose her unique voice.”

Local artist Carol Brightman Johnson has long held a deep affection for the Steep Rock Association, which oversees three glorious preserves in town, two of them along the Shepaug River and the other containing a trail that leads up to The Pinnacle, overlooking Lake Waramaug.

If there were any way she could give something back to area’s premier land trust, one that oversees more than 5,100 acres of preserved land throughout Washington and adjacent towns in all, the oil painter would happily. It turns out that she’s found one.

In Washington Depot’s Marty’s Café, more than 20 of her landscape and other paintings make up her latest exhibit, “My Favorite Things.” The Roxbury resident’s showing is intended, in large part, to benefit the Steep Rock Association.

She specified that her donations to Steep Rock Association be used specifically for trail maintenance. “My Favorite Things” will be up until Dec. 31 at Marty’s Café.

Ms. Brightman Johnson is known in the area for her work, in which she depicts nature’s delicate nuances, from “the miracle of light falling on objects,” to roots burrowed in rock, and even the varying colors reflected upon water. She sees such phenomena as a gift, and her talent for painting as a way of examining the world and communicating its beauty. She shares these natural marvels, which she calls “many small discoveries,” by painting en plein air. During the last year she traveled the country to do just that.

“I paint to share my discoveries,” Ms. Johnson explained. “There is [so] much to explore, I often feel inadequate. Yet I cannot abandon the quest for everyday wonders or a higher level of skill. The process of painting requires total presence in the moment. Heightened concentration brings unexpected revelations, which I attempt to share. A successful painting communicates my vision and my feeling.