Loretta Domaszewski
Loretta is a professional contemporary impressionist artist, mainly painting in oils
with bold, expressive brushstrokes. She paints outdoors (plein air) and creates larger works in the studio. She exhibits her work in galleries, museums,
and universities nationwide. Many of her painted landscapes represent trail systems
and conservation land. She also exhibits her artwork to benefit environmentally concerned
non-profit organizations. promoting conservation and the enhancement of water resources
that support the traditions of agriculture, community, and recreation.
The title of Loretta’s project: Moving Elements: The Essence of Nature in Landscapes.
Her paintings focused on natural environmental phenomena; mainly changing weather patterns and light, water resources, surrounding plant life, and water reflections. Loretta familiarized herself with the landscape as a sense of place through plein air painting. She explored the concept of our four known natural elements; earth, water, fire, and air by experimenting with earth and mineral pigments. In the studio, expressive abstracted paintings were created with traditional and non-traditional oil painting techniques. Map patterns of the Red Rock Lake water system were created as under layers for her completed element paintings.
Loretta found herself exploring the Red Rock Lakes by solo kayaking, trail hiking and joining the visiting University of Utah’s Environmental Humanities Graduate students and Stephen Trimbles’s Photography/Writing Workshop participants. Loretta presented three plein air demonstrations and invited students into her studio to view and discuss her work. George Sumner, one of the workshop participants wrote an essay called, “Hunting in Centennial Valley” which was influenced by an experience he had with Loretta on one of their outings. He presented his essay and photographs at an University exhibition following the residency.
Experiencing this vast unique landscape with the friendly knowledgeable staff and visitors enhanced her time of exploration, and balanced the solitary focus of the artist’s creative process. This residency, in such a remote historical setting left Loretta with a profound experience that influenced her artwork to change and grow. She is humbled and grateful for her experience. Her gift to the Center is an original oil painting of the setting light of the Centennial Valley and one of her palette knife white paintings as a reflection from the book, “When Women Were Birds”, by Terry Tempest-Williams, which she read during her residency.
Visit Loretta's website: LorettaFineArt.com
