Taking a Closer Look at Kansas

Clinton Lake," by Donna J. Paul. oil

By Bob Bahr, PV Arts Council member

Yes, the sunflowers are beautiful here in the fall, but one of the most consistently beautiful things in this part of the country, year-round, is the sky. The wispy clouds of summer don't always shield us from the sun, but they rake the sky with cottony streaks. The incredible peaches and cyans of sunsets of winter end our workdays with a soft lightshow. The flat fields serve up a warm platter for the brilliant skies above. But it's easy to stop seeing the everyday beauty. Donna J. Paul is here to help.

"I want the viewer to say, 'Wow, there really is something to see in the landscape of Kansas, and the Midwest, and Lawrence in particular," says the artist, who grew up in Ohio but has lived in the Kansas City area since the mid-1970s. "It's not an in-your-face beauty, but the more you look and the closer you see, the more you find there."

Paul works in both pastels and oil paints, and she pursues a kind of accessible abstraction in her work that suggests as much as it describes. Although she says she may prefer pastels over oils, her oil paintings have a marvelous way of somehow holding onto the vibrant color associated with pastels and the direct feel of pastel sticks--each mark on her oil paintings seems visible. The viewer can see her hand in the work.

"Pastels are my first love," says Paul. "I have drawers and drawers filled with pastels at home. In the summer, I can work with the windows open, which is important with pastels. It's a health issue. [The dust from pastel pigments is toxic for both lungs and skin.] I work with oils in the winter. The subject matter doesn't really matter in terms of medium."

Quite a few of Paul's pieces that are currently on view at the R. G. Endres Gallery, in the Prairie Village Municipal Offices, are landscapes. Paul reports that many were inspired by her morning walks with her husband around the outskirts of Lawrence. If a viewer can see individual pastel strokes with a careful look at her pastel paintings, the look of her oil paintings done without a brush is even more striking. Paul almost exclusively paints in oils using some sort of palette knife or scraper.

"It started when I wanted to be bolder and looser in my art, and there's no other way to be with a palette knife," she says. "This technique suits the Kansas landscape--flat land, lots of sky, big shapes." Paul employs the typical kind of palette knife, with a triangle or blade shape and a wooden handle, but she also uses a bowl scraper and a soft, plastic, wedge-shaped tool from Catalyst. If she uses a brush at all, it's a big, inexpensive one from the hardware store.

Her color palette is not extensive; Paul places a warm and a cool version of the primary colors (red, yellow, blue) on her palette before painting. She also adds an unusual color such as persimmon or Montserrat orange to shake things up. "I'm a sucker for new paint colors, and I'll try one surprise color per painting," she says. "I'll add something bright and in-your-face and sneak that in."

Her current influences are pastelists, including Albert Handell and two pastelists from Scotland: Tony Allain and Norma Stephenson. "What I get from them is 'big shapes, bold colors, and extrapolating from the landscape rather than copying it,'" she says. Paul has taken workshops with the New Mexico-based Handell, and she took a drawing class art an arts center in Lawrence, but she's mainly self-taught. "I retired from being a pharmacist about 12 years ago, and I knew I needed something to keep me busy," says Paul.

What's next for Paul? She has plans to do a series of night sky paintings in pastel. For these, she will work on pastel paper that is already toned either in a dark salmon or black. Don't count on these paintings showing famous landmarks. "What attracts me to a scene first, like most people, is the contrast between light and dark," says Paul. "But at the same time, I like to pick subject matter that is kind of out of the way. You may just walk past it and not think too much about it. These everyday landscapes--I want to make the mundane special."

Bob Bahr is a member of the Prairie Village Arts Council. He has written about visual art for several national magazines. He lives with his family in Prairie Village and paints a variety of subjects. He wishes there was a NYC-style bodega in the Shops.

"Eastern Sky," by Donna J. Paul, oil

"Changing Skies," by Donna J. Paul, pastel

"Baker Wetlands" by Donna J. Paul, oil

"Clear Day at the Wetlands," by Donna J. Paul, oil