Personality and Place
Rodgers Naylor and Susan La Mont
May 18th - June 15th, 2024
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 18th, 2024, 4:00-6:00 pm
Artist Statements
Rodgers Naylor: I work “alla prima,” usually beginning with a warm-tone underpainting and completing a painting in one session. Others are done as a part of a group of paintings done together over a period of weeks. I am interested in the effects of light and shadow as well as warm and cool colors. I am also intrigued by the interplay between the landscape and its human inhabitants. I paint expressively and decisively, both in the studio and en plein air. I am especially drawn to scenes of human activity, so many of my paintings involve figures in the context of a landscape.
Susan La Mont: Like many artists, I’ve painted since I could hold a brush, but it wasn’t until I went to art school that I became seduced by the sensuous qualities of oil paint. It’s a medium that allows me to best communicate what I feel about a scene, and it has proven stability and permanence. My primary interest is in communicating a sense of what life is like in the twenty-first century. I find engaging scenarios everywhere, and am passionate about translating them to the canvas or panel, usually working on multiple pieces at a time.
Realism offers me a way to express the commonality of human experience to the widest range of viewers, as well as allowing me to follow in the tradition of genre painting. This narrative realism has a contemporary feel, with references to technology, our diverse culture, and the influence of the fashion world.
Biographies
Rodgers Naylor is a native Washingtonian, Rodgers Naylor was born near Georgetown and spent his childhood on a farm near the Pautuxent River in Maryland. He pursued painting and drawing at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, The Atelier in Minneapolis, and the Art Students’ League of Denver after attending the University of Chicago and Carleton College for academics.
Rodgers paints both in the studio and en plein air and continues to draw and paint the figure from life. Although many works are done in the studio, it is the foundation of plein-air and life work which makes the studio painting possible.
The simple but elusive concepts of light and depth are woven throughout Rodgers’ oil paintings and are always foremost in his mind as he paints. His work reflects his love of exploring the world’s natural and cultural wonders, which may be near or far and seen at any season, at any time of day, and in any weather. His inspirations are often found in the everyday settings that we all tend to hurry past.
After living on the east coast and in the Midwest for many years, Rodgers moved in early 2001 to Colorado where he now lives with his wife and their two cats. He is an avid traveler and hiker, and loves to cook and play the piano.
Susan La Mont Susan La Mont earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Pratt Institute and a Master of Arts from Syracuse University. Most recently she received a Doctor of Arts in Higher Education from George Mason University, with a focus on art; her dissertation examined the solutions fine artists develop for problems that confront them in their work. Susan has exhibited in regional and national shows in fourteen states and the District, and has received awards from the Torpedo Factory’s Art League, Professional Artist Magazine, the Maryland Federation of Art, The Vienna Arts Society, Gallery Underground, and the League of Reston Artists. Elan Magazine profiled her work in 2001, and her paintings reside in over 60 private and international corporate collections.