An Artist’s World — Making Art and Home Styling Bliss
“I’d like to think that people could dive into my paintings and lose themselves there for a while.”
Celebrated local artist Annette Palmer has 2 art exhibits currently running. First, is “Home from Home: A Journey from Scotland to Texas” at Glade Gallery. And second, is “Paris, Texas” at Hubbell & Hudson’s The Kitchen restaurant.
Annette burst onto The Woodlands art scene with her 2017 smash hit exhibit “Across the Miles” where she exploredlonging, connections, journeys and love through a collection of paintings. Using texture, gold leaf and cut-up strips from vintage love letters she embedded in the canvases, Annette expressed feelings of connectivity across vast distances through the lost art of writing love letters.
“I strive to create an atmosphere of calmness and serenity in my work,” says Annette. “I’d like to think that people could dive into my paintings and lose themselves there for a while.”
Home from Home: A Journey from Scotland to Texas
Since her move to Texas, displacement has been a significant theme in Annette’s work. In her heralded new exhibit “Home from Home: A Journey from Scotland to Texas” shecompares the landscapes and seascapes between her native Scotland and her current home in Texas. The vastness she depicts in her paintings creates feelings of isolation and celebration while representing the distance of time as well as the physical distance between her past and present homes.
“This colorful series of land and seascape paintings have evolved from being at home in both worlds, but unfamiliar with many things at the same time,” says Annette. “The little changes I notice with every trip to Scotland make me a visitor there, yet I am still learning much about the Texas culture, language and land that also makes me a visitor here.”
Inspiration & Championing Artists
Relationships, connections and emotions inspire Annette. Over time, she has produced a powerful, robust body of work from intricate fiber art pieces to dynamic animal painted works to ethereal bodies, Gustav Klimt inspired painted portraits, and, most recently, her landscape scenes with vertically layered painted rectangle shaped segments reminiscent of Marc Rothko’s color field paintings.
For years Annette has championed other artists in the area with her volunteer curation of Hubbell & Hudson’s Art Exhibit Space in The Kitchen restaurant which she oversaw and then rotated into St. Luke’s Hospital Lobby Gallery. This month Annette, herself, is the featured artist and offers up her “Paris, Texas” presenting us with two paintings for our enjoyment. Both these pieces feature text from an antique French/English dictionary.
Personal Museum of Little Bits
Annette has an informal ongoing eclectic rotating personal museum of little bits, obsessions and curiosities that she curates on the living room shelves of her California contemporary-styled home in The Woodlands.
“The shelves in the living room just evolve as my husband, Bob, and I acquire new bits and pieces—so the design arrangement constantly changes to accommodate the newcomers,” says Annette. “This can be anything from corks from a memorable occasion to a new sculpture or book as well as little paintings, origami and ceramic pieces made by members of our family.”
Some of her favorite items on the shelves include a hand crocheted patchwork quilt made by her sister in Scotland, cowboy boots that her 2 children once wore, a collection of little brass elephants and an antique writing box that have been in her husband’s family for ages. There is also a bronze boat made from waves by Michael O’Brien (bought at The Woodlands Waterway Arts Festival) and a tiny Sue Donaldson (Kingwood, Texas) painting and a ceramic vase by local artist Carol Berger featuring real feathers in the design.
The kitchen fridge features enlarged black and white photos on vinyl of the two Palmer children, and near the fireplace is an enchanting tree full of wonderfully weird things. It is actually an old metal display piece dripping with vintage costume jewelry, antique perfume holders and random curiosities like the faux bird and sparkly things that demand display and celebration.
Upcoming Shows
You can see Annette’s “Home from Home: A Journey from Scotland to Texas” show at Glade Gallery running through September 13th and “Paris, Texas” at Hubbell & Hudson’s The Kitchen restaurant through October. In addition, she has an upcoming show about modern takes on love letters titled “Pause Rewind Play” opening at Glade Gallery November 1.
To learn more about Annette Palmer’s work visit: www.gladegallery.com and www.annettepalmerart.com.