Painting And Loving It

By Thomas P. Caldwell

Artists often never learn where their works end up, so they are always surprised when they hear from a buyer or the family member of someone who had bought a painting years ago.

That was the case for Gerri Harvey, a Laconia landscape artist who is currently working on a large commissioned painting for a woman in Texas who previously purchased one of her paintings online. Before online sales, when paintings sold mainly through galleries, the purchaser and destination usually remained unknown.

That was the case with her first sale, an 11x14 oil painting of birch trees by a stone wall.

“It was sold for $35 during an art association show at the Belknap Mill around 1982,” Gerri recalled. “I had entered it in the novice artist category. I had no idea who bought it or where it ended up.

“Last year, I got a contact via my art website from the daughter of the woman who had bought it while vacationing here from Connecticut all those years ago. Her mother was now deceased and the daughter told me her mother loved the painting and was sure I was destined to become a very good painter. She sent me a photo of the painting. I have come a long way!

“The daughter now owned the painting and wanted to come full circle and purchase one by me as a way to honor her mother’s memory and love of the Lakes Region where she often vacationed. She bought one she saw on my website and I shipped it to her during COVID. I sent it priority mail with tracking. It took five weeks to arrive because it went all the way to California before finally arriving in Connecticut.”

Gerri says that, over the years, she has heard from a few other people who inherited older paintings she had done. “In one case, a nice man delivered one of them to me that he had found in an estate sale, thinking I might like to have it back,” she said.

She estimates that she has sold hundreds of paintings over the years, and said that, last year, between sales and commissioned pieces, she sold around 50 paintings.

Some artists avoid trying to create a painting that reflects someone else’s vision, but in the case of the Texas woman mentioned above, Gerri said, “If the request is within the genre I like to paint, and the person already likes my painting style, I enjoy giving it a go.”

The client had purchased a smaller piece through an online art event and contacted Gerri about doing a larger piece that would represent her “dream” retirement place. Gerri worked from the woman’s description, creating two 8 x 10 studies as a starting point for the actual painting. One reflected an actual scene in Gilford and the other was a composite painting that Gerri created by interpreting the woman’s vision. She sent photos of the two studies so the woman could decide which she wanted to have done as a larger painting.

Gerri said she began painting in her early 30s. She took weekly group classes in oil painting with the late Loran Percy in his Gilford studio.

“My classes were ‘Mom’s night out’ when my children were small,” Gerri recalls. “Loran was an inspiring teacher and I was his student for about two years.”

Later, she took some group classes in watercolor with Laconia artists Larry Frates and the late Betty Jean Maheux.

“I was working as a registered nurse and raising a family, so I was only an occasional dabbler and hobby painter, but I enjoyed it, painting at home on my kitchen table,” she said.

When her children were grown, she decided “to see where I could go with my painting.” She took workshops with a few nationally known painters, including watercolorists Ted Nuttall and Stan Miller, floral oil painter Nancy Medina, and Tom Hughes, who does plein air oils. She also attended workshops locally with Dennis Morton and Carole Keller.

“I have a whole library of art books, too,” she said. “One of the joys of being retired is having the time to paint and learn, and I am still learning.”

She has signed up for a three-day oil painting workshop with Vermont artist John MacDonald, scheduled for this fall.

Gerri has gone through several “art periods” — trying stained glass, quilting, silk painting, paper collages, fabric collages, rug-braiding, rug-hooking, jewelry-making, and clay.

“At one point, I decided I had to choose just one because who has the time or space to do it all?” she asked. “I chose to focus on painting because I love painting so much, and for the past 10 years since retiring, I have painted a lot. Well, I just picked up rug-hooking again, too, so I guess it’s really two.”

She has painted portraits, animals, and florals, but said she is particularly interested in doing landscapes and lake scenes.

“There is so much inspiration around me right here in New Hampshire,” she commented.

While she started with oils and watercolors, Gerri switched to acrylics when her daughter was little and wanted to paint with her mother. Painting with oil requires using solvents that can be harmful, while acrylics have a polymer base and are not only safer but also light-fast and permanent when dry.

“They look much like oils but handle quite differently in that they dry very quickly, unlike oils which take weeks, making blending and layering a longer process with lots of waiting time,” she said. “I like to paint right along, sometimes completing a painting in a day or two, so acrylics actually suit my painting style very well. I do still use oils and watercolors occasionally, though.”

Her daughter enjoyed painting so much that she majored in art at college, and today she is a successful watercolor artist living in western Massachusetts.

Four years ago, Gerri met pen-and-ink artist Steve Hall through an art group they both belonged to, and where they were gallery-sitters for an entire day. Both were widowed after long, happy marriages, and Gerri said, “it was the beginning of our friendship that became our chapter two love.” He wanted to learn to work with acrylics and took lessons from Gerri.

They both sold their respective houses and bought a new house together three years ago, sharing studio space downstairs.

Gerri said she carries her paints wherever she goes so she is prepared to capture a scene. She also takes reference photos and notes for later painting efforts.

“I have done painting off the coast of Rhode Island where I grew up, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, Florida, South Carolina,” she said.

“At the start of COVID, we bought a tiny camper so we could still go places to visit and paint,” she continued. “I am new to camping and, though it’s small, it has every convenience except space, so paint supplies go in the car.”

Gerri also gives art lessons — originally through VynnArt Gallery in Meredith as well as private lessons at her home studio.

“Since I don’t have an academic background in art, I teach by the ‘show-and-tell’ method, and I think it really appeals to adults,” she said. “It is how I learned, and how most painting workshops are structured. I am organized, patient, and encouraging as a teacher. I believe that most people can learn to paint reasonably well if the desire is there; you don’t have to be a Rembrandt to create a good painting, and the creative enjoyment itself is reason enough to paint.”

She also sold her own paintings through VynnArt Gallery. When that divided into three galleries under one roof in January, it became The Galleries at 30 Main: VynnArt Gallery, the Moreau Gallery, and the Ferreira Gallery.

“I stayed on,” Gerri said, “and now I am part of Moreau Gallery.”

Gerri also is part of the 15-member Fusion Gallery, an online gallery that makes her works available to collectors all over the world. She participates in an online sales event every other month.

“I started painting over 40 years ago and I am still learning,” Gerri said. “I feel pretty passionate about painting and look forward to my studio time. I paint a few days a week, sometimes only for an hour, sometimes all day. I still find so much challenge and joy in it, and I like helping others find that spark, too.”

View her works at The Galleries at 30 Main in Meredith, the gallery wall at Wayfarer Coffee Roasters in downtown Laconia, Fusion Gallery on Facebook, on her website, gerriharveyart.com, and by appointment at her home studio in Laconia.