Today we’d like to introduce you to Summer Lowe.
Hi Summer, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Summer was raised in Southern California and earned an M.F.A in Painting from UCLA, where she was fortunate to study under a faculty of famous artists. She was a K-!2 Art teacher with Los Angeles Municipal school district. After moving to Atlanta, she taught courses in art and design at The Art Institute of Atlanta for over twenty years. She has also taught painting courses at community art centers, such as Spruill Center for the Arts, Norcross Art Gallery, Suwannee Arts Center and at The Art Center,Johns Creek. She continues to teach and tutor painting classes on a part time basis.
Currently Summer is pursuing a career as a professional artist, exhibiting her work in over seven galleries in the Atlanta area. She also serves as a board member on non-profit art organizations.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Summer was very fortunate to be able to support herself as a teacher and college professor. The challenges she faced as a young person were trying and failing to make it as a professional artist. There were and still are very few opportunities to exhibit and sell artworks in our society. Education was the key to her success. Once she realized that she had a talent for teaching, her world opened up and so did opportunities to be an artist. As an art educator, she enabled others to understand, appreciate and support the arts, as she does.
Another important emphasis in her life as an artist and teacher was her desire to help the disadvantaged sector of our society. Early in her career, she worked at a non-profit art school in the middle of Skid Row in Los Angeles. There, she taught art classes to homeless children as well as gave them a safe place to be and a warm meal.
She continued to work for the LAUSD for several years, in areas of Los Angeles where children lived in distressed, impoverished communities.
In Atlanta, she continued to work for non-profit art communities which serve diversity and inclusion. As an agent for change and promoter of equal opportunity, she is always looking for a way to serve her community by promoting, teaching and exhibiting artists who are under-represented in our culture.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Summer’s series of paintings are representations of portraits, flowers, figures, landscapes and trees. She recognizes the power of nature and its unlimited potential for inspiration. Her inspiration comes from sketches from models and photographs and pictures of landscapes.
Initially, her artwork was inspired from doing portrait commissions. Exclusively exhibiting abstracts for many years, she felt a need to break away from abstraction and paint figures again. After a couple of years returning to classical painting, she had an idea to merge the two styles to create something unique.
With this merging of traditional and contemporary styles, she attempts to create a realistic image integrated with an abstract form. Her fascination with abstraction comes from seeing symbiotic relationships in all living things. The camouflage effect is made by layering paint in a push/pull technique of color intensity and value. The drawing technique is referred to as “Lost and Found” contour drawing in which the outline of forms become lost in the abstraction of colors. The surfaces are highly textured and glazed with layers of thin paint.
The theme of women in her art is to celebrate feminine strength and beauty. She suggests sensuality without being overt about it, though the filter of color, pose, age and attitude. The women she paints give voice to non-traditional themes in the history of art.
She chooses colors and compositions for their emotional impact on the viewer. Her intention is to convey the beauty she sees in both human and natural forms.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
No, I don’t want to promote anything at the moment
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.summerlowe.com
Image Credits
All photos were taken and owned and permitted to show by Summer Lowe
