For landscape artists who paint outdoors, the battle with fluctuating light and weather can be challenging and frustrating. It’s a race against the elements as they attempt to capture on canvas the color and light at that precise moment. Artist Anita Shrager is not only up for the challenge, she is somehow able to harness the sheer energy of being outdoors in every brush stroke. And though she’s been at it more than 40 years, she hasn’t lost the thrill of the chase.
If she can’t finish the painting in one go, she’ll return to a location at the same time of day when lighting and weather conditions are comparable. “It’s like a race or a run with the sun,” she said. If all goes well, she can finish a painting in two days.
Her favorite time to paint is between the hours of four to seven, that ephemeral interval just before dusk when the atmosphere is infused with pink light. Though landscapes are her favorite subjects, she also paints still life and figures. “My figures are done more in the style of Henri Matisse,” she said.
Largely influenced by the New Hope School of Impressionism, her style is spontaneous and fluid; her brush strokes light and airy. Although she works in oil, she applies thin transparent layers of paint that resemble watercolor. She works quickly, covering the entire canvas with large abstract areas of color before moving on to smaller areas to define shapes, seeking out the lightest and darkest values. “You have to paint all at once,” she said.
It’s imperative that her palette remain clean and pure, and she uses Liquin as a medium that allows each layer to dry quickly so she can apply another. “I’m a colorist,” she said, “and I love the richness of color from oil paints. Some artists paint straight out of the tube, but I like mixing paint.” People have commented that her paintings look happy which she attributes to her use of color.
She transitions from plein air to studio work but said there is no substitute for painting outdoors. “The human eye captures depth of field better than any camera.” Not into computer manipulation, Anita said, “My eyes are my photoshop.” In order to paint night scenes, however, she takes photos by placing LED lights around her camera, later working from the photo in her studio.
Anita carries everything she needs in a compact unit made by Guerrilla Painter®, a brand that caters to plein air artists ready to paint anywhere at a moment’s notice. Or, as they say, “under-the-radar painters.” Anita’s equipment features a chair on wheels, her easel and a storage compartment for supplies, letting her create her own outdoor studio. While it’s still heavier to lift than she’d like, it’s convenient having everything together.
She won’t hesitate painting over something she’s not satisfied with and is very particular about the finished work. “Now, John Singer Sargent—everything he did was good, even his octopus paintings.” She added, “There is something beautiful about almost everything.”
Anita has lived on both sides of the Delaware River, drawing inspiration from its quaint river towns. The reflective quality of light on water has always intrigued her, and she enjoys painting scenes from the Delaware Canal, Cuttalossa Creek, Lake Nockamixon and Lake Galena. Before moving to Bucks County, she lived in Monmouth County, NJ for 30 years and painted coastal scenes at the Jersey shore. She was a member of the Guild of Creative Art in Shrewsbury, NJ and sold to galleries along the coast.
Anita was born in West Philadelphia and recognized her calling to become an artist from an early age. She attended Overbrook High School in Philadelphia where a high school art teacher helped her prepare a portfolio for admission to art school. Through a full scholarship, Anita studied illustration and painting at The Philadelphia College of Art (now University of the Arts).
She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and later attended graduate school for painting at the Pratt Institute in New York City. She eventually married and raised two daughters. While living in Brooklyn, NY, she worked as an illustrator for a greeting card company and also taught kindergarten.
Anita has received local and national acclaim and is the recipient of numerous awards. For 20 years she has been an exhibiting member at the National Arts Club in New York City where she earned two gold medals including the Grumbacher Gold Medal for Excellence in Oil Color and the Takayo Noda Award. In 2002 the Philadelphia Sketch Club presented her with an Award of Excellence in Oil Painting, and she has also won several awards from Phillips Mill juried exhibitions in New Hope.
Her work has been shown in several local galleries and is currently represented by the Silverman Gallery in Buckingham Green, Holicong, PA where she’s had two solo shows in 2017 and 2019.
Rhonda Garland, owner of the Silverman Gallery, said of Anita’s work, “I don’t think anyone in this county paints quite like her. She’s able to suggest with just a few brush strokes things like trees, reflections and shadows. You can see where a brush stroke starts and ends, which gives me an insight into the artist’s thought process. She has a great touch and she knows when to stop.”
Anita has taken lessons from renowned landscape artists such as T.M. Nicholas, Irby Brown, Will Barnet and Kevin Macpherson.
Years ago she tried her own hand at teaching plein air painting at Radcylffe Gallery and Framing in New Hope, PA, but decided it wasn’t for her. “It’s hard to teach,” she admitted. “People wanted a recipe, an easy formula they could use. I showed them how to mix colors, but they wanted me to paint for them.”
The Doylestown based artist, now in her early 70s, still enjoys painting outdoors and belongs to the Peace Valley Plein Air Painters. There isn’t much that keeps her from setting up her easel, not even an eight month bout with Lyme disease. However, these days she’s more selective about venturing outside. “I used to go out in the heat and cold, but now I rely more on nice days,” she said. In the past, she painted in 32 degree weather when the paint would freeze on her brush.
Pennsylvania Impressionists like Edward Redfield and Daniel Garber continue to inspire her. In addition, she admires Theodore Robinson, one of the first American artists to take up Impressionism in the late 1880s. Other artists she appreciates include Picasso, especially his blue period which she finds magical.
Her current work is more abstract though still done in the impressionist style. “Every artist changes in the course of a lifetime,” she said. In a new painting entitled, “Marina,” boats on the water are highly abstracted in bright primary colors using bold brush strokes. The freer style is quite different from earlier works such as “Boathouse Row” in which the buildings are painted in a more representational style.
One of her former instructors, T.M. Nicholas once said, “It takes miles and miles of canvas to hone your skills as a painter.” Anita can’t begin to tally the miles she has covered over the years, but the act of painting never ceases to fill her with joy. “I’m grateful I was gifted with art, she said.”
Anita’s paintings can be viewed at the Silverman Gallery website: silvermangallerybuckscountypa.com.