By Michele Malinchak
Alexandra Schnabel is a perceptual artist who, in her words, is a “paint slapper.” Less concerned with accuracy, she paints presently in the moment from direct observation. Her expressive paintings are not highly rendered, but instead emphasize the visual experience of painting and the personal nature of her art. “A painting feels like a portal to a moment made immortal,” she said. “My works delve into felt human experience, investigating a wide variety of subject matter.”
A native of Bucks County, Alexandra, also called Lexi, is a young artist who at 29 has already made a mark for herself. As a fine artist and art instructor, she combines the best of both worlds. “It’s a symbiotic relationship,” she said.
Chiefly a colorist, she uses only primary colors with white and black. The majority of her work consists of bright, highly saturated colors such as her self-portrait, “Very Much Here,” in which we view the artist from a unique perspective.
Whether natural or artificial, light is the driving force in her work. She enjoys painting landscapes for this reason, and stated, “Light creates cohesion.”
Lexi is especially adept at depicting light in her night scenes. You can almost feel the air and hear the sounds in some of her nocturnes, such as her rendition of a gas station illuminated by eerie green and red lighting, or in her painting of live performers at an open mike. In “Dark Waters,” a cellphone provides the only light in the painting, creating its own mysterious glow.
Pictured here is a bar scene entitled, “Jim Thorpe in the Winter,” done from a sketch she did at the Marion Hose Bar. “It was a snowy February morning and the bar was one of three places open in the entire town,” she said. The dark setting is illuminated by overhead lamps which cast their light onto the customers seated at the bar.
The painting of a deer on the staircase called, “Who Goes There,” was inspired by a grand staircase she saw at a gallery in Poughkeepsie, NY. She took several photos, and after painting the staircase, thought something was missing. The answer came as she looked out her window and saw a deer walking by which she later added to the painting. She called this “an example of a piece that is subtly cheeky, or packs a complicated and variable message,” such as loss of habitat or the sheer element of surprise.
Sometimes her work is fraught with tension as in her painting, “Why Do This.” It’s a shocking scene with white ibises locked in a fierce battle, their snowy plumage covered in blood. “The point of art is not always to be pretty,” she said. The painting came about as a reaction to something that deeply disturbed her. “The painting served as a portal to my own emotional experience,” she said.
Lexi comes from an artistic family. Both her parents received degrees in illustration from University of the Arts (formerly Philadelphia College of Art). They both painted and her father plays guitar in a band, Waterfront Blue, which recently released a CD.
She grew up on the 137 acre tract of land known as Schnabel’s Woods in Haycock Township. Started by her grandparents, the private recreational colony provides vacation cottages and cabins for those who want to get away and enjoy nature.
“It’s a multigenerational family business and I know all its moving parts,” she said. As assistant manager, she wears all kinds of hats, but her favorite involvement with the business is interacting with people. She does everything from showing potential customers around to helping existing owners, who are called ‘Woodsers.’ Additionally, she drives a tractor and a snowplow when needed.
The scenic countryside with its ponds and creeks has offered countless inspiration for Lexi who is at home in nature. She lives in her own cabin and has her studio here.
Everywhere she goes she carries a small 3-inch by 6-inch sketchbook and a tiny set of acrylic paints. She even takes them along when mountain biking, making sudden stops to capture a scene that sparks her interest. This often to the annoyance of her biking friends who impatiently ask, “Are you done yet?” The paintings are usually done quickly, anywhere from one to three minutes, but are beautifully rendered. In addition, she has a miniature watercolor set that looks like a doll’s toy. She uses a water brush with them and paints on a small block of watercolor paper.
Her encounters with nature can be prickly at times, such as her run-ins with bears.
Once a bear meandered over towards her as it was eating berries. “I was sitting cross-legged, getting eaten by bugs. The bear left and I went back to painting.”
In another instance, a mother bear and her cub approached about 15 feet away. “She actively began to enter our campsite!” she said. “She looked curious and I did not feel threatened, especially and mostly because the cub was behind her, not between us. That was when I stood up and said “hey mama…” and at the sound of my voice, she turned around.”
Lexi first discovered her passion for oil painting at her high school, Lehigh Valley Charter School for the Arts in Bethlehem, PA. As senior, she was president of their Arts Alliance and helped organize art shows and fundraising events.
In 2018, she earned her BFA from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia (PAFA) with a concentration in oil painting. There she studied with Al Gury who taught alla prima painting classes. Alla prima, which means “at first attempt,” is a technique that captures the immediacy of the subject through spontaneous brushstrokes, applying wet paint to still wet layers.
Though she admires Baroque artists like Rubens and enjoys reading Van Gogh’s journals, she is inspired by contemporary artists such as Pascal Möhlmann, Felicia Forte and Jeremy Miranda.
Lexi’s paintings have been shown at Lehigh University, Bethlehem; Allentown Art Museum; Abington Art Center, Jenkintown; Exhibit B Gallery, Souderton and Main Street Gallery, Quakertown. Her work has also been exhibited at Phillips’ Mill Juried Art Show in New Hope.
This fall she’ll be included in the 15th Annual Traditional Artists Show, October 18-19 at the Cornerstone Barn in Pipersville, PA.
Lexi’s teaching background includes working at ArtZ, a therapeutic arts center in Quakertown where she taught a creative arts workshop for adults with special needs and intellectual disabilities.
She currently offers classes in drawing and painting at Arts Quest in Bethlehem for adults and children. In addition, Lexi teaches evening classes for adults at Souderton High School which include watercolor, acrylics, oils, dry media and more. She is also happy to travel to people’s homes for private one-on-one lessons and teaches creativity mentorship programs out of her home studio.
She is honored to take on commissioned work and has samples of some of her pet portraits and homes on her website: www.alexandraschnabel.com.
At the time of this writing, Lexi was away on a trip to Colorado. Whether she’ll return with more bear stories is unknown, but one thing is certain—she’ll have several new paintings in hand. For wherever she goes, “You’ll never catch me without my paints,” she said.
Michele Malinchak is a freelance writer who has a degree in art and enjoys oil painting.