Q: Why paint doors?
GB: I'm intrigued by doors, by the architecture and design around them. These are spaces created by homeowners to welcome their friends, and I try to understand and express what that welcome means. Doors invite the viewer to imagine the occupants, to guess what's behind the closed door and the reflecting windows.
The shape of the door, the decorative elements and flowers give us a hint of personality, but it is largely a personality created consciously, first by the homeowner, then by me, and finally by the viewer of my painting. It is all interpretation, but it is interpretation based on presentation of the "best self." After all, we want our doors to express ourselves, and that is exactly what they do.
Doors are my way of opening and inviting imagination in. I guess I'm always looking for new doors to open in life and art.
Q: The huge florals are a departure for you. Why did you do them?
GB: I call this my Georgia O'Keefe period, but I'm only joking really. I love flowers and frequently draw and paint flowers and leaves from our own gardens. Magnification-making them larger than life-started as an exercise to see the colors and shapes as they really were. As I examined the flowers and played with color intensity and shapes, the more I became aware of texture and light. These paintings were built up with many, many washes of pigment. The flowers, especially the calla lilies, became living things to me-lush and vibrant and alive.
Q: Yosemite obviously has a strong influence on you. It is just a convention with artists in your area?
GB: Not for me. I'm drawn to the whole of the Sierra. The stark rock of Kaiser Peak, the abandoned town of Bodie, the foothills where I live--all of the Sierra has a strong attraction. I'm a relative newcomer to the mountains, having lived here only 10 years, and so I still feel a strong sense of discovery.
I'm exploring these mountains with eyes still filled with surprise, and I'm never let down by the nature here. The grandeur of Half Dome and the delicate creamy flower of the dogwood in shadow have equal appeal. But I am particularly attracted to Yosemite Valley. I never drive through that tunnel without a sense of excitement, because the Valley is always new-new light, new blossoms, new reflections on the river.
I think Yosemite is teaching me more about the changeability of light than any class or book ever could. I experience light there, and it is that experience I am constantly trying to capture on paper.
Q: Why do you paint?
GB: I know what the answer is, though it is hard to express. It is the same answer as why we all live: to understand.
To understand the world and its beauty, the way we live and protect ourselves, the way a flower expresses our hearts, the way I experience my personal life.
I capture what I experience in my mind's eye (sometimes with the camera's help), and I explore the experience with light, color, and shape, manipulating the physical reality until it is forced to reveal the truth of the experience. My brush and my hand are far more talented than my brain when it comes to this work. I am sometimes surprised by what shows up on the paper.
When it works-when a painting gives the viewer an experience of entering a space and mood-I've created something worthwhile.
Painting, for me, is a graphic language that expresses my self. I grow as an artist by taking risks, by attempting new expressions in that language.
Original works by Ginny Burdick are on display at Timberline Gallery, 40982 Highway 41, Oakhurst, California. We highly recommend you visit this outstanding gallery owned and operated by a consortium of more than 20 outstanding Sierra mountain artists.
Ginny Burdick is an artist living in California's Sierra Nevada, who is known for her strong use of color and image in watercolors. She has been inspired by the beauty of the surrounding Sierra mountains but frequently captures memories of the many places which she has traveled. She often portrays her feeling for a particular locale in the strength of early morning or late afternoon light when shadows are strongest.
Ginny has always had a fascination with architectural design and doorways. Doors are an opening to one's imagination--you never know where you may find yourself.
Ginny's art is in the homes of collectors across the country and abroad. She has won awards from Western Sierra Artists and is a contributing member of the Guild of Mountain Artists and the Timberline Gallery in Oakhurst, California.
