Featured Artist Rose Hohenberger

Artist Rose Hohenberger uses a variety of mediums to create a portfolio focused on realism. Learn more about her paintings by visiting her website.

 

 

A year ago, I thought my life was over. I mean, if you’re too sick to paint, life is over, right? I had been diagnosed with a rare, treatable-yet-unpronounceable autoimmune disease that attacks the muscles. The pain was brutal, but, after a long career in art, the idea of never painting again was unimaginable. So, getting back to it became my focus and means of fighting the battle.

 

 

For months, whether I was sitting in a chair or lying in bed, I watched nonstop art videos on Youtube. Some were awful, some were good, but the bottom line was that watching them distracted me from the battle and kept me involved in what I loved. They kept me determined.

 

 

Finally, after a months-long course of prescription treatment combined with the impetus of returning to the studio, I’m off the heavy meds, back in the studio, and feeling alive again.

 

 

I’ve had this romance with art since I was in grade school and experienced that first urge to draw convincing images. Luckily, my parents encouraged the idea, and there were teachers to teach me.

 

 

When I grew up, I did the traditional things a woman was expected to do. I married, raised a family, worked at home and in the business world. Art was always there, waiting patiently for me.

 

 

As long as I’ve painted, realism has been foremost. Oil is my main medium, but, for health’s sake, I’m learning to appreciate water-based paints; acrylic, gouache, and even water-soluble oils.

 

 

My palette is fairly limited. I find mixtures of primary colors far more interesting than premixed tube colors, even in the blacks and greys.

 

 

The inspiration I find in nature is recorded in a decades-long collection of photographs I’ve taken here in Texas, other states and other countries. This includes four years in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where the horse series began.

 

 

Fortunately, years of plein air painting taught me to see the range of colors in the landscape’s light and shadow and to infuse that into photo-referenced work.

 

 

I’ve been finding my way back to doing what I love last year, whether it’s figures, animals, still life or landscapes. I’m hugely grateful to be painting and will never take the gift for granted. Not that I ever did. Years ago, I came to realize that, for me, the easel is a kind of altar. There, I’m able to unselfconsciously communicate my wonder and gratitude for the magnificence of this world—my prayer to the universe. That’s never been truer than today.

Artist Rose Hohenberger invites you to follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

 

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