As there is chaos in life and conflict in living, so there is art that depicts stressful experience and gives us a moment to feel intense emotions. But life doesn’t always have to be constantly moving and stressing.
A new artist from New Braunfels, Gerlyn Friesenhahn reminds me of the blissful,quiet moments of life. Moments I want to experience and remember, admiring the beauty of living and simply being. Just standing still and breathing the fresh air.
A blessing to witness a blue sky and prairie countryside.
Gerlyn’s paintings are like large windows of nature. Standing before them, makes me feel like
I could step into them and be within that patch of grass, closely observing the wildflowers. Capturing these sublime viewpoints with calm hues emphasizes this sublime serenity I feel before them.
To understand why she’d choose to paint these landscapes, I interviewed Gerlyn about her artistic journey and why these paintings are the subject of her Thesis work.
Sam: Tell me a little bit about yourself as an artist. Gerlyn: I started painting on my own for a hobby about ten years ago. I really enjoyed the mental space it (painting) gave me to detach myself from worldly life issues. So, when I had the opportunity to take some courses, I took some workshops in Fredericksburg, Texas, with an artist who did Russian Impressionistic painting. I really enjoyed it. She paints mostly farm animals with backlit photographs that she takes herself. I just like her style of painting and wanted to learn more about it, but it was the first formal class I’d ever taken, and I really didn’t feel like I fit in because I really knew nothing about painting. So, I decided I needed more training and started looking at online videos then I took another workshop in Spain with another artist from New Zealand. I went to Spain for ten days and did plein-air paintings of the Spanish countryside. I found plein-aire painting is hard. But I loved it so much that when I got back, I said I got to really figure out how to get formal training. When I got back, I checked, possibly, enrolling in UT in Austin or here (Texas State) or in San Antonio, UTSA. After looking around and deciding this was the best fit for me, it was also the closest to my home since I live in New Braunfels. So, I came here, took a tour, and wanted to just take painting classes. But they wouldn’t allow me to do that without the pre-requisite courses. So, I enrolled and decided I was just gonna be in studio art painting. Kind of unusual to go back to school at age 60 to get a painting degree. But it’s something that’s meaningful to me because it puts me in a mental space that allows me to release whatever stress I have in my life. I enjoy painting.
S: I can relate to that. I found solace in art as I grew up. G: Yeah. As you age, there’s a lot of happy events in your life, but there’s also a lot of sad events that are unavoidable. Some of the things that were very sad for me were my husband dying, and so I found that I could sort of detach myself and still get pleasure in what I was doing. Grandparents die, important people in your life die… I have an occupation that’s kind of stressful. Painting really gives me someplace to find some joy and satisfaction. I’m a neurologist. I deal with serious kinds of illnesses. I don’t see colds and flus, things that people recover from easily. I see parkinsons disease, alzheimers, epilepsy, and multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy. It’s satisfying to help people when they have these illnesses, but it also takes a toll on me. I find it hard when I have to tell someone they have a bad diagnosis. I find stress relief in my painting. It’s probably why I don’t have this confrontational tension in my paintings. I don’t want it.
S: I don’t see that. When I look at your work, I notice that you use a very specific blue. It is a sky blue, but the way you got the hue and the saturation just right make it seem very serene and placid. And then you have these nice hues of green and yellow that are not over-saturated. They go with the flow of your scenic paintings. G: Kind of mellow. I enjoy being in nature. I have a vegetable garden, flower garden, a greenhouse with orchids. I find nature pretty fascinating.
S: What do you find fascinating? G:It’s just amazing to me that you have this little seed that you can put in the ground. It’s the size of a piece of dust, but it has all the genetic material that can turn into this plant. Each little tiny seed produces a different plant. Genetics is a marvel.
Are there other ideas you’d like to try with nature? Yeah, I have some ideas to do some geometric, abstract paintings, using flowers as a reference for color and pattern. There are interesting patterns that often form that are concentric, circular, but never totally symmetric. I read somewhere that flowers have repeating patterns. They’re coordinated as they sprout their petals. Is that something you want to capture? Yes, yes. I have done a couple on my own. I enjoy it. I did a top-down image of a bluebonnet and an Indian paintbrush flower. They’re very complicated. I did some small paintings that were about 15x15 inches. I’d liked to do those on a larger scale. I also have ideas about doing repeating patterns of other objects like butterflies. I don’t know if you’ve seen Damien Hirst’s large-scale collage, where you used dead butterflies.
Put them in a circular, repeating pattern and made a work that was about 60x60 inches. I wanna do something similar but not use real butterflies. Painted butterflies. Make it look like a kaleidoscope. When I get tired of doing nature around my neighborhood, I’d like to do something like that.
What is something that motivated you to paint? You traveled to learn from various teachers. What is motivating you to paint? I’ve always liked making things. It’s a great pleasure to create something. I learned how to sew when I was eight and made a lot of my own clothing. I like cooking. I like growing things. I like making flower arrangements. Observing nature and using it in some way to decorate. My work is more aesthetic than deep messages. Do you feel that it’s therapeutic for you? Absolutely. When I decided to do this, everyone was like, “What are you going to do with this? Are you going to sell? Are you going to exhibit?” I don’t know. I just like making it. And now I have a lot of paintings that I don’t know what to do with. I’ve sold one. I don’t think I’d enjoy street sales. Sitting there all day long. But I would like to continue connecting with other artists. I have to figure out how to do that because you know at my age and stage in life, I’m not going to be doing other things that other students do here. Well, I think that’s what makes every artist unique, no matter the age. It’s what we choose to explore. Yeah. People in their 90s still make art.
Let’s talk about the process. What is something about the painting process that you discovered? Did you enjoy it or not? I do enjoy making canvases. Sounds a little strange, but I enjoy building them, gesso-ing them. Turning these pieces of fabric and wood into paintings. I like being involved with the whole process so that I can get the size I want. I really like walking around the town trying to find images. It’s harder than I thought it was because when I walk around, I see beautiful images of the river or flowers. And then you take a photograph of it, and you find that “Oh, that doesn’t look very interesting as a painting.” You have to figure out how to crop it. Find a focal point. Something that’s gonna make it a good painting. That’s been really hard for me. Figuring out how to create a unique or good composition. Original? Yes. Considering the vantage points. Like taking pictures of flowers top down. You see bluebonnets all the time, but I’ve never seen people paint them, with all the intricate patterns from the top-down. That was fascinating to me, finding vantage points that are unique. Lighting is really important. I like early morning and evening lighting that creates strong shadows. It gives a feeling of depth that I’m kind of looking for so that the painting doesn’t look flat or washed out.
What classes have you enjoyed taking and learning from? I was surprised that I really love sculpture. I did not expect that. I was required to take two 3D classes. So, I took sculpture and metals, but I liked Sculpture a lot more. I loved the teacher. And I’m hoping that I can take one more class before I leave. The teacher promised me that I could make a bronze before I leave. So, if you could make a bronze, what would you make out of it? I don’t know yet. Something nature related. Do you plan on combining your sculptures with your paintings? I could if I find a studio. I have a painting studio, but I don’t have equipment for making sculptures. You need welding machines and a lot of equipment to do those things. I see. So lastly, is there a question you wish viewers would ask about you or your art? Well, everyone always wondering why I don’t combine my two interests, medicine and art, and do something related to medical art. I haven’t really figured out a way to do that seems pleasurable to me because that’s what I’m trying to get away from. If I do that, it puts the stress that I’m trying to escape. So, if I start painting medical imagery, I think it doesn’t serve its purpose for me. Right. I think in your scenic paintings, you’ve managed to paint that” place you’d like to be” and fascinations of the mind without being medical. Have you considered not focusing on the technicalities of neurological sciences, but of your fascination of the human mind through studies of nature? I’ve thought about the complexities of the nervous system. How do you paint that, right? It could be something abstract, but original. Right. The brain is interesting and complicated. It takes a long time to learn. It took me eight years after college to become a doctor. Four years of medical and then four years of specialty training. I should at least give myself eight years after I get out of college to become an artist. I don’t know. I have a lot of time to think about it. Not a lot of life, ha-ha, but I have some time. I think you have more than enough time. Well, that’s all the questions I have. Thank you so much for the interview.