LINDA APRILETTI Diagonals and Palm Trees Her place in North Carolina features rolling mountains, and her home outside of Miami is marked by palms disrupting a horizontal scene, but Linda Apriletti s goal is the same wherever she paints. By Bob Bahr O il painter Linda Apriletti splits her time between the mountains of North Carolina and the palm-dotted flatlands of South Florida. But one thing remains constant: her push to bring some of the experience she had while painting en plein air into each piece. To do so, she utilizes an unusual device the video feature on her camera. When I m painting in the field, I will video clouds coming in and play that before doing a studio painting based on my plein air work, Apriletti says. The video reminds me of the wind, of the wind sound, and that connects me to that experience of where I was painting. While I m on location, I am not thinking about She goes on, This works in Florida, too, especially when we get dramatic skies, with a anything else. If I can bring some of what hapstorm coming in. I like windy days in Florida. pened in the plein air experience into the studio With video, I can see the big waves coming in. piece, I will do it. When painting, I can express the wind in the Sometimes I will play particular music when movement of the palms. I m driving to a painting location, and I ll listen When in North Carolina, in the Appalato that, too, while working on the studio painting. chian Mountains and their foothills, Apriletti is It connects me emotionally to my time there. I confronted with rolling hills and deep hollows. take reference pictures as well, but the video helps This topography results in oil paintings with in creating that connection. We get really strong much depth, and many diagonal lines. The winds in the North Carolina mountains, so the compositions are dynamic. Actually, I end video reminds me of that movement, that energy. up editing some of the diagonals out, says I often have to weight down my easel when I am Apriletti, depending on what the picture is trying to paint in the mountains. With video, I can going to be about. It s definitely easier to find record the grasses and trees moving in the wind. the diagonals to lead you into the composition Linda Apriletti working on location in Maine Cabbage Palm Patterns 2017, oil, 20 x 24 in. Studio ARTIST DATA NAME: Linda Apriletti BIRTH YEAR: 1962 LOCATION: Miami Springs, FL INFLUENCES: Herman Herzog, Isaak Levitan, A.E. Backus. WEBSITE: lindaapriletti.com 41
Big Cypress, October 2015, oil, 6 x 8 in. in North Carolina. Also, if there aren t many diagonal lines, I can use grasses with the wind blowing them to get some diagonals in a painting. Apriletti says she loves to hike near her condo on Beech Mountain, along the Appalachian Trail, amid rhododendrons, waterfalls, and flame azaleas. The experience is different around her home in Florida. Here in the Everglades we have the best skies in the summer, but the mosquitoes are terrible, she says. I do wear my snake boots the grass can get pretty high and you Clouds Over Mahogany Hammock 2017, oil, 12 x 16 in. 42 October-November 2017 / www.pleinairmagazine.com
Flame on the Mountain 2016, oil, 8 x 10 in. can t see what s out there. So I focus on plein air painting in Florida in the fall and winter, hoping for cold fronts and windy days. Nevertheless, she loves painting Florida, and it s kind of her mission to present the Sunshine State as a resident knows it. Just getting off the road, you see a lot more, says Apriletti. So many people see Florida from their car on the turnpike, going by at 70 mph. They see it as a bunch of scrub and a flat horizon. But before the dry season, there is a lot of water. I have a solo canoe that I can paddle out a little bit and get further into the landscape. It s a more subtle beauty than in the West with its big mountains. Subtlety demands attention. Apriletti s paintings demonstrate what is arguably the most important component of a successful painting, plein air or not. They show careful observation. The Everglades are like no other place in the world, says the artist. I study my subject, learning about it through observation and reference books on the clouds, palms, wildflowers, grasses, other trees such as pines and cypresses. You come to learn things, such as how the cypress s leaves turn rusty that s how you know winter is coming. In early spring, the bald cypresses have a beautiful flush of green leaves. In January and December, they are bare with only a few leaves hanging on. She continues, Some paintings of Florida are all beach and sunset. One collector found me in Big Cypress and bought two paintings. He comes here for hiking and fishing. Now he ll call me and tell me from his home in Mississippi, Your paintings put me back there. I can tell where it was painted and what time of year it was. I have certain collectors who see a painting and know where and when it was done. It makes me feel really good that they connect with the painting. In some places, the composition is there waiting for the artist. Apriletti concedes that occasionally she has to coax a composition out of the Florida landscape. Yes, sometimes you have to rearrange what s in the landscape to create a composition here, she says. Your cypress tree may not be in the viewfinder, but you need to use them to lead the eye into the composition. So you copy a cypress from off to the side. Also, one can manipulate the clouds to add interest. We have great summer and fall storms, so I can use that aspect of the Florida sky. Sometimes I ll look at what s in front of me and use the water patterns to lead back to the distance. Palm trees sometimes lean, and Apriletti will take advantage of this and use a palm to direct the viewer s eye, or to break up too many horizontals. But she also has an interest in palm trees themselves. Palms really have character, Flame Azaleas Study 2016, oil, 6 x 8 in. 43
Dusk at Thunderhill Overlook 2016, oil, 6 x 8 in. she says. I belong to the South Florida Palm Society, and we ve traveled to Costa Rica to study palms. On that trip we were broken up into four buses, and for every 10 people, we had a palm biologist or another expert. We hiked through the rain forest, examining palms and collecting seed. That was a lot of fun. Apriletti has a collection of palms growing in her yard, and she does volunteer tree-planting in her area. Many palms, like the iconic coconut palm, grow on a trunk that never widens only grows higher. At its Morning With the Wagonwheel Palms 2017, oil, 9 x 12 in. 44 October-November 2017 / www.pleinairmagazine.com
crown, fronds hang down in feathers pinnately is the term botanists use. Other palms have fan-shaped fronds. What does a palm expert like Apriletti say about painting palm trees? The key thing is to observe it, she says. Examine the form, see how it grows. The fronds bend to get light, or they may be bent when a storm blew them that way. Be careful about the lines in the trunk; just a few marks is all you need, just a suggestion. Palms are easier if light is dramatic. It helps you define the form. I try to pick out a few key indicators to point out what kind of palm it is, based on the structure and how it grows. I pay attention to the type of leaves, the height of the trunk, and I ll place something nearby to give it scale. There are hundreds of different kinds of palms in South Florida. I want the viewer to be able to identify the palm in my paintings. That means paying attention to certain characteristics, such as the crown shaft coloring, how the fronds come out of the crown shaft, whether they stand up vertical or rest diagonally. The best way to learn about palms, and Florida in general or any painting locale is to get out and walk around, spending time observing the surroundings. You notice things like the patterns of nature (clouds have structure, grasses have their own structure, palms have their structure), temperature, when rain is coming, what month it is, by the color of the grasses and leaves, and by water levels, the artist points out. On one level I want them to experience what I did; I want them to get the feel of the landscape, says Apriletti. I also want to express how I feel about it. I tend to go for pristine undeveloped areas. I am trying to show the authentic Florida, not the romanticized version. It is being developed so quickly, and I want to preserve what s there. BOB BAHR has been writing and editing articles about art instruction for more than 12 years. He lives with his wife and two young sons at the northern tip of Manhattan. See more of Linda Apriletti s paintings in the expanded digital edition of PleinAir. Looking Toward Stiltsville 2017, oil, 14 x 11 in. 45