Rebecca McNeely

“I have been making images for more than 60 years, from the earliest expressions with crayons and pencils through years of surreptitiously drawing my schoolmates whenever I was bored with classes.

During the years at home with young children, I kept a camera with me much of the time and, when time permitted, created black and white images that I developed and printed myself. I shall always love good black and white photography in the classical tradition of Cartier-Bresson, Paul Strand,  Steiglitz and Steichen, and I still collect photography.

My love of color and landscape and being out in nature eventually led me to give up the darkroom for paint and canvas.

My first paintings were rooted in the Impressionist tradition of painting “en plein air’ in Europe, California and Virginia inspired by Cezanne and Monet. 

The longer I painted, however, the more I came to appreciate good abstract paintings, which can take on a life of their own and elicit intuitive, visceral responses from the viewer. Inspired by Richard Diebenkorn, Gerhard Richter, Mark Rothko and Vassily Kandinsky, I turned to abstraction in order to focus on color, better distill the idea, clarify form and simplify the composition. 

For many years, I have painted abstracted landscapes, flowers, figures, and non-objective images. 

Color, nature and context continue to inspire me as I create images that speak to me and may communicate something meaningful to viewers. My joy in the process remains undiminished, despite all the time constraints and distractions of life.”