Gill Truslow

biography

pastel artist's studio

Gill Truslow received her Masters in Art Education from UMass - Amherst, and taught art in Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire for 34 years. After teaching young people about the many joys that can be found in creating and appreciating art, as well as skills and creative problem solving, it was time to focus on her own work. Following her retirement she began studying with numerous master pastelists including Robert Carsten, Susan Ogilvie, Bob Rohm, Gail Sibley, Aline Ordman, Paul Murray and Kim Lordier. Professional affiliations include the Pastel Society of New Hampshire, for which she has achieved Signature status, the Vermont Pastel Society, the Pastel Society of America, Arts Alive! Monadnock, and the Monadnock Area Artists Association, for which she served as president and Chair of Art in the Park for four years.

Gill works in her studio located in Keene, NH, creating luscious pastel paintings that illuminate the subject with a richness of color, texture, and a sense of an intimate connection to a moment in time. She has exhibited and won awards in national and international juried shows, including being honored as a recipient of the Ruth and James Ewing Award for Excellence in the Arts in the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire. Her work can be found in numerous private collections, group exhibits, the annual Labor Day weekend event in Keene, Art in the Park, and the Fall Foliage Art Studio Tour, Columbus Day weekend.

Inspiration & Connection 

As an artist, I choose to create images that bring me back to that place of inner quiet evoked by memories, emotions, or a sense of place. These visual moments allow me the opportunity to create a visual sanctuary from all that may weigh on the spirit. At the same time I get to enjoy the lovely tactile experience of working with pastels that offer so many luscious colors to create luminous, atmospheric paintings.

Living in the Monadnock Region makes it easy for me to find inspirational subject matter. This may be hiking in the woods taking in the sounds, smells, patterns and filtered sunlight through the trees, or exploring its beautful rivers, ponds and lakes which offer safe habitats for widlife and capture the light and colors relected on its surfaces. I get such pleasure being on the water in my kayak, feeling the peacefuless of these surrondings, enjoying the company of heron, loons and turtles providing me with wonderful resource images for future paintings, of which I have done many. I feel very lucky!

Gardening and traveling are also passions of mine which clearly influence my subject matter, taking me in different directions and challenging me to create more complex compositions and centers of interest with a particular focus on my love of color. This is also true of my explorations into more abstract work.

I get such pleasure listening to people who have taken the time to look at my work and share their reactions to it, each response being as unique as the individual who sees it, bringing it to life through their own eyes. It's a gift.

Hopefully something in my work will resonate for you as well!


2015 Ewing Arts Awards  - video by Bruce Barlow