Exhibitions and Narrative Realism by Beverly Claridge

The Beginning

My passion for narrative realism reignited with the birth of my children in the mid 1980’s. Most works in my burgeoning child portraiture business in California were made using professional coloured pencils on Bristol and Mi Tientes papers. I invite you to read how I lost and later found my artistic pursuit by reading “Creating Art Around Life” by clicking here.

Solo-parent creativity

Creating work at nighttime became important as I embraced solo-parenting when I returned to Kansas a few years later.  I invite you to read “Creating Art When Life Gets Difficult” by clicking here. There you can read about what led me to found and manage two exhibitions  before finding love online in New Zealand, (which was quite the big deal back in the 2000’s).

Narrative realism in a new land

Coloured pencil realism remained my medium after I made the shift to New Zealand with my offspring.

Oil Change

‘Oil Change’, my first 2004 Invercargill solo exhibition, debuted at Southland Art Society’s, City Gallery on Don Street as my first foray into oil painting. The buttery feel of oil paints, plus the property of “what you see when it goes on to the canvas is what you get when it dries” was appealing. Then I was awarded finalist at the 2004 Invercargill Licensing Trust Awards for “Keeper of the Roses”.  

Noble people treasured Land

Surprisingly, three new oil works were accepted into the Anderson Park and Art Gallery Spring Awards show the following year.  Even though I didn’t win any prizes from the judges, I was  thrilled to be invited by those in charge to make a 2006 solo show, which would become, ‘Noble People, Treasured Land’. It would commemorate the 150th anniversary of the establishment of Southland, the province in which I continue to reside. I invited Foveaux Harmony Chorus, which is the subject of one of the paintings, and the Invercargill Symphonia, of which I was part, to perform in opening festivities.

Ephemeral Perception

Four years later in May, whilst working on a continuous home renovation, co-founding two area art groups, and blending a family from two different cultures, I presented, ‘Ephemeral Perception’ at ArtSouth, the late wildlife artist Robert John Martin’s gallery in Gore, New Zealand.  Opening festivities included a multi-media musical presentation created and performed by Juliet Woller leading her students from James Hargest High School. Juliet, and her mother, Glenda, served as models for my work, ‘Chains of Gold’.

Out of Hand

Then, in 2012, I debuted “Out of Hand”, in partnership with Anna Claire Thompson at the Southland Museum and Art Gallery.  My friend and mentor, the late New Zealand artist, Allie Eagle, requested that she be able to name of all the works of the exhibition. (Read more about Allie’s influence on my direction by clicking here.) Anna, who helped co-found the earlier mentioned art groups, served as inspiration for my work, ‘Anna Claire, modern woman jeweller in Mondrian tableaux’.  She requested that I feature her hand from which the tip of her pinky had been accidentally amputated in childhood.  Proud of her toughness through the ordeal, she never let it intimidate her.  The Mondrian-ised background is of my lounge at the time.

Buying a picture framing business

Not long after ‘Out of Hand’ finished we purchased our picture framing and art gallery business.  We closed in 2019, followed by lockdowns, repair of our rental, and ultimately followed by a massive repair of half the floors in our home.

You can read most of my journey of how I created art around life by reading my blog posts by clicking here.

I sensed in the closing months of my business, and definitely afterwards, that I did not have the headspace for continuing my narrative realism.  Thus began my tentative foray into abstraction.

Other adventures before abstraction

Before my yearlong dive into abstraction, I trialled several other possible directions, including publishing a dozen or so Charles Bargue instructional videos. (I deleted those posts and videos because they brought too much traffic to my website and YouTube Channel. This was a problem because I no longer wished to do Charles Bargue.) 

Next I published videos from my month-long challenge of creating a land or skyscape every weekday. This was followed up by making several large landscapes. Click here to read more about my journey towards abstraction.

Abstract is not easy

I am not suggesting that abstract is easy because it is not. Rather, it’s the process I find pleasing. The very act of thoughtful, meditative mark making replaces the hours of research, writing, and drawing, followed by the act of painting the works for my narrative realism exhibitions.  

Whilst I’m really satisfied with my past narrative realism works, I’m finding abstraction greatly stirs my imagination and creativity.

I hope you’ll take the time to enjoy my narrative works.