Today we’d like to introduce you to Lynn Gertenbach Fallbrook. Lynn was recently accepted into the prestigious, 200-year-old New York, Salamagundi Club as an artist member.
Lynn, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I began drawing since the age of 6 when my teacher put a drawing I did of a cat up in front saying it was the best drawing she’d seen. Teachers can be a huge positive influence one person’s development. At 9 years a family friend gifted me with a box of pastels, and to me it was better than cake or ice cream. I treasured it, and by 14 I had commissioned portraits being asked of me. I graduated high school with two scholastic scholarships and selected the Colorado Institute of Art in Denver, where I graduated. After one year working as an illustrator, I decided to make a world trip spending most of my time in India sketching the people there. I was hosted by Arul Raj, and Nandinee from Madras. We drove with their daughter all over India by car, sketching as we went.
India left an indelible impression on me and I decided to return in two years, I took my younger sister and we studied music with Maestro Ravi Shankar in Bombay and I painted the Maharajah of Jamnagar as well as the Maharani of Kashmir. The large painting, I did of Ravi Shankar appeared on his album cover “Portrait of a Genius”.
During my early years I painted mainly portraits and then when asked to join the Plein Air Painters of America in 1985 I began going outdoors on location and fell in love with nature and since that time, I’ve painted mostly landscapes in this country and also Europe where I teach workshops. In 2019 I’ll be taking a group to paint and live in a Castle in France in July. Our host Miles Copeland has plans to take us to many historic sites and surrounding villages also.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I interpret what I feel when I see a face or a landscape in a certain light, that moves me to paint it. If the viewer is also moved by my painting then I feel I have ‘gotten through’ to them with the emotion to view the world around him or her in a new and different way. I use the skills I learned over the years from Russian painter Sergei Bongart to convey color in rich harmony to portray my feelings to others.
The sterotype of a starving artist scares away many potentially talented artists from pursuing art – any advice or thoughts about how to deal with the financial concerns an aspiring artist might be concerned about?
I would recommend a book by Eric Rhoads on “Making more money with your art” which just came out and is available through Streamline Publishing as well as Amazon. Eric puts on yearly convention for artists in different locations and covers much of this, as well as plans for artists to watch painting demonstrations by many well-known artists and listen to panel discussions on various subjects including marketing. (an art itself.)
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
www.lynngertenbachart.com is my web site, People can visit it, and they are welcome to contact me through my email lynngertenbach@aol.com. I live in Fallbrook and have worked at creating a garden inspired by another favorite French artist Claude Monet. Out Lily pond is 150 feet in diameter and filled with colorful waterlilies and other water plants.
I am in gallery Amsterdam in Carmel and the Portico gallery in Montecito, as well as special museum shows through the California Art Club where I’m a signature member and a member of the board of advisors. I’m also a signature member of Oil Painters of America, The Plein Air Painters of America, the American Impressionist Society and the Laguna Plein Air painters.
During this coming July and August my sister Marsha Gertenbach Meers and I are having a Sisters show at the Fallbrook ARt Center on 103 Main street. Marsha is a sculptor and assemblage artist. We’ll have our opening on Friday July 13, from 5;00-8:00. Presently my work is at the Museum of natural history in downtown Los Angeles through the California Art Club 107th Gold Medal exhibition.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lynngertenbachart.com
- Email: lynngertenbach@aol.com
Image Credit:
Photography of Art by Bill Dow, and Bill Ahrend.
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