Recognized for her expressive brushwork, contemporary compositions and intelligent use of color, Lori Putnam paints small to medium-sized works en plein air and creates large paintings in her studio in Charlotte, Tennessee. She has painted and taught in more than 20 countries, from Guatemala to New Zealand to Ukraine. Her exhibit Far from Home includes 25 new works inspired by her travels.

Second & Commerce: Last year, you presented the exhibit Close to Home at the LeQuire Gallery in Nashville. What drew you to those local subjects in Middle Tennessee, and did the pandemic alter the course you thought you would take in that process?

Lori Putnam: I started thinking about how I never get to paint at home – I’m always on the road. I had already planned to take 2020 off to paint for that exhibition, and it soon became apparent that I needed to make it really close to home.

It was honestly some of the best concentrated time that I've had in a while. When other people couldn’t go out and do anything, I could go stand alone in a field and paint. I grew up in this area, and had a lot of memories from childhood, but I hadn’t visited these spaces in a long time, and certainly not as an artist. It was a really, really great year for me personally, on an artistic note. Oddly enough, the pandemic itself didn’t change a lot about what I had planned to do, it just made it even more meaningful.

S&C: When you are traveling, what are you looking for when you choose a subject or site to paint?

LP: For me, I know it when I see it. And it has nothing to do with the subject itself. It is all about some abstract foundational statement that I turn into a representational piece.

I could be driving along and see the way the light hits something, or the way almost everything is in shadow except for one glorious piece of light, or even just some random shapes and the way they fit together in an abstract way. I don’t look for subjects per se, it’s more of a personal response to something that makes me suddenly say, “I need to figure out how to let other people know how seeing this has affected me, immediately.”

If I go looking for something specific, I can’t find it. It's like when you’re shopping for clothes – if you don’t need anything, you find everything, and when you need something, there’s nothing. The first thing that grabs me, I stop and paint. If I continue to walk around and wait, then the light has gone, the effect has gone, the thing that really got my attention in the first place has gone.

There's something everywhere, and it doesn’t even matter the time of day – some people don’t paint in the flat light of the day, but I often find things then that are just beautiful... not quite silhouettes, but dark shapes and how they cut out against the sky. It's like a beautiful puzzle.

S&C: About 15 years ago, you left your graphic design business and sold your home to fully dedicate your time to self-study and artistic experimentation. Recently, you’ve announced that you’ll be taking a step back from teaching and workshops. Was there something specific that gave you the confidence to make those decisions?

LP: [The time off from teaching throughout the pandemic] gave me a little more confidence to do what I think I’m supposed to do, which is my own work. There's a fear when you put yourself out there... what if nobody likes it? Or what if nobody buys it? Somebody gave up that much wall space for me?

When you have the opportunity to test that, which I did in 2020 and 2021, and get the affirmation, you think, “I need to do what I set out to do.” I didn’t sign up for this to just be a teacher – and I really love teaching. In particular, I love seeing when somebody gets it. But it's not what I gave up everything for, it’s not what we sold everything for. We sold everything so that I could paint. The affirmation that I received in the form of sales and general reaction to my work confirmed that it was time for me to do what I set out to do in the first place. I've been very grateful for teaching and my students. It just feels like it’s the right time for me to spend the next several years working at my own craft.

S&C: What do you hope that Museum visitors take away from this exhibit?

LP: Being able to interpret a place through my eyes and then have somebody else relate to that place in some way, either as a memory or because it would draw them to go there – that's a connection. When I paint on location to get this source material, I feel like I own some of that place. It's not like a postcard, it’s not a snapshot... that is in my soul now. And if I can get some of that to seep out, and other people feel that? That would just be the ultimate compliment.

Lori Putnam: Far from Home is on view at the Customs House Museum & Cultural Center in the Crouch Gallery from November 3 to January 3.

loriputnam.com

@loriputnamart

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.