elizabeth lockhart taft

by ann trieger

In August, Elizabeth Lockhart Taft is a green painter. In October, she's a red painter. And in spring, she is a painter of yellows and oranges. Taft is a plein air landscapist, working from remote spots she discovers around Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. She uses pure pigments and does little mixing; her oil paintings don't embellish the rich colors of the seasons, or even the blueness of the sky. "I'm not a storyteller," Taft says. She adds, "It's what I see and yet [they are] completely impressionistic in color and feel."

It was painting the flatlands and expansive views on Nantucket that inspired Taft to paint panoramas. She is known now for these paintings with their all-encompassing scenes, often on canvases up to five feet long. "I was intrigued with her interest in panoramic, long, narrow shapes, because they fit in so many places, but they're very unexpected," says Nancy Shaw Cramer, owner of the Shaw Cramer Gallery in Vineyard Haven on Martha's Vineyard, a gallery that exhibits Taft's paintings. "It's exciting to see what she can do with composition when you have these long lengths."

Some of the spots that inspire Taft look over a pond or a spit of land that opens to a harbor; others have vistas of a field and rolling hills, a slice of ocean and the moors. The deep connection with nature emblazoned on her canvases draws viewers in. Taft captures the light and air and essence of a setting--the "it-ness of a place," as she says.

"She does beautiful work with great feeling," says Holly Alaimo, former owner of the Dragonfly Gallery in Martha's Vineyard, a gallery that exhibits Taft's paintings. "It has many depths to it and yet it's incredibly subtle-looking, until you get close and you really look at how she's layered her colors."

Taft was drawn to the scenery and light on Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. She moved to the Vineyard 11 years ago, knowing there would be boundless scenes to paint on the islands. "People on Martha's Vineyard know her very well because she paints everywhere on the island," Alaimo says. "People see her truck parked in a remote place, and they know Liz is there painting." Taft, 55, displayed a love of nature and a knack for drawing as a young girl living in Maryland. But it wasn't until college that she began to paint landscapes. She took her talent seriously after a teacher encouraged her to consider art as a career. Soon after, she transferred to a Maryland art college and honed her skills as a landscape painter. She returned to school years later and earned a master's degree from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art.

Taft calls William Wendt, a California impressionist landscape painter known for rich greens and browns, her "highest visual mentor." "It's so difficult to paint greens well, and Liz paints green very well," says Shaw Cramer. "She keeps all her greens fresh within a painting."

During the winter, when it's too cold to paint, Taft explores the nooks and crannies of the islands in search of creative inspiration. Most days she and her spouse, Nancy, take their two standard poodles for a long walk. In addition to a way to exercise the dogs, the walk is partly a scouting mission to find new settings to paint when the weather finally warms.

"It's all about the place," Taft says.

Elizabeth Lockhart Taft's paintings are available through www.liztaft.com, at the Shaw Cramer Gallery in Vineyard Haven as well as at the Dragonfly Gallery, Oak Bluffs, and Nantucket Looms, Nantucket.

Ann Trieger is a freelance writer who lives in the Boston area.