Engineering Creativity -
Stacey Peterson Applies An Analytical Mind To An Artistic Pursuit
By Janet Day / Photos by Carter Photographics or Courtesy Stacey Peterson

The left brain/right brain argument comes to an end with Granby oil painter Stacey Peterson. The analytical left side of her brain and the creative right side meld perfectly in the former engineer and current full-time artist.“Even though engineering is very analytical, it’s also very creative,” she said one sunny afternoon in her studio. “Everything in engineering is problem-solving. That background has helped with my painting, with figuring things out on my own.”

She’s not the first artist to put analytical talents to use – Leonardo da Vinci studied the human form inside and out to better depict it in his sketches and paintings. But Peterson’s short career as an engineer surprises some of her customers.

Award-winning Peterson sells her oil paintings through Elk Horn Art Gallery in Winter Park, which specializes in western and wildlife art, and galleries in Breckenridge and Steamboat, as well as commissions generated through her website, www.staceypeterson.com. She has taken a few painting classes and workshops, but is essentially self-taught, relying on the problem-solving engineering education from Colorado School of Mines.

“Stacey is one of those who has natural talents,” said Gary Coblentz, the owner of Elk Horn Art Gallery and host of the annual Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters National Show in Winter Park.

While she started painting portraits, Peterson’s passion is in the landscapes of the West, especially the areas where she has hiked, fished or camped.

“I took a landscape workshop five or six years ago and the instructor asked what I loved,” Peterson related. “I said I loved being outdoors. His advice was that I really needed to paint what I loved. I haven’t done a portrait since then.”

Peterson, 30, doesn’t have to go far to be inspired. The Grand Elk home she shares with her husband, Nathan; 2-year-old daughter, Aspen; and a golden retriever, has jaw-dropping views of snow-capped mountains and rolling ranchland. Her favorite view from home is to the northeast, across downtown Granby and on toward Rocky Mountain National Park. “I’ve probably painted ten studies of it. The sunset is fantastic. It’s different every night,” Peterson said.

Her fascination with western vistas comes from a lifetime in Colorado (except for a brief detour to Texas as a process engineer for Exxon Mobil).

The first thing that catches her eye is light and color, especially their changing effects as clouds move, the sun shifts and breezes blow. That fascination led Peterson to Plein Air painting, the art of painting outside in real time.

“You need to paint fast – one to one and a half hours – and keep things small,” Peterson said. “What you start painting is usually different by the time it’s done.”

Last summer she won the Collector’s Choice Award at the Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters National Show in Winter Park. She doesn’t consider herself a Plein Air purist. She makes sketches, marks where the light hits and sometimes takes photos in order to continue a work in her studio.

“I took a landscape workshop five or six years ago and the instructor asked what I loved. I said I loved being outdoors. His advice was that I really needed to paint what I loved. I haven’t done a portrait since then.” – Stacey Peterson

Peterson works on a large scale, creating oil paintings a few feet tall or wide on a masonite-like board. The size, she said, best captures her subject matter. “You can really experiment with color and brush strokes when working large,” she said. “It’s a more challenging form, which is why I like it.”

Most of Peterson’s work is horizontal, as is so much of the western landscape. But lately she’s been producing more vertical paintings, more intimate close-ups of the elements of a western landscape – aspen trees, meadows, tall mountains.

“I started painting vistas when I lived in Denver, but now that I live among the wide open vistas, I’m painting more intimate scenes,” she said. “The vistas are here all around me; I guess I’m no longer seeking them out.”

A year ago, Peterson moved to Granby where her husband was building homes. She turned a spare bedroom into a comfortable studio with carpeting, soft sage-green walls and a huge custom-made adjustable easel. A laptop computer sits on one desk. Another desktop is covered with a paint pallet, a basket full of tubes of oil paints, a tin of walnut oil used to thin the paint, hand lotion and a ceramic vase full of brushes.

“I use pretty big brushes, thick paint and not much detail overall,” Peterson said. “My style is loose, not photographic, so to achieve a sense of place that people recognize is great. People like to see scenes they know or that remind them of places that are special to them.”

“For the most part, I like to let the person viewing the painting fill in the blanks. I like to engage the brain. It makes painting a little more interesting. It’s like the difference between poetry and reporting. One is more emotional, engaging, requiring some thought. That’s what I want my painting to be like.”

READ MORE STORIES FROM THIS ISSUE:
• Art & Design: Art in the Open - Plein Art Painting
• The Green Parade: Green Profiles, Outdoor Furnaces, Timber Frames, Green Remodel, & Architecture
• A Rebirth on the River: Riverside Hotel
• Special Lifestyle Section
• 2009 Feature Articles