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The Arts of Roseville, Granite Bay and Rocklin: Edward Mallory Positive Impressions

First connecting with his creative side as a musician, Edward Mallory discovered his passion for painting after retirement and is now an award-winning impressionist oil artist. In addition to producing romantic rural and city life scenes where brushstrokes create the visual focus and lines are minimized, Mallory also teaches popular workshops tailored to beginners. “I believe art exists in each of us and the pursuit of it fulfills our humanness,” shares Mallory. The artist has shown his work at High Hand Gallery, Gold Country Artists Gallery, and A Well Hung Art Collective; on June 2 and July 21, he’s teaching an “Introduction to Oil Painting” workshop at The Bag Lady in Folsom. 


HLB: What do you hope viewers see in your work?   

EM: I like to bring a feel-good nostalgia to my paintings—something people can find themselves in or relate to: a captured glimpse of a familiar moment, a bus ride, a beautiful coastal sunset, children at play. I hope people can find something of themselves in my paintings.


HLB: You also enjoy plein air painting. What challenges does it present? 

EM: Many painters don’t find setting up and painting in nature difficult, but it’s much harder than painting the same scene from a photograph. Standing on a Pacific cliff with the colors changing rapidly as the sunlight moves across the rocks, water, and cliff faces is challenging. You can’t stop things from changing and you can’t chase them. You know you’ll soon be painting something you’re no longer seeing. What helps is I don’t think of it as difficult; rather, I think of it as different. If you approach plein air like the controlled environment of your studio, you’ll be in for a frustrating day.


HLB: As an instructor, what have your students taught you?

EM: Teaching has helped me a great deal as an artist. Anyone who has ever taught knows doing it well is one thing, but to teach well you need to know twice as much. When you slow it down to teach, you’re sitting in the audience; it has to make sense. The process of unwrapping “the how” and “the why,” in order to explain it well, has forced understanding of not only what works but why it works.


HLB: Do you have any words of wisdom for novice painters? 

EM: Anyone passionate about learning to paint can learn to paint well [but they can’t] be afraid of failure or obsess about accuracy and need to keep pushing ahead. My first painting was an apple I’d placed on the kitchen table. I’d bought a couple tubes of paint with names I couldn’t pronounce, a canvas, and a couple of brushes. I pulled a water glass from the cabinet and traced a circle on my canvas. You couldn’t find a person with less artistic skill, yet it didn’t matter. My apple wasn’t good, but I had great fun painting it. The next day I headed back to the art store for more supplies, set up a makeshift studio in a spare room, and over the next five years painted every day.   edwardmalloryfineart.com


The Art Beat

June 30 – The World of Color Ballet. Enter an exciting world of magic as your favorite Disney songs come to life on stage in this production produced by McLaughlin Theatre Co. The show begins at 7 p.m. theatre.mclaughlinstudios.com


By Heather L. Becker