For the past fourteen years April has lived primarily in Orange County. During this period she turned her attention to painting scenes inspired by the canyons, harbors, and coastlines in Southern California. “To capture nature with the fluidity of moving paint is what keeps me constantly pushing for the experience of amazement. The act of painting is serendipity itself.”
In the past few years April has turned her attention to cityscapes and industrial landscapes. This started with paintings of several rail yards and a series of cityscapes of New York. She approaches this new subject matter in the same interpretive style that she brought to the canyon and ocean views, and all in the same spirit of the traditional California Plein-Air movement.
The oldest of 10 children, April was born in Hawaii and was raised in North Florida, along the wooded banks of the St. John’s River. “In those days there was much more open space; pine forests, blackberry patches, swamps, and alligators. My parents were designers and innovators, architecting and building their own home and designing and making most of their own furniture and clothing. They involved all of us children in these projects.“ April spent hours in the woods, sketching and painting both small details from nature as well as large vistas. She would offer these works for sale in her neighborhood to earn needed income for school and art supplies.
With strong encouragement from her high school teachers, she competed for and won the prestigious May-Cohen Art Scholarship, which enabled her to begin her university work in fine arts. “My high school years were immersed in art. My teachers would encourage me to paint murals for the school rather than taking some non-art classes.”
April had the opportunity to study fine art under several masters while obtaining her degree in art at BYU. These included William Whitaker, Gary Ernest Smith, Trevor Southey, and Alex Darais. She was also profoundly influenced by the expansive collection of Maynard Dixon paintings that surrounded her. Shortly after receiving her bachelor's degree April began exhibiting her work at some of the finest galleries in the West, including Clark-Leaming, Tivoli and Voris.
During this time she encountered and overcame two bouts with cancer. These encounters left a deep impression on her work reflecting not only on the frail nature of existence on Earth, but also our struggle with the perception of opposition. It was during this period that she created the controversial “dream” series, renditions of pivotal scenes from the subconscious. These paintings, often autobiographical, deal with emerging self-awareness and growth from the perspective of a woman’s psyche. Many of these are held in private and corporate collections. A sample of work from this period is available on her web site in the “early works” section.
Twenty-five years later, cancer well in remission, April is painting on-site in and around Laguna Beach, California and from her home studio. “Although my plein-air paintings are representational, I am defiantly not trying to emulate photo-realism. Rather, my mind and my eye work together to form a double vision. This brings to the canvas impressions of both the seen and the unseen. Without both visions the scene does not come alive. For me, the process of art is about seeing not only the image, but seeing beyond it.”
April's primary media is traditional artist's oil colors on primed canvas mounted to wood panels. The steps involved in her paintings include:
• Several coats of oil primer over a fine linen canvas to refine the surface
• Application of an undercoat, usually a dark color, depending on the subject matter.
• Layering on lighter coats
• Scribing through to the under layer to achieve a "sketch-like" spontaneous feeling
• Finish detail with a variety of brushes specific for the task
April Raber is an artist member of the California Art Club, and a participating member of the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association (LPAPA), Southern California Artists Association, and Oil Painters of America (OPA). April is also an exhibitor at the Festival of Arts in Laguna Beach, CA, one of the oldest and most respected summer art festivals in the country. April Raber's current oil paintings can be viewed online at http://www.aprilr.com
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