Stephen EstradaPaintings

Morning, St. Bernard Parish, LA, 2012, 20 x 20 inches, Oil on canvas

Breaking Fog I201424 x 20 inches Oil on canvas

Half Moon Bay III Breaking Fog 2016 60 x 72 inches Oil on linen

Half Moon Bay I 2012 54 x 54 inchesOil on canvas

Blue Morning201620 x 20 inchesOil on canva

Morrow Bay I201272 x 60 inchesOil on canvas

Pacific Dreams201672 x 60 inchesOil on linen

Small Sea I201412 x 12 inchesOil on linen

Sea Break I201212 x 12 inchesOil on linen

Eastern Morning201372 x 48 inchesOil on linen

Caribbean Light at Turks and Caicos201672 x 48 inchesOil on linen

Waveland201340 x 30 inchesOil on linen

Chalk Sound, Turks and Caicos201540 x 30 inchesOil on canvas

Half Moon Bay II201372 x 54Oil on canvas

Green Wall201372 x 54 inchesOil on linen

Dark Wave201412 x 12 inchesOil on panel

Clouds Over Grace BayTurks and Caicos201540 x 30 inchesOil on canvas

Wachapregue Marsh201518 x 40 inchesOil on canvas

Winter Surf II201518 x 24 inchesOil on canvas

Wachapreague, Diptych (Latitude 37 Series)201224 x 96 inchesOil on canvas

Pillar Point, Diptych (Latitude 37 Series) 201324 x 96 inchesOil on canvas

Dune Day 201518 x 72 inchesOil on canvas

Blue Marsh201518 x 72Oil on canvas

Commentary

In a painter’s life there are moments when past and present come together to form an unbroken thread, binding his disparate impulses, both personal and artistic. At these times, the confluence of self and subject seems almost inevitable, even if it has taken a lifetime to realize.

In Stephen Estrada’s Latitude 37 Series, he traces his personal journey from the Pacific coast (he grew up in Los Angeles), to the Atlantic shoreline, near where he has lived for the past thirty-five years. In his paintings from each end of this imaginary geographic line, the artist depicts the sea and the sky above it. Halfway between these termini are paintings from southern Kansas, at the exact midpoint of the country. In his series Estrada traverses the continent, making his life and the expanse of America a reflection of each other.

Accompanying the Latitude 37 paintings are works from Turks and Caicos in the Caribbean and from the Gulf Coast. The latter paintings suggest the destructive power of nature and the personal impact it had on the painter as he and his daughters returned there over a six-year period to help rebuild homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

Estrada approaches his landscapes with a combination of acute observation and impassioned engagement. The sea, marshes, grasslands, and the cloud-filled sky all take on a heightened sense of drama in his deftly painted canvases. This artist’s work embodies an appreciation of nature’s vastness and energy, melded with a sense of tenderness, as if the world was beckoning us to know it intimately.

In the linking of nature and human emotion, Estrada’s work relates to both contemporary artists such as Rackstraw Downes and April Gornick, and to the tradition of 19th century Romantic painting. Perhaps closest to Estrada’s own sensibility is the American painter Albert Pinkham Ryder, one of his acknowledged influences. He shares with Ryder a feeling for the landscape’s emotional undertow, conveyed through the mystery of light.

At the western end of Estrada’s Latitude 37 Series is Pillar Point, which depicts a finger of land at California’s Half Moon Bay. A spectacular panorama, the painting is a over seven feet wide, and captures an overcast sky, a breaking wave and the roiling surf, and wet rocks that glow red at daybreak. At the eastern end of the series is Wachapreague Marsh, another panorama, with the sky tinged with pink, a verdant, watery marshland, and in between the glowing light of sunrise.

In both of these paintings, which exemplify the range of Estrada’s work in the entire series, is a complex chord of feelings that includes the human desire to celebrate the world that presents itself like a gift before our eyes, and a reminder of our fragile place within the natural environment. John Mendelsohn

Stephen Estrada

Biography

Stephen Estrada’s paintings of the ocean and sky reflect an intimate, human connection with the natural world. His work traces his personal journey from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast, as well as a painterly response to sites in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.

Estrada was born in Chicago in 1952. A year later, his father moved the family to Southern California to be closer to his extended family in Los Angeles and Mexico. Early experiences of surfing and hiking there instilled in Estrada a deep feeling for the beauty and power of the natural environment. His mother, a painter who had studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, encouraged his early interest in art.

Estrada attended the Boston Art Institute, but in 1976 after a massive fire destroyed his studio building and nearly all of his paintings, he moved to Washington DC to attend the Corcoran School of Art. There he studied with William Christenberry and Robert Stackhouse who encouraged his interest in the natural world as a source for his work. After leaving school, Estrada created paintings based on personal dream sequences that combined disparate images, culminating in a series of paintings of wolves. By the mid-1980’s, bird imagery started to emerge in his work, along with his interest as a devoted birder. Estrada’s initial large-scale pastel drawings of birds were followed in the next two decades by smaller drawings and paintings.

While continuing his studio practice, Estrada took a job at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, starting a successful 25-year museum career. His positions included exhibition designer at the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery, Design Chief at the National Air and Space Museum, and Curator and Director of the new Diplomacy Center and Museum at the US Department of State.

Estrada’s current body of work grew out of a trip down the Pacific Coast Highway in 2010. Back in his studio, Stephen discovered one of his only early paintings to survive the fire: a surfer skidding down a wave, a memory of his years in California. The canvas moved him to return to the sea as an inspiration for his paintings. His current Latitude 37 Series is an exploration of exact points along the 37th parallel from Half Moon Bay, California, to the midpoint in Kansas, to coastal Virginia. Paintings in the series range from turbulent seascapes with dramatic clouds to tranquil views of verdant marshland.

Estrada’s paintings have been influenced by the 19th century American painter Albert Pinkham Ryder. For Estrada, “The expressionist qualities of his work, his holding of the liminal state, still speak volumes to me…. I’ve tried to create work that invites viewers into a different reality, perhaps a memory, an emotional or even a physical response.”

Estrada is based in Silver Spring, MD, and has had solo exhibitions at the Ormond Beach Memorial Art Museum, Ormond Beach, FL; Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, DC; Durham Arts Guild, Durham, NC; BlackRock Center for the Arts, Germantown, MD; ArtSpace Gallery, Maynard, MA; Delaplaine Art Center, Frederick, MD; Gallery 555dc, Washington, DC; and Easton Arts Center, Easton, MD.

Stephen Estrada

Artist Statement

The Latitude 37 Series is a painterly exploration of exact points along the 37th parallel across America from the Pacific shore to coastal Virginia. The painting from the farthest point west depicts Pillar Point at Half Moon Bay in California. The sister painting from furthest east is of the tidal marshes near Wachapreague, VA.

The two panoramic paintings have a common time of day, between first light and sun up. There are several paintings grouped around each of the two locations. The third setting for works in the Latitude 37 Series is in southern Kansas, halfway between those two points at the exact center of the continent.

Additional paintings depict the waters and landscape of the Caribbean and the Gulf Coast. The latter paintings reflect the painter’s awareness of the powerful effects of Hurricane Katrina, and of the environmental issues that are now well known along almost every coastline.

The process of making a painting begins with taking photographs and making sketches of the shoreline on site. Although it starts out with these visual references, the painting breaks away from those sources and gets in tune with the artist’s personal memories and experiences.

The composition and values are established by overall grisaille under-painting, followed by layering hues in oil paint. During this time the work begins to take on a life of its own – it is really a process of the painting telling the painter what it wants. At times a work can be finished quickly in a series of sessions, or painted over two or three times as it develops, or a canvas will sit for a year or two before it is completed.

The painter’s intention is for the viewer to experience nature and feel its presence by entering into the painting as if stepping into a line of powerful surf: with all one’s senses, aware of place and time, the physicality of the environment, movement and light that reveal the underlying currents and forces. These paintings evoke our enduring connection to the natural environment, the risks it faces, and our responsibility to make it a safe and hospitable place for future generations.

Stephen Estrada

Resumé

Selected Exhibitions2016 Alexandria Athenaeum, Alexandria, VA. Oh the Joy. Group exhibition University of Maryland, University College. College Park, MD. BMRE 3rd Biennial Exhibition Durham Art Guild, Durham NC. Longitude and Latitude: Explorations of Land and Sea 2015 US Department of State Arts in Embassies Program, Residence of the US Ambassador to the United Nations, New York, NY Alexandria Athenaeum, Alexandria, VA. Saturate. Group exhibition Arts Club of Washington, Washington, DC. Recent Paintings. Solo exhibition BlackRock Arts Center, Germantown, MD. Sea Paintings. Solo exhibition2014 Dadian Gallery, Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, DC. 20th Anniversary. Group exhibition Cornell Museum of Art, Delray Beach, FL. Group exhibition Cafritz Art Center, Montgomery College, Takoma Park, MD. Solo exhibition ArtSpace Gallery, Maynard, MA. Solo exhibition Tyndal Gallery, Chapel Hill, NC2013 Council Gallery, Alexandria City Hall Alexandria, VA. Solo exhibition Delaplaine Art Center, Frederick MD. At Land ’s End. Solo exhibition2012 Gallery 555dc, Washington, DC. By the Sea. DC Solo exhibition Gala Arts, Kensington, MD. Group exhibition 2010 Art Spring, Silver Spring, MD. Group exhibition2009 Dadian Gallery, Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, DC. Out of the Land2003 Wholefarth Gallery, Washington, DC. Group exhibition 2002 901 E Street Gallery, Washington, DC. Solo Installation1990 Easton Arts Center, Easton, Maryland. With Respect to Birds. Solo exhibition1989 D.C. Arts and Humanities Grant1987 Arlington Athenaeum, Arlington, Va. Paintings Large and Small. Group exhibition Jack Shainman Gallery, Washington, D.C. Group exhibition Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, Va. Group exhibition1986 Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, DC. Distant Landscapes. Solo exhibition 1985 D.C. Arts and Humanities Grant1984 Gallery K, Washington, DC. Group exhibition

EducationCorcoran School of Art and Design 1979-81The American University 1999 MA Arts Management

Teaching ExperienceGeorge Washington University, Museum Studies Program

Museum ExperienceDirector, Department of State, U.S. Diplomacy Center Museum, 2005-2012Coordinator, U.S. Diplomacy Center, 2003-2005Chief of Design, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, 1997-2003Senior Designer, National Archives, 1991-1997Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery, 1986-1991

Stephen Estrada

Exhibition Fact SheetStephen Estrada

The Paintings of Stephen Estrada: Mapping Memory, Nature and Spirit

Stephen Estrada’s work embodies an appreciation of nature’s vastness and energy, melded with a sense of tenderness, as if the world was beckoning us to know it intimately. In his Latitude 37 Se-ries, he traces his personal journey from the Pacific coast (he grew up in Los Angeles), to the Atlan-tic shoreline, near where he has lived for the past thirty-five years. At each end of this imaginary geographic line, the artist depicts the sea and the sky above it. Halfway between these termini are paintings from southern Kansas, at the exact midpoint of the country. In his series Estrada traverses the continent, making his life and the expanse of America a reflection of each other. Accompany-ing the Latitude 37 paintings are works from Turks and Caicos in the Caribbean and from the Gulf Coast. The latter paintings suggest the destructive power of nature and the personal impact it had on the painter as he and his daughters returned there over a six-year period to help rebuild homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Estrada approaches his landscapes with a combination of acute observation and impassioned engagement. The sea, marshes, grasslands, and the cloud-filled sky all take on a heightened sense of drama in his deftly painted canvases.

NUMBER OF OBJECTS:

SPACE REQUIREMENTS:

PARTICIPATION FEE:

INSTALLATION:

TRANSPORTATION:

COMPLEMENTARY SUPPORT MATERIALS:

23 paintings on canvas and linen. Sizes, dates and media featured on pdf presentation. (www.ktcassoc.com/Curators/Artists’ PDFs).

180-200 running feet depending on installationand selection.

Round-trip shipping, wall-to-wall insurance of 50% of retail value, in-transit and on-premises.

Work will be sent ready to hang; standard 2D wall hanging apparatus required.

The exhibiting institution will provide all ship-ping and insurance for the exhibition and cover all related costs. This will include full responsibility for delivery to venue following and return to artist at the conclusion of the exhibition. Work must be fully insured during transport and on premises.

Katharine T. Carter & Associates will provide a $200 credit towards the production of a color an-nouncement card, 200 complementary catalogues, and museum wall text. All pre-written press materials, to include biographical summary, artist statement, petite essay, press releases, media re-leases, pitch letters and radio/television spots, to be provided by Katharine T. Carter & Associates.

CONDITIONS: 1. Exhibiting institution must provide object insurance to cover replacement costs should items be damaged or stolen while on premises. Minimum insurance required: 50% retail value. Should loss, damage or deterioration be noted at the time of delivery of the exhibition, the artist shall be notified immediately. If any damage appears to have taken place during the exhibition, the artist shall be informed immediately.

2. Security: Objects must be maintained in a fireproof building under 24-hour security. 3. All packing and unpacking instructions sent by (artist) shall be followed explicitly by competent packers. Each object shall be handled with special care at all times to ensure against damage or deterioration. 4. As stated above (see space requirements), the number of works to be exhibited can be dictated by the space and needs of the exhibiting institution.

5. Exhibitors may permit photographs of the exhibition and its contents for routine publicity and educational purposes only. Exceptions may be made pending discussion with the artist.

CANCELLATION: Any cancellation of this exhibition by the hosting institution, not caused by the actions of the artist, shall entitle Katharine T. Carter and Associates to an award of liquidated damages of $3750.00. The hosting institution further agrees that any suit brought to recover said damages may only be brought in Columbia County, New York.

Contact and additional information: Katharine T. Carter 518-758-8130Katharine T. Carter & Associates fax 518-758-8133P. O. Box 609, Kinderhook, NY 12106-0609 ktc@ktcassoc.com

Exhibition Fact SheetStephen Estrada

For exhibition inquiries contact Katharine T. Carter & Associates

Email: ktc@ktcassoc.com

Phone: 518-758-8130

Fax: 518-758-8133 Mailing Address:

Post Office Box 609Kinderhook, NY 12106-0609

Website: http://www.ktcassoc.com