Outside the lines, with Lee Gibson
West Point artist uses a palette knife to ‘build’ paintings
Without ever touching a hammer and nail, oil painter Lee Gibson could be called a builder. With palette knives — not the usual array of brushes — she “builds” vibrant images that lift from the canvas for an almost dimensional experience. The technique, she said, is freeing.
“When I started years ago, I wanted to paint. I needed to. But I thought, the brush is just not right. It’s so muddy, it’s so tight,” said the artist who lives in Starkville. “Why not try a knife? For me, it’s a looser feel. I was forced to stay away from detail with a knife. I’ve worked so much with it now, I can almost wield it like someone would a brush.”
Raised in Annapolis, Maryland, and Westport, Connecticut, Gibson moved to West Point in the 1970s and long ago embraced her Southern surroundings. They emerge in her landscapes, portraits and still lifes. Frequent subjects range from prairie farmland to wildlife, coastal beaches to boats. Water is an old friend she paints often. She grew up crewing for her dad — “he was quite the sailor” — on Long Island Sound.
“I didn’t know it at the time, but I had a charmed life as a kid,” she said.
Vivid color has become Gibson’s signature.
“The vibrant colors started everything,” she acknowledged. Lately, however, she has also produced paintings with more muted palettes for those who prefer them. An “earthy step back,” she calls it.
Gibson’s canvases are carried in galleries throughout the Southeast, including Culin-Arts in West Point.
“Her use of color and depth and texture just brings paintings to life,” said Culin-Arts owner Valeda Carmichael, who has several of Gibson’s paintings in her own home. “Some of them, it seems like you could just walk right into them.”
The artist’s gift for capturing an essence of a person, or even of a favorite hunting dog, generates plenty of commission work.
“She’s really good with so many things, but her wildlife and pets ... she has a real talent, a way to capture their eyes,” Carmichael said. “It’s like they’re looking right at you.”
Gibson is influenced not only by her roots in the Northeast and years in the Deep South: While living in Warsaw, Poland, in the early 1990s, she visited art meccas of the world. She has studied in Paris, Vienna, Amsterdam, Budapest, London, Rome and Costa Rica. She also spent a summer at the prestigious Glasgow School of Art in Scotland.
And if she had to name one artist whose work inspired her? Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890).
“He’s as old as time, and I still love him,” Gibson said. “I love how he struggled. I can identify with that. He was my early, early inspiration, and he’s so phenomenally good. The ones that survive time, those are your really top tier artists, and they just never lose their flavor.”
Even as Gibson completes commissions and new oils for galleries in Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana and Arkansas, she also paints for a cause close to her heart — her annual Art for EB shows. These local events raise awareness about epidermolysis bullosa, a painful genetic disorder that took her 8-year-old grandson, Gabe Valentine. A portion of every show’s proceeds goes toward research into a cure.
Gibson’s latest collection also features new looks coming out of her Starkville studio, some sparked by “inspirational” photos and images she’s accumulated. The palette knife artist is ready to do some exploring.
“I’m gonna try to branch out,” she smiled. “I’m gonna stir it up a little.”
Story by Jan Swoope
Photos by Laura Daniels
