Where We Live Exhibition

University of the Pacific's Reynolds Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Where We Live: The Paintings of Carolyn Lord and Peggi Kroll-Roberts, the first exhibition of the 2018-2019 season, Monday, August 27, 2018. Join us for an opening reception, Thursday, August 30, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm, when both artists will be in the gallery to discuss their inspirations, work, and career insights. This gallery event is free and open to the public.

Award-winning master artists Carolyn Lord and Peggi Kroll-Roberts are California painters, and as such their work embodies the hot sun, hardy flora, and visual drama of the place where they paint and live. It also embodies something of the spirit of the state; its scrappiness and constant reinvention. Distilled through the filters of t wo unique styles — gardens, landscapes, houses, and figures are the subjects of the paintings on exhibit. With glorious color and exquisite design, these contemporary painters bring scenes from everyday life to their canvases and open our eyes to its beauty.

With insatiable curiosity both Kroll-Roberts and Lord continue to delve into the treasure trove of art history for inspiration and to hone their craft. They also turn again and again to children literally growing beyond the image's edge; gardens unruly and tamed, poised to change again and finding in each new season a deeper understanding of the reasons they make paintings.

About the Artists

A California native, Carolyn Lord grew up among artists with family members working as illustrators and artists in the greater Los Angeles area. She majored in Art at Principia College in Elsah, Illinois where she was introduced to the work of the California Regionalist Watercolor Painters. Back in California, she jumped at the opportunity to study with members of this group. Two months after graduation from college, Lord had her first solo show at the Maybeck Gallery in Elsah and her professional career as a fine artist was off and running. Early on, she traveled extensively, nationally and internationally, painting the unique sights of places visited. The resultant paintings were shown in galleries; won prizes in juried exhibitions; were sought after by collectors; and, brought her to the attention of art publications — Watercolor Magazine, Watercolor Artist, Southwest Art, Plein Air and the California Art Club Newsletter — attention that continues to this day. A signature member of the California Art Club and National Watercolor Society, she has, in mid-career, become an accomplished oil painter as well.

Peggi Kroll-Roberts attended Arizona State University in Phoenix, Arizona and the Art Center in Pasadena, California. After a successful, seventeen-year career as an illustrator, which included a four-year position with the international advertising agency, Doyle, Dane, and Burnbach, Kroll-Roberts turned to fine art as a profession. In 2001, she won two important national awards, the Gold Medal at the Laguna Beach Plein Air Painting Invitational and First Prize at the American Impressionist Society Annual National Exhibition. In the intervening years, she has garnered numerous awards and this year was named the Blackwell Artist in Residence, School of Art, University of West Georgia. In addition to being an award winning artist, Kroll- Roberts is an accomplished and in-demand workshop instructor, producer of an excellent series of instructional DVDs, and the subject of numerous art journal articles. Kroll is a signature member of the American Impressionist Society and the California Art Club. In an article in Southwest Art published in 2014, Norman Kolpas describes her scenes as "...hypnotically peaceful, their inhabitants clearly at ease and enjoying life, whether chatting on a sunny lawn, strolling through a piazza in late afternoon, or lazing on a beach towel. Life is good in a quiet realm that is simply ravishing to behold."