“Making art was always the thing I most loved to do as a child and that sentiment has continued throughout my life,” says the contemporary painter Lily Prince. Her oil pastel drawings and watercolor and gouache paintings explore perception in the moment, memory of past space and aspiration of future place. “I take to heart the adage that beauty is the greatest form of protest. Working en plein air and in the studio, I attempt to take what I experience observationally in nature and translate it into a language of personal expression and universal significance.” An explorer of multiple terrains and atmospheres, Prince’s work takes on political significance in these times of concerted environmental and societal devastation. Prince remarks, “I consider it a political act to immerse myself in the landscape to record the natural beauty lurking there: perhaps to incite the arousal of sentiment, a stirring of connectedness.” Lily both travels to inspiring locations to paint and draw as well as enjoys working out of her 1850’s barn in upstate NY, where she can make larger studio works. She’d love to live in a warmer climate where should could work outdoors year round. Her first solo show in New York City “Recurring Waves of Arrival,” is up through April 21st at Littlejohn Contemporary in Chelsea. The exhibition consists of paintings Prince completed last year while living in Italy. Next up, she’s scouting new locations for a series she’ll complete back in her studio upstate.
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