Heidi Amenda Marshall hasn’t always been a professional artist. For years, she worked at advertising agencies as a writer and, eventually, as a creative director. She liked her job, but says thoughts of “Maybe I could be an artist” would tug at her regularly as she tuned into her inner voice, which was encouraging her to paint.
Growing up with an artist father (the chief editorial illustrator and courtroom artist for The Detroit News for 35 years, who also enjoyed painting and sculpting ) and after obtaining a BFA in fine arts and English literature from Albion College, it naturally seemed to be a matter of time before Marshall would dive into the waters of being a full-time artist.
looking out my office window some 25 years ago, when working at an ad agency, and I asked myself, ‘What am I doing?’ I finally gave up advertising and became a plein air painter.” That decision coincided with a move to northern Michigan in the late 1990s — and the rest is lakes, sand dunes, old barns, and snow drifts history.
For 10 years, Marshall painted and taught life drawing, literature, and writing (she also has an MFA in literature and writing from Wayne State University) at Petoskey’s Northern Central Michigan College. “That gave me an opportunity to be flexible and (have) time to paint, (and)painting full-time took over from that.”
Today, Marshall, who lives in Petoskey and works out of her home studio, is immersed in all things pastel (and sometimes gouache). “Actually, I’ve never met a medium I haven’t liked,” she admits. Committed mostly to plein air painting, Marshall has found that she loves working with pastels. “It’s a superior medium for painting outside, because with pastels you don’t mix colors and then apply them; you mix right on the paper. When I’m outside, I’m aware of the light, the sun, and the time I have to beat the clock. I grab the pastels and react to what I’m seeing.”
Marshall finds it difficult to pinpoint her style. “I’m a contemporary impressionist,” she says, then quickly adds, “wait, contemporary may be the wrong word. I’m less of a realist and more abstract, but not totally. I leave the door open for different possibilities of expression that can’t be defined.”
The artist, who teaches a lot of workshops in northern Michigan, believes pastels have a prismatic quality. “They’re granular and catch the light, and it’s all about light when painting,” she explains. She also says that with pastels, works can be painterly or graphic, especially when drawing with them. “Pastels have dual possibilities,” she notes.
After she creates a quick value study/drawing of the scene she plans to paint, Marshall will feather, scrape, layer, and blend her way to breathtaking results. Selecting “buttery” Schmincke and edgy Terry Ludwig pastels, she’ll use pressure or lighten up to create her veils of atmosphere, depending on what’s needed. “I dance all over the page (UART or Handbook sanded paper) and have immediate reactions, which is the best way to paint. When I see a scene, I want to get that essence of what touches me in a certain way.”
Marshall says she doesn’t believe in “rubbing the pastels” with her fingers. “I layer. It’s better to just acquire a light touch and be sensitive to the pastels,” she says.
Almost all of Marshall’s works are created plein air, but she admits that working in the natural elements is sometimes tough, and recalls a session where she was unknowingly set up in a tick patch. When braving the outdoors in the winter, the artist often uses a propane heater and foot warmers. “I’ve got it down to a system,” she says. If it’s too cold to paint outside, she’ll create small sketches from her car. “I call them steering wheel paintings,” she says with a laugh.
Why brave the elements? Marshall says it’s all about the force. “I get so much information and a spiritual quality working in nature. I tune into the energy of, say, a tree. It’s sentient — not just an object.” She also finds inspiration for her poetry (Marshall writes poems regularly, and many complement her paintings).
Observing “My Garden,” a Marshall painting that uses springy green-golds and hushed violets to portray a misty dawn highlighted by hardwoods, evergreens, and distant brush, one can sense the artist’s passion for on-site painting. “That piece was inspired by a scene behind my house. I was out there very early, in my pajamas, and used various techniques to get that mist.” One of the things she says she loves most about being a painter is deciding how to convey what she needs to express. “What I’ve discovered is that there are no rules. I’ll find a way to get that foggy, misty, nebulous look.”
The artist says she paints whatever touches her at the moment. “It’s whatever stops me in my tracks and gives me a signal that it needs to be painted,” she shares. And most of those subjects are right here in the Great Lakes State. “I love painting in Michigan. I love the land, the water, the seasons. Michigan has its own unique beauty and special qualities, especially in the northern reaches and in the Upper Peninsula.
Marshall also adores birds. “I have bird feeders all around my house,” she says, while observing a yellow finch outside a window. “I once had a crow leave me gifts — little sparkly things, like a ring out of a Cracker Jack box,” she laughs.
Favorite artists include Russian-American painter Nicolai Fechin and American John Singer Sargent. Spanish painter Joaquin Sorolla is another favorite; Marshall calls him “a gutsy painter.” She also loves the Group of Seven’s works. They were Canadian landscape painters from about 1920 to 1933 who painted together in the Canadian wilderness.
Like her favorite artists, Marshall’s unique approach conveys a keen understanding of color and light. “I’ll put bits of purple in a painting because of the influence of a violet sky. You can play and take liberty, and it still makes sense.” Her sharp use of artistic license is what turned the heads of The Pastel Society of America’s Enduring Brilliance Exhibition organizers at the National Arts Club in Gramercy Park, N.Y. “They contacted me because they wanted to show ‘Winter Path,’ one of my paintings that actually had given me a lot of trouble. It was insane; I wiped it out 11 times, but I wasn’t going to give up on it. It was a real honor to show there, as they have a long tradition of showing great painters.”
At the conclusion of that exhibition, museum staff from The Butler Institute of American Art in Ohio asked if they could display the piece. “That painting taught me not to give up,” Marshall says.
