Statement

Painting en plein air challenges the limitations of my perception. In the few seconds between looking from the landscape to the canvas, my brain has formed an imperfect short-term memory of that subject, as is true for any artist trying to translate the world without a photographic memory to support them. I use the lapses that occur between observing my subject and marking my canvas as invitations to invent color and space. I relish the opportunity to lay down a wildly bold pink or exaggerate a slant of light to the point of distortion.

I get a thrill from experimenting with limited palettes and compressed value ranges. It’s been exciting to see how much I can stretch, what I can say, within some tight color boundaries. Color & value exist in relativity, grays and neutrals make more saturated hues feel alive, and each painting is an exercise in building a color world. 

In the past, my practice was defined by the freedom to explore and paint landscapes en plein air, but the demands of new motherhood have made painting on location less accessible. In this season of my practice, I’m finding that my plein air and studio work can (must) exist together. The problems I stumble upon in the field can be investigated during a nap time studio session, and when I get overly precious in the studio, the urgency I feel while painting en plein air can help. Motherhood has made painting feel even richer and quiet moments of mixing and mark making feel luxurious, an ever-present reminder of what a privilege it is to do this work.

About

Bri Custer is a painter investigating perception, memory, and color through the New England Landscape. She received her M.Ed. in Secondary Education (2019) and B.A. in Studio Art with a minor in Psychology (2014) from the University of New Hampshire. Her work has been featured by Hyperallergic, Candyfloss, and on the Create! Magazine blog and can be found at Nahcotta in Portsmouth, NH, Sorelle Gallery in Westport, CT, Dryden Gallery in Providence, RI, and PxP Contemporary Online Gallery. She is currently a full-time artist based in Concord, New Hampshire with her husband Bryan, daughter Leni, and their hound-lab mix, Vinny.