Structures: Urban and Coastal

Live Artist / Tourism Artist

From the artist’s 2013 exhibition materials

Engage with artist Erin McGee Ferrell as she paints the streets of Philadelphia and Portland, Maine. A visual and performance artist, McGee Ferrell invites the public to interact with her while she captures architectural landmarks in oil paint.

McGee Ferrell integrates herself into the art and tourism industry. Through Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube, McGee Ferrell links her painting to the place it was created and to the way she depicted it. This process connects a world audience to virtual travel through the eyes of an artist to Philadelphia and Portland.

Growing up in a historic neighborhood in Louisville, McGee Ferrell was influenced by Victorian architecture and the Kentucky tradition of quilt making. Likewise, her childhood home was decorated with West African sculptures brought back from Nigeria by her missionary grandparents. These influences have contributed to this artist’s love of brilliant colors, patterns, and tilt toward abstraction. Educated at Mount Holyoke College, University of the Arts Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and art study opportunities in Nigeria and Italy, McGee Ferrell is a classically trained artist with twenty five years of experience exhibiting her paintings. Her paintings are in corporate and private collections internationally. McGee Ferrell serves as President of the Board of the Museum of African Culture, Portland, Maine.

Catalog interview

Pam Regan in conversation with Erin McGee Ferrell
From the 2013 Bluestone Fine Art Gallery exhibition catalog.

Pam Regan · I would like to know how the move to Maine has changed you as an artist. There is a definite change in your work since leaving NJ. Can you share with us how and why this change took place?

Erin McGee Ferrell · The colors of Maine are very different than Philadelphia. My palette has taken on many more shades of blue and grey. The light in Maine is different. There is a crisp clearness to how the sun shines through the air. I imagine this difference in light is similar to why French impressionist painters traveled to southern France. Architecture is the subject that fascinates me. Because Portland is not as large as Philadelphia, I have had to search intensely for the subjects that beckon me to paint. Architecture on and near the water has been new for me to work with.

Pam Regan · How did your current body of work for the Structures: Urban and Coastal begin?

Erin McGee Ferrell · Many artists are drawn to Maine for visual inspiration. I moved to the state kicking and screaming from my beloved Philadelphia. For the first six months I sought similarities between Portland and Philadelphia, which brought about the Fire Escape Series of paintings. As the weather in Maine improved I began to really appreciate the beauty and wonder of being near the water. The Sailboat Masts and Coastal Piling series are painted as I embraced the new experience of living near the ocean.

Pam Regan · Please explain your medium and color palette for these works and how they work together or against one another.

Erin McGee Ferrell · Portland architecture is heavy with red bricks and wrought iron fire escapes. The color palette reflected in, “Petra” and other similar works carries Burnt Umbers, Burnt Sienna, Black, and Yellow Ochre. These are the colors of brick and iron.
My Coastal Paintings have BLUE! Blue and grey! It is difficult to get away from these expected colors when surrounded by water and huge skies!

Pam Regan · How has your worked changed since relocating from the Philadelphia area to Maine?

Erin McGee Ferrell · In Philadelphia the niche I created, as an artist was specific to Philadelphia landmarks, tourist sights, and mom and pop neighborhood businesses. I love the Philadelphia neighborhoods and believe that those neighborhoods are defined and created by the personalities of the mom and pop businesses within them. I still want to maintain a presence as a Philadelphia artist because I absolutely love painting on the streets of this city and interacting with the people I meet while working. I also love to promote tourism in the city and speak of the museums, parks, and neighborhoods to everyone I meet. Maine is beautiful five months of the year and other months are challenging to work in because of the cold, early darkness, and silence. I have not yet found my Maine winter voice.

Pam Regan · This current body of work has a more abstract feel. Can you explain why this is now entering your work?

Erin McGee Ferrell · The subjects of my paintings have become more universal and less specific. Part of the change has occurred due to the art market in Maine. I feel a sense of desperation to be connected to the larger world in contrast to the art scene in this quiet place. I want to paint loudly and big and send them out to the world almost like a note in a bottle. I don’t love the specifics of Portland. I love the generalities of the air, sun, brick streets, and water. My work is all based on life and I would challenge the term abstract for the direction my paintings are taking. The description of . . . less specific and more universal . . . yet still in the Post-Impressionistic genre.

Pam Regan · What words would you use to describe your works?

Erin McGee Ferrell · Plein Air, LIVE Painting, LIVE Art, Performance Art, Post-impressionistic, contemporary, architectural, structured, mathematical, landscape with architecture

Pam Regan · What do you want viewers to see?

Erin McGee Ferrell · I want to challenge viewers to see the air around the physical objects as positive shapes, tricking the eye to reverse positive and negative. Instead of seeing the sailboat masts and riggings, I want the viewers to see the air surrounding those objects as solid geometric areas. The negative space in between the railings in the fire escape is as important in the painting as the wrought iron.