Gainor Roberts

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Gainor Elizabeth Roberts had an early interest in art that was discouraged by her upper-middle-class Quaker family.Jeff Berlinicke, "Carrollwood Cultural Center Curator a Life-long Artist," Tampa Bay Times, April 9, 2013, http://tbo.com/carrollwood/carrollwood-cultural-center-curator-a-lifelong-artist-b82473199z1, accessed February 14, 2014 She was exposed to art due to her great-great-aunt, Ellen Wetherald Ahrens,The permanent collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art includes three Ahrens paintings; for thumbnails see http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/results.html?searchTxt=ellen+wetherald+ahrens&bSuggest=1&keySearch=+Search+&searchNameID=&searchClassID=&searchOrigin=&searchDeptID=&page=1; five Ahrens works are in Philadelphia's Woodmere Museum of Art (http://woodmereartmuseum.org/). a well-known Victorian-era artist who had studied with Howard Pyle and Thomas Eakins.Elizabeth Bettendorf, "A generous, lighted space to create," Tampa Bay Times, March 11, 2006, p. 1 and 7, http://www.sptimes.com/2006/03/11/news_pf/Pasco/A_generous__lighted_s.shtml, accessed February 14, 2014 While Roberts often skipped school to create artwork at home, she had no formal training in art until age 18. Her family would not permit her to enter college as an art major. Instead she attended a summer program taught by the portrait and figure painter, Robert Brackman, whose emphasis on classical technique and color was a defining influence upon her.Camille C. Spencer, "Artist's Corner: Gainor Roberts," Carrollwood Patch, January 24, 2013, http://carrollwood.patch.com/groups/arts-and-entertainment/p/artists-corner-gainor-roberts, accessed February 15, 2014 Roberts studied with Brackman in the summers while attending Elmira College as an English major. After graduation from Elmira, Roberts studied painting at the Art Students League of New York in Manhattan. Later she worked as a graphic artist.

In the mid-1970s, she became staff graphic artist at Mystic Seaport.Bettendorf, p. 1 For almost a decade Roberts and her husband, George Cranston, traveled around the country, living first on a 31-foot sailing sloop and then in an Airstream RV trailer. During this period, she had little opportunity for painting. In the late 1980s she returned to school in order to refresh her skills. Roberts studied at the National Academy of Design in Manhattan with Mary Beth McKenzie and James Childs,Americangallery.wordpress.com/category/childs-james/, accessed Jan. 3, 2014 and at Lyme Academy of Fine Arts in Old Lyme, Connecticut with Deane Keller. She also took workshops with Aaron Shikler. In addition, Roberts studied sculpture at Lyme Academy with Laci de Gerenday.“L. De Gerenday,” 'The Courant', June 19, 2001, articles.courant.com/2001-06-19/news/0106190448_1_new-york-art-world-fine-art-longtime-artist, accessed Jan. 3, 2014

In the 1990s, Roberts began creating works in monotype and moved to Westerly, Rhode Island, where she and another artist, Sandi Gold, ran their own gallery. In 2001 Roberts moved to Zephyrhills, Florida. For several years, she was Art Curator of the Carrollwood Cultural Center in Tampa. She exhibited in several venues in the greater Tampa area and taught classes as well as private students.

A search committee headed by Virginia Laudano,[http://www.ljworld.com/specials/terror_attack/slideshow12-1/pages/6.html Slide show of significant paintings prompted by the 9-11 terrorist attacks]{{Dead link|date=May 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, L J World, featured a painting by Virginia Laudano, accessed 2001 of the Art Club of Sun City Center,[http://www.artclubofscc.org/ Art Club in Sun City Center], Sun City Center, Florida, September 2011, newsletter includes a photograph of three instructors, including Virginia Laudano invited Roberts and Kafi Benz to judge its thirty-sixth annual art show held during February 2003.[http://www.sptimes.com/2003/02/07/Brandontimes/Sun_City_art_show_tod.shtml Sun City art show today], St. Petersburg Times, Brandon Times on-line version, published February 7, 2003, 36th annual show held by SCC in February 2003{{Cite web |url=http://www.theartsmap.com/detail.php?id=603 |title=Gainor Roberts listing |access-date=2020-05-07 |archive-date=2011-07-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716221523/http://www.theartsmap.com/detail.php?id=603 |url-status=dead }} The center was among the locations where Roberts taught many classes.

Her husband died in 2009.

Roberts was a member of North Tampa Arts League, The Exhibiting Society of Artists (TESA), The Egg Tempera Society, and the National League of American Pen Women. She was an honorary and letters member of the New England Monotype Guild.{{Cite web|url=http://www.gainor.biz/about_the_artist.html|title = About the Artist}}

In 2003, Roberts began experimenting with the demanding medium of egg tempera. She was drawn to it because of the luminous color, still visible in medieval and early Renaissance masterworks.Cheryl Bentley, “No Joking, This Artist is into Yolking,” The Tampa Tribune, June 14, 2005 Roberts wrote a monograph on the technique Berlinicke and taught master classes in egg tempera.

File:Feeling_Series,_Inspiration,_2011,_by_Gainor_Roberts.jpg

The Genesis Series, the best known series of egg tempera paintings by Roberts, represent a high point of her use of color and form to layer meaning into her work. The small (typically 6” x 8”) paintings are studies of organic form. All show the ovary of a fruit or vegetable, focusing on the seeds.Evelyn Bless, “Story of a Picture”, Centerpieces, 2, no. 4, p. 3-4 (http://www.carrollwoodcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/2009-Winter-Centerpieces.pdf)

Roberts worked for more than 25 years on her Feeling Series, twelve oil paintings that represent personal emotions.“Art Club Welcomes Guest Artists to Annual Show,” SCC Observer News, 45, no. 2, January 31, 2002. 45, no. 2, p. 1. See also http://www.gainor.biz/feeling_series_booklet.pdf Started in the 1990s, during the artist's recovery period from alcoholism, the paintings initially were therapeutic, to help Roberts break through a creative block. She continued to explore this inner territory through additional paintings, as a way of objectifying what she considered to be private experiences. The works show arrangements of objects within a restricted color palette. Traditional tropes, such as flowers and musical instruments, are repeated and varied; Roberts used them as wordplay, metaphor, and symbol.Evelyn Bless, "A Talk with Gainor Roberts," Centerpieces, 7, no. 2, p. 1, 6-7 (http://www.carrollwoodcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/2014-Spring-Centerpieces.pdf) At the time of her death, the artist had completed all except the last painting in the series, Laughter.http://www.gainor.biz/feeling_series_booklet.pdf {{Dead link|date=February 2022}}

• Pencoyd (Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania)

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"Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, 1600–1800," The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/nstl/hd_nstl.htm; accessed Nov. 10, 2013

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Category:1941 births

Category:2020 deaths

Category:American realist painters

Category:American graphic designers

Category:Painters from Philadelphia

Category:People from Zephyrhills, Florida

Category:American women graphic designers

Category:Writers from Pennsylvania

Category:20th-century American painters

Category:21st-century American painters

Category:American women sculptors

Category:20th-century American sculptors

Category:20th-century American women painters

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Category:20th-century American women writers

Category:21st-century American women writers

Category:20th-century American women sculptors