Brigitte McReynolds moved to Sonoma with her husband in 1990. Her art alternates between abstract and figurative work, and she favors vibrant colors.Ryan lely/Sonoma Valley Sun
Although painter Brigitte McReynolds has “never stopped doing art” since childhood, she says “it’s a miracle” to be supporting herself as an artist.
Raised in Antwort, a German town much smaller than Sonoma located between Munich and Salzburg, as the seventh of nine children, McReynolds was expected to continue working in her family’s restaurant and hotel. With no hired employees, family members of all ages did the work. Instead, she attended the School of Art and Design in Munich for three years, followed by studies to become an art therapist so she could support herself.
Then she started Galerie Eigenart, which became a successful gallery, even though McReynolds was “very blue-eyed,” or naïve, about the art world.
It was at the gallery that she met her husband, John McReynolds, a chef and former co-owner of Cafe La Haye. In 1989, the couple moved to San Francisco, into an apartment in a Victorian house. McReynolds had saved enough money to paint fulltime for a year, using the dining room as a studio.
After the owner put the house up for sale, Claudia Chapline, a potential buyer who owns a gallery in Stinson Beach, spotted McReynolds paintings. Chapline asked her to replace an artist who had cancelled at the last minute – an extremely lucky break – as exhibits normally were planned well in advance. McReynolds couldn’t attend the opening herself because she had already booked a trip to visit her family in Germany.
In a subsequent piece of luck, a staff member from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art saw her work at the gallery and asked her to donate a painting to the museum’s 1990 fundraising auction.
Wanting to live in a small community, McReynolds moved to Sonoma with her husband in 1990. Still assuming she couldn’t support herself as an artist, she planned to open a shop on the Plaza that would sell clothes she designed plus jewelry. She was on the verge of signing a lease when she had a dream that persuaded her to remain a fulltime artist, even though she had spent all her savings. After her husband agreed to support her, McReynolds opened an “art account” at Bank of America that she still has.
McReynolds’ work is mostly abstract because in Germany serious artists don’t create figurative work, she says. It was the deaths three years ago of two of her nieces in Germany that prompted her to paint more figuratively, because she “needed the human element.” Now she alternates between abstract and figurative work, though her figures of women are pared down, not realistic, and she favors vibrant colors – reds and orange – applied in layers to create thick textures.
She “loves working in oil for its richness and luminosity,” mostly with palette knives and gloved fingers. Acrylic paint “is like vanilla yogurt” to McReynolds, while “oil is like crème brûlée.” About ten years ago she discovered encaustic – heated beeswax with added pigment – that she applies to her oil paintings, then buffs for a “quite magical” effect.
She sells her paintings – which cost between $200 and $9,000 – at her studio in the La Haye Art Center and at galleries in Stinson Beach, San Rafael, San Francisco, Boston and Atlanta.
McReynolds will lead a two-day workshop on mono printing – a cross between painting and printmaking – in early February at the Sonoma Community Center; it is already full. She expects to hold another in the spring.
Brigitte McReynolds
La Haye Art Center
148 E. Napa St., Sonoma
www.brigittemcreynolds.com
Call ahead 707.939.7019
