Elaine Dalcher has earned a reputation over the last 35 years for creating bold and colorful oil paintings. Dalcher’s subjects offer the viewer vivid images from a close-up perspective.  Whether it is a still life depicting a space in her home or studio, or a landscape with a tree standing as a figure against the sky, she renders subjects in a way that is at once honest, fresh, intimate and familiar.

Dalcher received her MFA from Western Michigan University in 1988 and is represented in public, corporate and private collections throughout the United States and abroad.  She has shown her work in many galleries and juried competitions around the country, including Lafontsee Gallery in Grand Rapids, Synchronicity Gallery in Glen Arbor, The Nines Gallery in Holland, Michigan, Artemesia Gallery in Chicago, the Grand Rapids Art Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the Muskegon Museum of Art, Western Michigan University, Aquinas College, The Krasl Art Center in St. Joseph, and the Buckham Gallery in Flint, Michigan.

Dalcher is a founding artist of the Tanglefoot Building Artists in Grand Rapids, which is celebrating its 27th Anniversary this November.

Dalcher received the 2012 Grand Rapids, Michigan YWCA Tribute Award in the arts.

ARTIST STATEMENT

In my paintings, I focus on authentic subjects from my immediate surroundings, concentrating particularly on nature and the landscape, the interior and the still life.

My process begins with direct observation: I often work outdoors on location or from a still life in the studio.  I render initial observations in a value-based series of drawings; through these, I seek to understand the space and emphasis of the composition.  I then draw my subject until it becomes a comfortable part of my visual language.

Once I have achieved this level of familiarity, I translate the composition onto a canvas that has been undercoated with a ground – sometimes a traditional raw umber or earth green, but more commonly a lively, but toned down color: dark red, deep orange, yellow ochre, blue violet or yellow green. My palette is bright and vivid, a collection of colors, complements, values and intensities that ranges across the spectrum.  I start with the main subject and work outward to the edges of the canvas. Following this, I rework the image until I am satisfied. 

A recurring feature in my art is the simplified composition, one that relies upon close-up perspective, regardless of content. This reflects the way I see things in my world: clearly, directly, and concisely. Because I am not concerned with elaborate detail, I am able to incorporate expressive brushwork and bold finger-painting in a way that would otherwise not be possible. My overarching goal is to create a balanced piece in which subject, composition, brushwork, and color are blended harmoniously.