By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Andrea Pereira de Almeida is a dedicated runner, and an even more dedicated artist.
Whether running in Simpson Garden in Bowling Green or in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado or a three-milelong stretch of beach in Brazil, if she sees something that makes an impression, she’ll stop. Take a photo. “It’s that intense feeling that I want to keep looking at this,” she explained.
Later she’ll commit that scene to canvas striving to capture the energy of the place.
Now local art lovers can see a sample of those views that have stopped Almeida in her tracks. Myla Marcus Winery is hosting an exhibit of her impressionistic work. The show opened last weekend, and continues indefinitely at the wineshop at 133 S. Main St. (Hours are Wednesday and Friday, 4-8 p.m. and Saturday noon to 8 p.m.)
The exhibit includes acrylic gouache paintings, both large and small, as well as giclee prints of original paintings.
Almeida said she was always drawn to impressionism. Unlike the flowing strokes of Monet, her brushstrokes are definite and distinct with a vivid color palette of incandescent reds, blue, and yellows.
“I usually start with five colors,” she said. For a palette she uses inexpensive ceramic plates that her mother, Kathy Pereira de Almeida, picked up at Ikea for Andrea’s wedding reception.
One plate may hold blue, then another magenta, maybe the other will have green or another blue, and always white and yellow. That gives her all the colors she will need.
She starts by outlining the scene in a color she intends to expose through the final image. That initial wash has more water mixed with the pigment. Then Almeida paints on top of that layer.
“I look for subtle colors that the more you look at them the more vibrant they appear.,” Almeida said.
The smaller paintings she completes outside in one sitting while outside viewing scene.
The larger scenes take five days to three weeks to complete in the studio.
Almeida, 34, grew up in an artistic family. Her mother has exhibited and sold work in several media, and her father is a woodworker and draws. He makes the wood panels for her work. Her sister Isabel is a potter, the creator of IPA Ceramics.
Almeida said grew up with art supplies around and started painting when she was 10.
She was in the Bowling Green High School studio art program then taught by Becky Laabs and Kim Sockman.
“They were amazing,” she said. “They created a free environment to experiment.”
Laabs “gave us the foundation, the tools we needed to create, and then let us go.”
Almeida worked with Sockman in her junior and senior year focused on painting.
While at BGHS, she was also a member of the nationally recognized women’s cross-country team.
She then went to Bowling Green State University where she studied graphic design in the Visual Technology Communications program. And she continued to run competitively.
After graduation she pursued a career in graphic design in Chicago and then Ann Arbor.
In 2016, she recalls, her mother challenged her daughters to join her in a 10-day art challenge where they would paint daily.
That re-ignited Almeida’s love of painting. She continued after those 100 days. Getting up early to paint before work, and then painting afterward, striving to refine her technique.
She had a good job with a steady paycheck, but she aspired to paint full time.
In 2019, she and her husband, Nick Harvalis, after living in Chicago and Ann Arbor, decided they wanted a more laid-back environment as well as being close to her family, so they moved to Bowling Green.
“They’re a huge support system.” That’s even more true now that the couple has a 4-month-old daughter.
And Almeida is devoting herself to painting.
She started exhibiting. She did the Black Swamp Arts Festival and the Old Town Art Fair in Chicago in 2021, after the COVID canceled both shows in 2020. Her work has also been featured at the Union League Club of Chicago.
She also took part in a spring open air art tour in BG in May 2021 exhibiting her work along with the work of the other family members.
That’s when she met Leslie Madaras, wife of Kevin Madaras, owner of Myla Marcus. Leslie Madaras arranges the art exhibits at the winery.
Almeida also sells her work online at https://www.andreaalmeidaart.com.
But she prefers that people can see the actual painting in a setting such as Myla Marcus. “You have a different relationship to seeing it in person.”
For Almeida the view going forward is clear. “I just want to keep improving my craft as a painter. I’d love to be able to do this as a career for the rest of my life.”
