The Energy of the Forest: Artist Lives By Brown County Time
More than 100 years after the first residents of Brown County settled among the hills, forests and creeks, the communities have, in many ways, remained faithful to their roots.
Few housing developments have disturbed the land, and much of the area is inaccessible to the pervasive technology of the 21st century.
It was only in August that Charlene Marsh was able to replace her dial-up Internet with a high-speed connection.
But the seclusion has helped keep one tradition alive for decades: the arts.
Charlene has quite literally followed in the footsteps of artists like Theodore Clements “TC” Steele, hiking a trail through Yellowwood State Forest armed with only her backpack of oil paints, panels and palette knives.
The great outdoors is her studio, and Charlene sets out to encapsulate an once-in-a-lifetime moment in nature.
“I love capturing the energy of the forest or the flowers, the sights, sounds and smells of being on location,” Charlene says. “I just like that wild, raw energy of working on location. I always think of them [her paintings] as holograms for the forest. They’re a piece of the forest we can bring into our living space.”
The style is known as en plein air, translated from French to “in the open air,” or painting outdoors. All of Charlene’s en plein air pieces are done on location in a single session, and once she’s finished, they are put away to dry without retouching, keeping the moment intact just as she saw it.
As the first flurries of a winter snow settle on the ground, most people withdraw into their homes to watch through their windows. The same could be said for spring showers and high summer temperatures.
As the saying goes, neither rain nor snow nor sleet nor winds can keep Charlene from hiking to new locations.
“Sometimes I wonder, ‘Am I crazy to keep doing this?’ But I love it,” Charlene says. “I guess it’s kind of addictive.”
Charlene has been a full-time artist her entire life, and has focused on her plein air paintings for about a decade. After receiving a degree in fine arts from Indiana University, she began fiber work, creating tapestries and rugs using a tufting process. Learning about dye in fiber work helped her with painting, as she only uses a few primary colors to create the hues she sees in nature.
Charlene moved to her 5.5-acre property in Brown County in 1987, and created a distinct set of barns, sheds and a main house painted in shades of blue, turquoise and magenta.
She has two cats and three dogs, all rescued animals, many from abusive homes. She also has two horses and tends gardens where she cultivates flowers she can paint in her indoor studio as well as en plein air.
The repetitive motion of the tufting process began to cause issues in Charlene’s wrists, and by the mid-2000s, she had to give it up.
On a whim, Charlene entered her oil paintings into a top-notch juried art show at the Milwaukee Art Museum, and to her surprise, she was accepted.
“I thought, ‘Well maybe my paintings are better than I thought,’” Charlene says.
Plein air painting keeps her tuned to the subtle changes of the seasons. She can recall when the first buds of spring appeared, to when the fall leaves changed colors to almost the exact dates, even from years past.
“I get so dialed in to the subtle changes of the seasons,” Charlene says. ““It’s different every day. It’s different from morning to afternoon. It can be tricky trying to predict the weather.”
When the weather is too harsh for outdoor painting, Charlene also does indoor studio work, which is based off her plein air paintings. The larger studio paintings, which are done over several days, take elements of her outdoor work, such as color and composition, to create new pieces.
“Magic happens in the studio and in the field,” Charlene says.
Charlene has sold more than 2,000 paintings, no two alike. She tries to keep as little of her work as possible, traveling across the country to show and sell her paintings, as well as run open houses in her personal gallery, which she opened on her Nashville property in 2010.
Part of selling her paintings can involve talking with customers about where they should hang the paintings in their homes. Charlene uses feng shui, the Chinese art of placement, to decorate in her home and in the booths where she shows her work. She has studied feng shui since 1994, often with miraculous results.
During a particular rough patch in her career, Charlene bought two ducks to put in the pond on her property. The pond is in the area of her property where feng shui adjustments, such as adding an animal presence, can activate “wealth.”
“Within a week I got a phone call from a show … and they said, ‘Are you aware you won an award up there?’ I said, ‘No, what did I win?’ They said, ‘Well, you won the top award: $2,000,” Charlene says. “I thought two ducks, two thousand dollars, I’ve got to get more ducks!”
But the ways to balance energy in the home aren’t exact science. She had success in sales after installing a woodstove in an area of her home that “should” have been enhanced by the opposite energies: cool colors and water elements.
“I think a lot of feng shiu is how does this space make you feel,” Charlene says. “People say art is optional. It really isn’t, because it makes the heart sing. It creates an environment that uplifts the human spirit.”
She continues to submit her work to juried art shows, where painting is often the most competitive category. For every 200 applications, 20 or less might be accepted. And Charlene’s oil paintings are, and often take home top awards.
In June, her 2011 painting "Autumn Glory” received the Jury Prize of Distinction Award at the 80th Annual Juried Exhibition of the Indiana Artists Club.
In July, she received a $2,000 Individual Artists Program grant from the Indiana Arts Commission to install high-speed Internet access in her home, and work on promotion materials for her personal gallery,
Charlene designs all her marketing and promotional items, and keeps detailed records of all her paintings and sales. Without reliable Internet access, it was difficult to manage her self-run art business.
With the grant, Charlene hopes to enter more juried shows, which often use online submission processes, and do more online marketing to promote her gallery, as well as regularly update her website to include more paintings and information.
“I’m always happy when my favorite paintings sell because they’re going to a good home where they’ll be taken care of they’ll be enjoyed, and it inspires me to paint more,” Charlene says.
Homes & Lifestyles of Southern Indiana