“Moonrise” (2015), oil on canvas, 32 × 38 inches. All images © Phyllis Shafer, shared with permission
For Phyllis Shafer, space and time are inextricably tethered. “The longer I’ve painted, the more I’ve extended my focal range. A spatial stretch in my paintings relates to time and maybe the progression of my life,” she says. “Space is a way of laying out time.”
Shafer is a plein-air painter and translates the boundless landscapes near her Lake Tahoe home into striking vistas tinged with fantasy. From about April to October, she packs up her canvases, brushes, and tubes of oil paints and hikes into the wilderness of the American West. There, she focuses on capturing messages and surprises that spring from the landscape, whether a trio of swallowtail butterflies seemingly appearing out of nowhere or clouds swooping upward like a murmuration swelling on the horizon.
Winter and early spring are spent in the studio, where Shafer veils the terrain in her signature warped style. In works like “Moonrise,” a grassy meadow curls up the sides of the canvas, while trippy, swirling skies ripple across the top. The artist harmonizes a fidelity to the land with her imaginative style and maintains recognizable and biologically accurate specimens amid more surreal surroundings. “This torquing of perspective is just part of what helps to make this feel like it’s my own,” she adds.
“Mt. Tom” (2024), oil on linen, 32 × 38 inches
Just as straight lines are rare in nature, so are they in Shafer’s paintings. Horizons tend to bow and lean across wide sections of the canvas, while wispy, dried grasses and craggy pathways layer wild textures. The artist is attuned to the relationship between the intricacies of the foreground and the vast expanses in the background, adding:
Scale shift is another big one for me. I love focusing on the minutia of what’s right at your feet, the plants that are blooming at that time. What I find is that when I go out to the horizon, I want those peaks to look like those peaks. They’re not generic. I feel this fidelity to a particular mountain range, a particular peak. It’s a way of honoring the place.
Having lived in the Tahoe area for several years, Shafer’s works sometimes document a landscape that’s since undergone a significant change. Cell towers pop up atop mountains, new animals and insects find their way to the region amid warming global temperatures, and populations contract and expand, bringing more people and foot traffic to an area. Spanning two decades, numerous locations, and multiple seasons, her paintings create a rich tapestry of life as it was. “If you love something, then you feel a responsibility to take care of it. And hopefully, that’s my message,” she adds. “Take care of our land.”
The artist is currently preparing for the Coeur d’Alene Art Auction later this month, where “Mt. Tom” will be on view. She’s represented by Maxwell Alexander Gallery and Stremmel Gallery, the latter of which will host an exhibition of her work next year. Until then, peruse an archive of her paintings on Instagram.
“Conifer Dance” (2023), oil on linen, 32 × 38 inches
“Thistle’s Repose” (2019), oil on linen, 32 × 38 inches
“Moonrise Over Stevens Peak” (2022), oil on linen, 48 × 62 inches
“View to Hope” (2022), oil on linen, 26 × 34 inches
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