Artist Gertrude Palmer:
(Condensed) by Gigi Harris, May 2006

Gertrude Hendricks Palmer has a venue that includes abstracts, pleine air landscapes, café scenes and
portraits of jazz and blues musicians painted ala prima, from life, a subject close to Ms. Palmer’s heart.  “As
a long time fan of Jazz & Blues,” says Palmer, “I am naturally drawn to paint musicians. The obvious
challenges of capturing the figure animated by music, has its rewards. The portraits draw on Palmer’s keen
ability to quick sketch the scene and capture four movements in one watercolor: time, place, moment, and
expression.  Her abstract paintings are often inspired by Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and Stephan Grapelli
and can be viewed by appointment in her Tallahassee studio.

This collaboration of art and music is familiar to the Lowcountry and Palmer. Husband/artist Dana Palmer is
the son of Alan Palmer, colorful musician/artist who in 1967 founded the now famous Red Piano Gallery,
establishing the art scene on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.  Free wheeling weekly Round Table
discussions, were attended regularly by Walter Greer, Ray Ellis, and Joe Bowler, all of whom began as
illustrators and remain luminaries of the Southern art world. Gertrude Palmer is now adding her considerable
talent to the ranks of this remarkable artistic family that includes over 16 members.

Palmer’s passionate work, illustrates an acute perception of the personality of her subjects. Her technique and
powerful palette were developed outside of the mainstream fine art curriculum; she studied printmaking,
figure study and psychology at the University of Oregon, without any formal training as a painter.

After trading her printmaking technique for the less demanding medium of watercolor, this mostly self-taught
artist traveled the US, Caribbean and Mexico painting "en pleine aire", loosely realistic landscapes. A
workshop with Milton Zorne led her to embrace vivid color and painting ala prima (without preliminary
sketch). In 1998, the artist returned to her Southern roots in coastal Georgia and South Carolina, painting the
disappearing beach cottages and landscapes of the low country, in pure watercolor.

After three decades of painting landscape & figures, Palmer now explores abstract expression influenced by
Jazz greats, as seen in her works Grapelli, and Miles & Miles.  Abstract painting has affected my watercolor
landscapes, giving birth to looseness. I don’t hesitate to combine media and have begun to superimpose drawn
line work that reminds me of Van Gogh’s energetic forms.”

Although Gertrude Palmer is an emerging southern talent, her oeuvre spans over 30-years ever driven by the
demands of the moment and inspirational change

Palmer currently lives and works in Bluffton, South Carolina and Tallahassee, Florida

For further information on the artist, you can email her at: gertswerks@yahoo.com or call the artist at her studio:
843 290 6048