Lorraine Strieby: An Artist of Many Talents

Recently returning from a gallery show in Laguna Pueblo, near Santa Fe, NM, an area rich in the history of Native America, “What shall it be today?” she asks herself.  “Design?  Color?  Shape?... Ah, I know!  Just look at that stock of paper in the store!”  One painting leads to another as Chatsworth artist Lorraine Strieby gets her inspiration.

Strieby produces paintings that are upbeat and whimsical and yet have a spiritual quality. Typically she sketches and takes photographs of whatever she’s going to paint. Then in her studio she transfers her thumbnails to canvas or canvas-textured stretched paper.

For the past 10 years she has captured in her art the feelings she experienced at jazz festivals in Birmingham and Atlanta. Her “The Rhythms of Jazz” paintings were exhibited in a gallery in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The city’s forefathers had the foresight to build the French Quarter on higher ground.  Consequently there was hardly any flooding and Strieby’s paintings were put up for display.

Born in Morgantown, West Virginia, Lorraine Strieby began drawing as a child and later attended West Virginia University where she majored in business education. A woman of many talents, she also became a pianist, a clarinetist, and an accordionist. These days she still enjoys occasionally playing “cocktail” piano.

After moving to the West Coast she completed her bachelor’s degree in business education and also earned a California Secondary Teaching Credential at California State University, Northridge. Soon afterward she began studying with master artists Jim Gaines, Gerald Bommer, and Ron Pekar.  She spent the time wisely studying the masters and developing her own style while learning from these well-known artists.  Her business skills helped her develop her art career and market her art.

By the time she had exhibited in a few galleries, she decided to reflect the city of Los Angeles in her paintings.  Her “Series of Angels” became a 2010 calendar.  Strieby’s subjects were people in the city who looked to her like “angels.”  She painted cityscapes and put the people in them.  If you look closely you might see some subliminals:  they’re there but, as intended, don’t jump out at you on first viewing.

Inspiration manifests itself in interesting ways. Strieby said, “In traveling on various interstates, the long-hauler trucks always got my attention. For the most part, their colors and design reflected a sense of pride in personal ownership.”

Her three-year old grandson thought that counting trucks on the road was great fun, so she invented an interactive educational counting game for three year olds and their families: "WannaBtruckers."  Designed to be played while travelling the Interstates, the 18-wheeler Big Rigs on the road are part of the game.

This month, Strieby is exhibiting her paintings at the Benedum Gallery at the Monongalia Arts Center in her home town of Morgantown, WV.  Her painting “Then and Now” will have snippets of the cityscape in the very town where she started.  She says she finds it wonderful to take the city’s buildings and to move them around in Matisse-like fashion.

For more information about Lorraine Strieby and to view examples of her work go to her website.  She also has a page on Sherman Oaks’ Wing Gallery website.