Although Pamela Wingard has always been drawn to art, it took many years and working in two other careers for her to realize she could make a living as a full-time artist. After studying art in college, she switched to a business degree and later accepted a job as an account executive for a human resources software company.
After taking some time away from the corporate world to raise two sons, she went back to school to obtain training in graphic design, thinking she could at least use her eye for digital art to make money in a field related to her first true love. Along the way, she started painting again, something she had practiced in her youth. “I was better at painting than graphic design and realized I could be an artist as a full-time job instead,” she says. Social media helped her showcase her paintings to a larger audience, and her career took off from there.
Not only has Wingard turned art into a career for herself as a landscape painter, but she also teaches beginners painting techniques to help launch them into a world of artistic exploration. Her workshops, painting retreats and “wine and paint” events allow her to teach students about mixing color and using a range of tools. Last summer, she took a group of painting students to Italy. While they were learning, she began painting a series of works in her aptly named That Italian Summer Collection of abstract landscapes reminiscent of notable Italian hillside scenery on the watery Amalfi Coast and the Italian Riviera.
Wingard always paints a series of landscapes as part of a collection, most of which are inspired by her second love—travel. “I love traveling and working those experiences into my art,” she says. “It is a way for me to express what I see in a way that is not literal.” Wingard’s collections help her stay creatively focused as she expresses the feelings of the places she sees on her travels. Each collection centers around a specific color palette and theme that captures the ambience of that locale. She works on several artworks within a collection at once, evolving them by adding layers of paint back and forth between the pieces.
Wingard hails from the Midwest, but she has lived in all four continental U.S. time zones and until a year ago claimed Charlotte, North Carolina, as her hometown. Her late husband grew up in Florida, so her affiliation with the coast is ingrained into her psyche and her work. “My dad got our family used to traveling a lot for job opportunities and for regular summer vacations near the water. I continued that tradition with my own family,” Wingard says. “I have always painted coastal scenes, no matter where I lived.” It was a no-brainer last year when she decided it was time to move; Charleston and its endless supply of ocean, river and marsh views was the place for her.
Famed artist Henri Matisse influences Wingard’s style. “I don’t paint using his methods but love his color palettes and use of line and brushstrokes,” she says. Wingard’s own style is what she characterizes as painterly, with evident brushstrokes that she calls “messy” and “expressive.” Her abstract landscapes are intentionally imperfect and loose; they’re not intended to be an exact representation of the water or land that she is portraying. After painting a scene in acrylics, she draws over the paint in layers of oil pastels, oil sticks, charcoal and graphite. “I have been drawing longer than painting. I believe that’s why I enjoy drawing on top of my paintings,” she says.
Wingard’s expressive style is illustrated in some of her popular collections, such as the Personality Collection, which contains paintings with bold, confident brushstrokes and happy colors that impart a feeling of self-assurance. Paintings in the Wind in Your Hair Collection feature whimsical sailboats and the feelings of freedom and independence they evoke. Not yet released, the Finding Light Collection celebrates Wingard’s observations on a recent trip to Southern France, where she says there is “brighter light and saturated, vivid colors.” The collection hints at a metaphorical movement toward light and enlightenment.
She also works closely with interior designers to paint personalized commissions of abstract landscapes for their clients’ homes. While often the request is for large-format art, she paints a wide range of sizes depending upon the designer’s specific needs. “I enjoy the process of taking fabric samples and paint swatches and turning them into a complementary, nonrepresentational piece of art for someone’s home,” Wingard says.
Her work has been recognized in juried art shows in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida, with the most recent showcase at this year’s Piccolo Spoleto Outdoor Art Exhibition in Charleston. Wingard is represented by galleries, and her work is sold in home décor stores and boutiques in these four states. Both Southern Living magazine and the Charlotte Interior Design Society displayed her artwork in their idea houses in the past few years.
Wingard expresses her need to slow down a bit, focusing less on the whirlwind of art shows she attends and more on painting in her Mount Pleasant studio and teaching fledgling painters her techniques. And, of course, she intends to give more time to her love of travel, continuing to explore new areas that she can bring back to collectors in her expressive abstract style. She says: “Somehow travel makes us feel a little less self-important, broadens our horizons and our point of view, and makes us realize that not everyone and every place is the same. It brings the world a little closer together.”
Dana W. Todd is a professional writer specializing in interior design, real estate, luxury homebuilding, landscape design, architecture and art.
