 | | | Anne Marie Glover (L) and her mother Pam with paintings by each in the
background at a gallery reception in San Francisco. Photo Joe Fitzgerald
| | | | | | With the passing of plein air artist Pam Glover a few months ago, Orinda lost a prolific documenter of the East Bay landscape. No one knows the scope and depth of Pam's artwork better than her daughter, Anne Marie Glover, who discovered a trove of Pam's paintings - many she had never seen before - upon cleaning out the Orinda house that had been the family's home for the past thirty years. "I couldn't believe what I was finding," says Anne Marie, who has recovered hundreds of Pam's landscapes of Benicia, Crockett, Richmond, Half Moon Bay, and Lamorinda.
Managing her mother's art legacy has been a fulltime job for Anne Marie as she has worked to organize the stacks of framed and unframed paintings so the artwork can be displayed for sale, archived, and exhibited. The Epperson Gallery in Crockett, where Pam often exhibited, has acquired several of her plein air landscapes from the area along with sand paintings that she created back in the seventies. Locals will have the opportunity to see a retrospective of Pam's artwork at an upcoming exhibit at the Hearst Art Gallery at Saint Mary's College in Moraga. And, many of Pam's early works, sketches, and painting tools will be maintained permanently in the museum's archives.
Anne Marie, who like her mother is also an accomplished plein air oil painter and art teacher, has a remarkable ability to pinpoint when her mother created each of these new-found artworks based on the subtle changes in Pam's painting style throughout her career. "I recognize ticking that she used in the sky or the detail in buildings, and I can tell when it was painted." And despite having lived in Switzerland for over twenty years before returning to Orinda seven years ago, Anne Marie has an encyclopedic memory for her mother's favorite outdoor painting locations. As a child she often traveled with her mother on painting outings, says Anne Marie, adding, "Many of the scenes depicted in these paintings don't even exist anymore," noting that the landscapes have changed dramatically due to development.
Anne Marie bears the imprint of the time she spent with her mother and the master painters who were her colleagues. "I was never taught to paint," says Anne Marie. "I just hung out with my mom and all these fabulous artists she was friends with." Anne Marie's penchant for art was coupled with ability, and she exhibited twice with her mother at a gallery in San Francisco.
"It was fun when my mom visited me in Switzerland," says Anne Marie. The mother-daughter artist team would set off into the snowy landscape to find a beautiful, soundless setting to paint until their fingertips could not withstand the cold any longer. And while Anne Marie enjoyed the time she spent painting with her mother, she also found the need for her own art space, noting that her mother would set up her easel in one spot, and she would explore the scene from a completely different vantage point several hundred yards away.
Along with all the activity surrounding her art heritage, Anne Marie has continued to carve out time for the weekly art class she teaches to both beginning and more advanced painters at the Orinda Community Center on Thursdays. "I let people paint what they want, outside or inside at the site," she explains, adding that her role is to provide constructive critique and be supportive. "I often bring one of my mom's paintings, because I have so many, which I use to demonstrate art technique," says Anne Marie with a smile.
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA