Inspiration is just around the corner

The bedroom door was open just a crack. Light spilled through the narrow opening into the darkened hallway, creating a scene that most people might have walked past without a second thought.

But Eugenia “Jean” Conway stopped. Something about the light, the darkness and the partially open door caught her attention. She knew immediately that she wanted to paint it.

Standing in that same hallway in her Las Cruces home, Conway recently demonstrated how the door had been positioned and how the light had fallen. Then she showed the resulting watercolor, a striking composition of rich colors, shadows and light.

That’s often how Conway’s art happens. What might seem to be an ordinary moment suddenly becomes something extraordinary, and she feels compelled to capture it.

“These are the kind of paintings I like because that one just grabs me by the shirt and says you're gonna paint me,” she said, describing the inspiration that sometimes arrives with remarkable clarity.

When it does, Conway doesn't necessarily have to decide how to approach the subject. Sometimes the colors, the medium and even the composition seem to announce themselves.

“Sometimes it just comes to you full on,” she said.

That instinctive approach to painting has become an important part of Conway's life, particularly since she rediscovered her personal artistic interests during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, her work is part of a broader celebration of watercolor painting as the New Mexico Watercolor Society prepares for its fall juried exhibition, “Creative Freedom,” Nov. 6-29 at the Hood Gallery in Las Cruces.

The exhibition will feature 69 paintings by 49 artists from throughout New Mexico, representing a wide variety of styles and subjects. The exhibition's title seems particularly appropriate to Conway, whose own paintings range from landscapes and flowers to portraits and unexpected scenes around her home.

“I let the painting, I let the work tell me what to do,” she said.

That freedom has been a long time coming. Conway grew up in Borger, Texas, a small oil town in the Texas Panhandle, one of nine children in a household where crayons and paper were often waiting when the children got up in the morning.

She suspects her parents may have had a practical reason for encouraging creativity among so many children, but those early mornings helped Conway establish a lifelong connection to art. She was drawing before she started school and continued studying art throughout her education.

At West Texas State University, now West Texas A&M University, she pursued art with an emphasis on graphic design, recognizing that commercial art could provide a career doing something she loved. She spent 15 years as a graphic artist at the university, working through an era when graphic design meant paste-up boards, wax machines and camera-ready artwork rather than computers and digital files.

When Macintosh computers began transforming the profession, Conway purchased her own because the university had not yet embraced the technology.

In October 1990, she moved to Las Cruces to work at New Mexico State University's Center for Educational Development, where her responsibilities shifted from university publications and advertising to graphics designed to support teaching. She eventually spent 25 years at NMSU as a graphic artist and associate director.

While art remained central to her professional life, creating paintings simply for herself largely disappeared. Conway can point to a piece she completed in the 1980s and then to the work she began producing again in 2020. Between them lies a gap of more than three decades.

It took a couple of bicycling friends to help close it. During the pandemic, two friends who had taken up urban sketching invited Conway to join them. Their outings frequently involved watercolor, a medium she had explored in college but had not used extensively for nearly 40 years.

She accepted the invitation, picked up her art supplies and discovered that something familiar was waiting for her. Soon she joined the New Mexico Watercolor Society, where she found other artists eager to share techniques, ideas and encouragement.

But Conway wasn't particularly interested in learning to paint exactly like someone else. At workshops, she said, some participants try to reproduce the instructor's work. She would rather see what she can create using the techniques being demonstrated.

Her subjects are as varied as her interests. A bicycle trip might provide a photograph that later becomes a painting. A dramatic sky over the Organ Mountains might demand immediate attention. Flowers, fruit, people and family memories have all found their way into her work.

Among her paintings are illustrations inspired by letters her father wrote to his mother, including a composition that combines different periods of his life into a single image. The scene wasn't intended to reproduce a particular moment in time. It was intended to tell a story.

Other paintings begin with something much simpler, like a bedroom door left slightly open.

Conway doesn't spend endless hours at her easel. She prefers working for a while, walking away and returning with fresh eyes. Sometimes a problem that seemed enormous while she was painting looks much smaller after a break. Painting provides something beyond the satisfaction of producing a finished work. Like bicycling, it allows her to become absorbed in the moment and temporarily escape the distractions and concerns of the outside world.

“When you're doing those things, it's like you can't pay attention to the rest of the world,” she said. “It kind of gives you some relief from all the stuff that's going on.”

She also doesn't measure the value of her paintings by whether someone wants to buy them.

“I have never sold a painting,” Conway said. “I don't paint for things to be sold. So, I paint because it just has to come out of me.”

The upcoming exhibition brings together artists who share that dedication to creating, although their methods, styles and motivations may differ considerably. The New Mexico Watercolor Society's Southern Chapter, established in 2002, provides workshops, demonstrations and exhibitions designed to promote watercolor as an artistic medium.

Conway appreciates both the opportunity to see other artists' work and the commitment required to organize an exhibition involving dozens of participants. The fall show is juried, meaning artwork is selected through a competitive process in which the juror evaluates submissions without knowing the artists' names.

Nationally recognized watercolor artist Don Andrews selected the works for this year's exhibition, and local artist Noël Sandino will judge awards. The opening reception and awards ceremony will take place from 5-7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6, at the Hood Gallery, 3206 Harrelson St. The exhibition continues through Nov. 29.

The show is another opportunity to share Conway’s passion that began with childhood crayons, became a career and eventually found renewed expression in watercolor. Her next painting might have nothing to do with an exhibition, a workshop or even a planned artistic project. It could begin during a bicycle ride, while looking toward the mountains or simply walking down the hallway of her own home.

All it takes is something that catches her eye. Sometimes, even a door left slightly ajar.