Madison artist Peg Orcutt said that painting is an extension of who she is as a person. It comes to her as naturally as breathing, and has ever since she was a girl. 

Orcutt's work will be displayed at Carnelian Art Gallery for the month of April as part of an exhibition, titled Shifting Ground, that represents the continuous evolution of Orcutt's own artistic process, and shines a lens on emergent issues related to climate change, as well as the current political zeitgeist. 

Shifting Ground is slated to kick off with an opening reception at 5 p.m. on Friday, April 10, and be on display until Sunday, April 26. As always at Carnelian Art Gallery, admission on opening night is free, and light refreshments will be served. At 6 p.m. on opening reception night, Orcutt will deliver an artist talk about the works she created for Shifting Ground, as well as her general comeuppance as an artist.

Orcutt is originally from the Chicago area. She studied studio art and art history at Wellesley College in Massacussetts, and holds a graduate degree in painting she obtained from the University of Illinois in Chicago. Orcutt taught drawing in Albany, New York, for almost a decade before ultimately moving to Madison with her husband, and two now-grown children. 

I had the privilege of visting Orcutt at her home studio earlier this week to get an inside look at how she creates her visceral and soulful landscape pieces, often depicting representations of fiery, watery, icey and sky scenes. 

"I make a sketch ... and then I have to lay it out on the canvas," Orcutt said of how she begins her painting process. 

Using oil paints, Orcutt subsequently draws out with blue paint where she wants some flames, as well as a horizon to be located. She tells of how she has to grind the paint into the canvas to achieve her hallmark opaque effect. She tends to paint the background first, adding finer details later. 

"In the first layer, you have to kind of grind the paint in," she said. "The canvas really absorbs it. Once you get a whole coat on the canvas, the next layers are easier to add."

Orcutt adds something called "medium" to her oil paints.

"Oil paint is pigment held together with some kind of oil, usually linseed oil," she said. "Medium ... this increases and speeds up the drying (process) and increases gloss. You mix different amounts of medium and linseed oil in the (pigment) to get the consistency you want. 

"The linseed oil is the fat. You always have to have less oil in the paint on the first layers, and then as you build up, you add more and more oil. There's a quick-dry medium, and one that doesn't dry as quickly."

Some pigments are transparent, Orcutt said, while others are not. Working with the differing pigments is something that involves a lot of experiementation, she said. 

Orcutt said she's excited to show her work at Carnelian Art Gallery this month. She thinks the gallery adds a much needed space for artists to showcase their talents in downtown, Madison.