ART source books. Indeed, one can see the correlation between Earle’s paintings and John James Audubon’s 19th century bird illustrations, Ernst Haeckel’s “Art Forms from the Ocean,” and Taschen’s “Garden of Eden,” a compilation of botanical illustrations from the 6th through 20th century. Other books – on Tibetan symbols and motifs, Gustave Moreau’s symbolist narratives, Cezanne’s landscapes, Michelangelo’s figures – provide direction for color, pat2015_Ski_and_Board_Party.FINAL.pdf
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tern, handling of light and form, etc. Another inspiration for Earle is music. She prefers Latin American music to get her moving, or the ebb and flow of movie soundtracks like Harry Potter or the dramatic score to “The Painted Veil” about the ill-fated love story between two Somerset Maugham characters in 1920s Shanghai. Once she’s dialed into a painting, says Earle, she usually finishes it over the course of a few days. Then she’ll
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take it into her home and “live” with it for a bit, reworking areas as needed, trying to make sure it’s what it’s supposed to be. “An artist is someone who is trying to balance,” said Earle. For Earle, that means looking for the “connectedness in things,” including in her personal life tracing back to her upbringing in France. Her parents created the foundation for many things Earle – née Lemaitre – would later incorporate into her artwork. French, but living in Morocco, they idealized the ’50s and ’60s Hollywood version of America. After relocating to Nimes, in Southern France, they ran a farm, which they still operate along with Earle’s older brother and twin sisters, as well as numerous nieces and nephews. Those early experiences manifest in Earle’s lifelong fascination with plants and animals, as well as art. At 17, she attended Ecolé des Beaux-Arts, where she studied art history, sculpture, drawing and art theory that, at the time, focused on the conceptual approaches of French-American artist Marcel Duchamp. After graduation, Earle went to school for floral arts and then for makeup, after which she spent a year in Paris doing mostly theatrical makeup. That’s where she met Tim Earle, a makeup model. Earle joined Tim in Los Angeles, where she took up art and modeled for a nearby art school. “The space and the nature was so big,” said Earle of her first impressions of Southern California. Although she felt an opening of possibilities in her life and her artwork, she was still intimidated by Americans’ cultural boldness and she spoke only a smidgen of English. The couple moved to northern Idaho in 1990, departing soon after to marry in France and spend a year abroad. They visited Thailand, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia. In India, says Earle, she finally learned to speak English. They returned to northern Idaho in 1997 when Earle became pregnant with her first daughter, Gabrielle, now 17 and a senior at Sandpoint High School. Living in Bonners Ferry, Earle ventured into a painting class with Zoltan Szabo,