Craddock’s landscapes draw on memories of the Mid-South

“Crepe Myrtle, Holly Springs,” oil on linen, 2009; Daisy Craddock

A peculiar quiet intensity radiates from the landscape paintings of Daisy Craddock, as much a result of a golden vision of sincerity, dignity and nostalgia as of the radiance of color and depth of field.

Though she has lived in New York for more than 30 years, Craddock, who was born and raised in Memphis, has maintained ties to her native soil. Her exhibition, “Points South” at David Lusk Gallery through Jan. 30, draws on her memories and recent visits to her grandparents’ farm in Mississippi, a friend’s farm in McMinnville, Tenn., the lake in Chickasaw Gardens and Horseshoe Lake in Arkansas.

“Split Rail Fence,” oil on linen, 2009; Daisy Craddock

“Crepe Myrtle, Holly Springs,” oil on linen, 2009; Daisy Craddock

Craddock turned to landscape painting in the early 1980s.

“It came about almost by accident,” the artist said in a telephone interview from her home in New York. “I had been doing figurative work, and I came upon a big roll of black photo backdrop paper on Crosby Street. I took it home and started making oil pastel sketches, and they turned into landscapes. In those days, I would grid the drawings and blow them up and do these gestural landscapes. I still use the same general technique today, though through the years I developed my vocabulary of line and gesture and color.”

Painting landscapes was a lonely avocation in New York some 30 years ago, when the genre was regarded as old-fashioned and academic compared to more avant-garde styles and philosophies.

“Neo-Expressionism, Neo-Romanticism, all came and went and they were good for me,” Craddock said, “but I do my work and the world changes around me. Once, after I gave a talk, I heard a student say, ‘I didn’t know you could do landscapes.’”

In traditional landscape-painter fashion, Craddock sketches outdoors.

“I have this whole contraption,” she said, “with a folding chair and a portfolio with thousands of oil pastels. I used to plop down right in the tall grass, but I don’t do that anymore. There’s Lyme disease in the Northeast.” She uses photographs, “but not of specific subjects. They’re more informational.”

The artist said that she feels her new paintings at David Lusk Gallery represent “a turning point. I think that the work has gotten more focused in a different dimension, with a more specific geographical feeling.”

Craddock is a noted painting conservator, a career she started in the mid-1980s.

“Art restoration is an equal passion for me,” she said. “It’s unusual to be both an artist and a conservator. It can inspire you. You have to take off your artist’s hat and approach a painting without ego.”

However much art restoration means to her though, Craddock, 60, is thinking of operating her life and career now on “a five-year plan, so when I’m 65, I can concentrate on painting.”

Daisy Craddock: “Points South”

“Points South” will be displayed at David Lusk Gallery, 4540 Poplar in Laurelwood, through Jan. 30. An opening reception is from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday. Call 767-3800. Also on display: Carroll Cloar, “Family History: Paintings and Works on Paper, 1939-1959.”

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