ART FEATURE: PEGGY D. FARRIS
Created
Eternal
Fire and Water
Heron
Life within Life
Mystic Emerging
Passion
Phoenix Self Ressurection
Secret Places
Sky Plateau
Utopia
About the artist:
Peggy D. Farris creates artworks representing each end of the spectrum between Representational Realism and Surrealistic Mystical oil paintings. She is equally passionate and excited in both areas. Although these types of pictures appear to be different from each other, there are many underlying commonalities in their basic design. She begins each artwork with an abstract pattern of shapes, values, and color. From this design, she gradually brings it into either a Representational Realism or Surrealism painting. Soon, her Surrealistic paintings flow into forms that she had not expected. She follows the appearing ideas to create mystical images. Although she uses the same limited pallet color selection along with composition in each style, she achieves very different results. Most resources for all of her paintings are from her imagination, therefore creating an image in either genre that she calls “Peggy’s World.”
Her background as a storytelling, inspirational speaker, and preacher influence her art. Her inspiration for the surrealistic paintings began on December 11, 2018. She wanted a temporary release from the details needed for her realistic art and decided to see what would happen if she let go and just felt the movement of the paint on her canvas. She did not know what to name this genre because she had never seen anything like her result. Her longtime art friend recognized it as surrealism, and then she added the mystic description. This style became a permanent part of her style.
Most of her paintings that sell directly from her gallery are Surrealistic. However, many of the art that people commission her to paint are the Representational Realism style. Over the years, she has painted murals as well as drilling rig portraits. Because of her oil paintings of specific drilling rigs for many corporate offices in the oil industry, a writer for the Daily Oklahoman featured her in the Parade Magazine section of long ago. The title was “Local Woman Strikes Oil and Doesn’t Own a Well.”
Peggy retired from the ministry shortly after her husband passed away in 2015 and she returned to the art community where she has spent most of her life. She has her Doctorate in ministry and owns Whispering Willows Art Gallery at 226 E. Main, Norman, OK. She represents seven artists in her gallery and occasional guest artists as well as her art. Her gallery artists are Irmgard Geul, Enoch Kelly Haney, Gayla Hollis, Todd Jenkins, Kathy Shumate, Eric Spiegel, and Kevin Stark.
When she served as Senior Minister, she also preached on a half hour Sunday morning radio show called Living in the Presence of God. She wrote a weekly newspaper column distributed nationwide, published several books and a monthly mystery magazine. She and her husband owned several businesses over the years before he passed away. She owned Peggy’s Arts & Crafts and Peppermint Gallery in the late 1970s. She founded the Mid Del Art Guild in 1974 and the Norman Art Guild in 2017.
She tells a story with her art and seeks to draw the viewer into the painting by using depth, perspective, and color. When you view her art and can see the depth and perspective as well as the mystery she feels at peace.
