Nikki Basch-Davis exhibit to open at Gallery 621

By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

Painter Nikki Basch-Davis is “always looking for a feeling” in her work. She wants, she said, to draw the audience in with her art, to connect on some level.

To reach the viewer by communicating a shared experience.

That, Basch-Davis said, is more important than earning praise for technical ability.

“Like if somebody said, ‘Wow, I want to put my canoe in these waters’ — that’s an emotional connection to what they are looking at. To me that is a successful painting, rather than just admiring the skill,” she said.

Basch-Davis’s latest exhibit, “Moods,” opening Thursday at Gallery 621 downtown, is a collection of oil paintings that range from sketch-based plein air work to larger pieces.

In each, she said Tuesday as she worked to finalize the exhibit, she strives to evoke a feeling, a memory or a longing.

She related an exchange with a friend who connected with one of her paintings. “He said, ‘You know why I wanted this one? Because I could feel that you were sweating when you were painting it.’ It was very humid.”

Translating that kind of energy into the larger pieces presented a special challenge, Basch-Davis said.

“These (the larger paintings) become a little stifled. It’s hard to take all this energy that you put into something like (a sketch) and have the same excitement when you spread it out to a 50 (inch) by 60, or whatever you want. You have to work hard to keep it fresh enough.

“It gets tired when it becomes too detailed.”

Adorning the wall opposite the urban landscapes are a grouping of four smaller paintings of members of her family in Israel. These four figurative paintings show her mother, her sister and her niece, and each has a story.

And in keeping with the exhibit theme, “it’s not just a portrait of somebody, it conveys a certain mood,” she said.

When Basch-Davis travels, she takes her painting materials along. “These are like a camera for me. I have done them all when I am away,” Basch-Davis said. “When I go home to visit, I have about 12 of these little 9-by-12 masonites. It’s like sketching.”

Closer to home, “Magic Light,” a two-paneled painting, shows the waterline from the end of West Fourth Street. It’s a vista she has painted before.

“I painted that in the ‘80s. I have the same painting at a different angle,” she said.
“It’s interesting how we come back to the same subject matter, see something new in it.”

Basch-Davis used to do a lot of watercolor, and some of the “wash” looks are evident in her larger oil paintings. But her smaller, plein air-style paintings, created with brush and palette knife, are full of texture, too.

“I don’t even know when I am reaching for one or the other. It’s kind of a process of whatever works,” she said.

In future, “whatever works” may extend to the three-dimensional. “It attracts me. I’ve done a few, to learn how to make them stand up,” “ Basch-Davis said.

“I also want to try printing. I want to try everything. Life is too short.”

If You Go
An artist’s reception for Nikki Basch-Davis will take place Saturday from 5-8 p.m. at Gallery 621, 621 First St.