Conversations with Autumn Cobeland

Today we’d like to introduce you to Autumn Cobeland.

Hi Autumn, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’ve been painting since childhood and got my degree in painting from Earlham College. I really enjoy traveling, and this greenway series of gouache paintings is a nod to my love of travel and my love of the out of doors. When I visited an exhibit of Henri Toulouse Lautrec at the NCMA, it inspired me to discover gouache as a means by which to imitate the flat color of lithography. I do enjoy layering watercolor, gouache and sometimes conte crayon as well. I grew up in Raleigh and enjoyed the park system here, but it wasn’t until I began training for a small triathlon that I discovered our amazing greenway. It is my “love note” to Raleigh to celebrate this wonderful trail. I will say that our trail does connect with so many neighbors, that by now my artwork has stretched to celebrate Cary, Garner, and Durham trails.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There was much self-doubt as to whether it was possible in America to make a living as an artist. There was a leap of faith in the beginning to invest what little I had in my pocket into my own artwork. When I sat still and focused in an artist workshop (led by VAE -Visual Art Exchange), the idea came to me to focus on how my artwork could have a broader goal of supporting and celebrating our local trails. I wanted to donate a portion of my print sales in support of the Raleigh Greenway system, and did so through donations to the city parks, then through Triangle Greenway Council, but now have settled on donating to the East Coast Greenway. They are based in Durham and are active in creating and tying together existing trails up and down the whole East Coast.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I have been creating paintings based on our greenway trails for 10 years. I work with a local printer to create open-edition, archival, signed prints and donate a portion of print sales back to the Greenways. I look to vintage travel posters, national park posters, and vintage French advertisements for inspiration. I work with watercolor and gouache (an opaque watercolor) and pencil on archival paperboard. My color schemes lean toward bold, flat dramatic combinations. I have been so thrilled that I get to do something I love on a daily basis. For several years, I had a studio inside Artspace. Now I am part of a collective gallery of artists in City Market (right around the corner from Artspace) called C-MAC (City Market Artist Collective).

We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
I started the Covid quarantine anticipating that I would be super productive in my art studio. I was mistaken! I spent so much time being available to my children and husband (and the pets, and the garden…), not to mention lots of time being thankful that my husband had maintained his job, I really did a lot more “coping” than painting. To be fair, there were some commissions that kept me in the studio, but altogether it was a quiet contemplative, family-oriented time, emphasis on quiet.

Contact Info:

• Email: autumn.cobeland@gmail.com
• Website: autumncobelandpaintings.com
• Instagram: @greenwayartist