Blame it all on his roots. Loren Chantland has an eye for the kinds of idyllic rural Midwestern landscapes that make for great paintings, and the artist — who grew up outside of Marshalltown, moved away for many years and then returned two years ago — will have a chance to show off his creations during his upcoming exhibit at the Marshalltown Arts and Civic Center (MACC) with an opening scheduled for Thursday night from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
“For me, painting is like singing. It’s just an expression of the art that’s inside of you, and if you’re singing something that people like to listen to you, then you’re doing something well,” he said. “And if the content of the song resonates with people, then it works. But this is sort of ineffable. It’s not words that you can speak.”
Chantland found inspiration at a young age and sold his first drawing when he was 16 years old. After graduating high school, he went on to Iowa State University and the United States Air Force before settling in Minneapolis in the 1990s. Once COVID hit, however, the idea of coming back to the place where it all began became a lot more appealing.
“I got laid off. Things moved around. My mom needed someone to take care of her. It just all made sense for my wife and I to come down here and take over the family farm,” Chantland said.
In addition to the pieces he creates and sells on his own (many of them on commission), Chantland has also done jobs that are “tangentially related” to art throughout his career, citing paint faux finishes at commercial spaces as far away as Hawaii as an example. But they largely disappeared during the pandemic. As a result, he committed himself to art full time, joking that while he may not be a “starving artist” in keeping with the old cliche, he isn’t living too high on the hog either.
“You don’t see too many overweight artists,” he said.
One of Chantland’s first love as an artist — an an Air Force veteran — was historical aviation, painting vintage aircrafts (especially military planes), and it helped him to realize how much he actually loved painting clouds. Cloud painting led him to conclude he needed to add some landscapes at the bottom, and before long, he was recreating everything from the view outside of his house south of Marshalltown to the famous covered bridges of Madison County to scenes from a trip to Ireland.
“I thought ‘Well, I need a little bit of landscape in the bottom,’ and I realized I’m weak in that. Whenever I’m weak in something, I concentrate on that. Now I need to concentrate on other things,” he said.
While the positive feedback, accolades and financial success help, Chantland still feels that same need to create art he experienced as a youngster, and he’s glad to have a temporary home for his work at the MACC.
The exhibit will run from Thursday until Dec. 20, and most of the paintings on display will be for sale. Anyone interested in finding more of Chantland’s work can visit www.lorenartist.com. The MACC is located at 709 S. Center St.
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Contact Robert Maharry
at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or
rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.
