Brooke Walker-Knoblich
Fusing her Renaissance training with a contemporary expressionistic approach, Brooke Walker-Knoblich uses her unique style to create contemporary, realist paintings. Balancing personal projects with commissions, teaching art classes, and collaborating with local artists, Brooke has found success as an artist living and working in Midtown Sacramento.
Background
Born in 1982 and raised in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Brooke is a fifth-generation Californian. Pursuing her love of art, she earned a BA in Studio Art from UC San Diego in 2005. In 2003, while studying for her BA, Brooke spent a year in Paris, France, where she participated in the Louvre Museum’s Master Copy Program to learn traditional pigment preparation and glazing techniques, as well as studying with renowned contemporary figurative painter Kathy Burke. In 2010, Brooke expanded her classical realism training by painting at the Florence Academy of Art in Italy.
Bodies of Work
Since her graduation, Brooke has vigorously pursued her art by developing three large, ever-evolving bodies of work, which have received national recognition through juried exhibits and Awards of Excellence. These works center around Portrait Paintings, Figurative Paintings inspired by Midtown Sacramento, and Plein Air Landscape Paintings:
Portrait Paintings (example at right): Brooke’s foray into portrait painting began during her stay in Paris, where being alone in a foreign country caused her to perceive and look at people differently. She explains, “With my limited understanding of any spoken language other than English, I had to rely on the faces and bodies of the people I encountered to tell a story.” Since then, Brooke has painted portraits that tell stories and are rooted in place, striving to celebrate the rich diversity of the world through her work. 
Figurative Paintings inspired by Midtown Sacramento (example at right): Roaming the streets with her camera, Brooke observes and reacts, balancing intention with opportunity, to capture the culture of Midtown Sacramento. Inspired by the landscape of tended gardens and Victorian architecture, wide avenues lined with perfectly spaced old-growth trees, and businesses just a few blocks from the neighborhoods, Brooke’s painting series focuses on the magnetism of the people who choose to live in Midtown.
Plein Air Landscape Paintings (example at right): Plein Air Landscape Paintings came later in Brooke’s artistic career, which had previously focused primarily on portrait and figurative painting in a photorealistic style. Painting en plein air was liberating for Brooke, as it forced her to move away from her learned studio techniques and embrace the moment by moment changes that occur with painting outdoors.
Current & Upcoming
Commissions
Since she believes original art should be available to collectors from all walks of life, Brooke offers a diverse range of commissions to accommodate any budget. She can work from a live sitting (perfect for ink or oil sketches) or from a photograph for a more traditional portrait. Brooke is currently accepting commissions for the holiday season! Learn more about how to commission art here.
Teaching
In addition to her own projects and commissions, Brooke teaches advanced oil painting at the Art Club in Sun City, Roseville and holds private art lessons in her Midtown studio. These classes cover everything from the basics (how to “draw” with paint to establish proper proportions, values, and composition) to more advanced techniques (glazing, mixing subtle color, turning forms with soft edges, creating atmosphere, etc.).
Teaching art is very rewarding to Brooke, not only because it’s exciting to see students progress but also because, as she notes, “just the act of putting into words what I may otherwise simply intuit has a way of re-informing my own art, philosophies, and creative processes.”
New series
Currently, Brooke is hard at work painting a new series inspired by local Sacramento musicians. This multi-media project, consisting of 40+ large oil paintings and ink drawings, opens at Gallery 2110 in February 2012.
The inspiration behind the Musician series stems from Brooke’s love for live music and a desire to challenge herself artistically. The new series attempts to viscerally communicate the effect music has 
on people while simultaneously forcing Brooke to break out of the solitude painting typically requires by attending shows, etc. Using broad, loose strokes of highlighted color that explode out of ambiguous shadows Brooke hopes to capture the energy of these performing artists in her paintings.
She expounds, “Any night of the week you can find someone confessing the experiences of the heart and mind through an instrument. I think it’s the way that music physically pours out of these artists—the way a spontaneous note can perfectly harmonize with an echo—that really intrigues me.” [Note: She’s right. Check out Sac365’s Music listings for lots of local music events!]
Additional works in progress
In addition to her new series, Brooke constantly studies and trains her eye through her observations from life—always with a sketchbook in tow. She also tries to make it to a live figure drawing session at least once a week, finding it beneficial to work from a live model to continue her work’s progression.
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