Meet your makers: Oil paintings of your favorite Tucson spots

Although Elizabeth Langley has lived in Tucson for 15 years, the city still feels new.

When she comes across something interesting to the eye — especially the juxtaposition between midcentury modern and adobe architecture — she’ll snap a photo to paint later.

Some of her artwork — detailed oil paintings on stained wood, cards and prints sold under the shop name Localscapes — features well-known spots from Antigone Books to the Bear Down Gym. She’s also done commissioned paintings of adored spots that have since closed, such as Lerua’s and Flycatcher.

“I always think I’m going to run out of ideas, but I never do,” she says.

Langley, who started Localscapes in 2017, used to paint on larger canvases, but switched to wood as a way to work in a smaller capacity.

“I saw some other artists using wood panels with paint, and some use acrylic paint pens, and I just thought, ‘I want to try with oil paint,’” she says. “I didn’t know how it would feel using those two mediums together and I loved it.”

Once Langley had enough pieces finished, she started applying to markets in Tucson. She says markets are a “great opportunity to meet other artists and connect with artists face-to-face.”

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She also says shoppers will recognize spots in her paintings as “places they know or love,” even sharing memories they’ve made at those places.

Langley, who is from Minnesota, started painting when she was a teen, and although she took some art classes in high school, she’s mostly self-taught.

Although art isn’t Langley’s full-time job, she says: “It’s fun, and it’s a way to use my creativity and expression, so I hope I can grow it.”

Langley is working on a research project that focuses on injustices in society.

“I wanted to find a way to do some art that goes along with that project,” Langley says.

“I’m trying to create images based on data that show inequity in ways that we can move forward by maybe investing in schools and public media and libraries,” she says.

Art pieces related to the research project aren’t on her website just yet, but she’s been practicing with different art styles — linocuts and block printing — to gear up for the project. She expects to create images displaying things like classrooms, newspapers, televisions and people.