Local Artist Brings Wayland Landscapes to Life

While Wayland resident Emily Rubinfeld’s artistic journey has taken her through numerous changes, she now spends most of her time creating acrylic and watercolor renditions of landscapes around Wayland, particularly around Heard Farm.
Art has always been a mainstay in Rubinfeld’s life. Her mother, a painter who worked with pottery at a ceramic studio, exposed her at an early age. She refined her interest through lessons she received from a local art teacher.
Living in New York City and growing up amidst the great art museums proved to be the ideal place for her to flourish as an artist. She attended the famous LaGuardia High School of Music and Art in New York.
Continuing her education at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh,
Rubinfeld earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in printmaking and art education. After graduation, she taught art at Arlington High School and at McLean Hospital in Belmont, followed by teaching art at Wayland’s Loker
Elementary School.
To accommodate her strong interest in artistic media, Rubinfeld also opened her own business, Artistic Photography. Her photography reflects her love for family events. Black and white portraiture is how she captures material for her paintings. She is the former president of the Wayland Arts Council and one of the founders of the art space in the Wayland Town Building.
Rubinfeld describes her artistic ventures as “explorations” — reflections of her walks around her neighborhood, which borders Wayland’s Heard Pond and Pelham Island Road.
“Every morning before coming to my studio, I walk on the conservation
land and breathe the colors of the seasons,” she said. “I take these views and sensations back to the studio with me.”
Rubinfeld’s process is simple: she studies beautiful landscapes while walking, then photographs the scenes she may decide to paint. In her studio, she creates a study that will guide her hand while painting.
She considers her studio in Saxonville Studios in Framingham a reflection of her personality. Rubinfeld strives to strike a balance between making it her creative sanctuary and a meeting ground for artists to share their creativity.
While she has painted with acrylics, oils, and mixed media collage, Rubinfeld now paints almost exclusively with watercolors. She said this was a response to being restricted to her house during the pandemic. Painting on a flat table instead of an easel is another change. This technique was inspired by her young grandchildren painting in her studio. Doing so, she said, allows her to create more fluid brush strokes.
Rubinfeld’s art is not restricted to Wayland landscapes. Over the past four years, she has captured her travels to Crane Beach, Nantucket, and Cape Cod, and as far as New Zealand, Greece, and Australia in over 600 watercolor paintings. She exhibited her work this past year at the Members Exhibition at Arts Wayland and the 26th annual Frances N. Roddy
Juried Exhibition at the Concord Art
Association in Concord, at Three Stones Gallery in Concord, and at Lit Dental in Wayland. Her art can be viewed on her website at emilyrubinfeld.com.