Having quite a March! Gathering all my abstract paintings for the trip down to Bayou Arts Festival in Houston next week.

Spending time gathering and contemplating my artistic interests and pursuits for this coming Springtime. I’ll be heading back east to Vermont in the next few months, to visit and spend time with nature and east coast vibes, hillsides, barns and buildings, atmosphere, weather, historical components that will drive a series of feeling and knowing and deepening of my sense of place. Internalizing external influences. Painting from a deeper place, a reverence to history, to time spent learning about landscapes, learning about how to make them sing in my work. Learning how to look, how to truly see, and how then to explore my artwork with this more intimate base.

California Dreamin, 48x60, oil on canvas, hanging in a lovely friends’ home. Feeling gratitude and appreciation for all good things that have come into my life during 2021, mixed in with a natural wanderlust for what’s ahead in 2022.

Planning on an Artistic Journey back east next year, Vermont and Pennsylvania in particular, visiting east coast vistas of rivers, streams, farmlands and pastures. Craggy hillsides, soft misty haze of atmospheric light, areas seen and painted by Wolf Kahn in particular. Lots of painting and sketching next year, finding and reinvigorating my artistic muse.

My quest? How do I artistically describe to one the beautiful places I’ll visit with paint and pastel on canvas? Storytelling, describing a sense of place, a sense of light, feelings of warmth and reverence to its rich history. Big plans next year! Circling back to home, east coast bound.

Cheri

I landed in upstate New York during my freshman year of High School, after living in New Jersey urban apartments most of my life.  We finally had our own first home, and my Mom loved her flower gardens and planted veggies in the sloped yard. New York to me was more green, hilly, expansive.  Lots of farms and apple orchards peppered the terrain.  My friend’s families were farmers, with acres of land to play in and explore as teenagers.  Cool grey NY winters had us sleighing down orchard hillsides, gliding past apple trees’ branches hidden in the cold snow, and in humid summers picking fresh crisp apples from trees whose branches were over-laden down with their weight.  Farmlands and the NY countryside were in my immediate line of sight as well as my distant view for many years, and I fully embraced my country experience.

The Hudson Valley was beautiful, as we lived above a bluff overlooking the valley and its famous and historical River. I would sit on our staircase looking out the window, squinting to see the river’s edges bending southeast towards Storm King Mountain, a hazy natural river view filled with atmosphere and ever-changing colors and weather and sunsets.  These views were magical to me.  The movement and sounds of the boats and barges on their river journey to and from New York City.  The apple orchards, and all the fun of running and playing in their openness.  A craggy old farm house of stone, hundreds of years old, a mill house on the side of a small cliff, still in use today.  Apple tree silhouettes growing upright like unified soldiers, receding into the distant hills, out of view.

Sometimes something sits deep inside you, waiting to be artistically explored, waiting to be discovered.  The misty atmospheric weather patterns, marshy river’s edges, surface textures of the bountiful countryside, holds so much magic and possibility for me to explore in my work. I want to paint it over and over with colors, gestures, nuances of perspective, to capture somehow a bit of that emotional connection through revisiting my experience of place, and finally to share that with others, using paint and process as my dialogue.

My quest as an artist lies in creating that sense of wonder and joy with color and gesture, an artistic, interpretive and yet subtly recognizable sense of place in an otherwise color-filled abstracted view.  I have been interested in pushing perspectives in this body of work, creating different compositions; sitting on a hillside looking down into the valley, looking up through the trees, looking out and down onto the river, all these and more are feelings and views of being there that I’m working into my paintings. Colors and gestures painted on my canvases and panels create some of the story I’m telling but leave something to be imagined and interpreted.  Something subtle for you to find, to discover, in my work, that excites you and makes you smile and feel the love for our landscape like I have.

Cheri Vilona

2021

Loveland and Ft. Collins, Colorado have a wealth of lovely Antique Shops, lately I’ve been perusing the old books and magazines in a quest for interesting and thoughtful college pieces. I’ve found some amazing antique ledgers and journals, and spent quite a lot of time finding things that speak to me, and might allow me to incorporate their essence into my artwork.

Spending time in those old shops has opened my visuals to thoughtful and meaningful memories, holding in my hands books with owner inscriptions, dated over a hundred years ago, treasures to sign and date. and pass forward to others. I am hopeful their original owners would be pleased that I see and feel the stories held within the pages and wish to give them their proper reverence.

Even within these dear older pages, the cover pages where the publisher is acknowledged, is real history for my eyes, as I imagine some of these are no longer in publishing, gone from our sights but perhaps allowing me to recreate and repurpose their essence into painting stories.

I’ve spent careful time deciding which publications I’d like to incorporate, and during these quests back in time, feel the sense of history and hope to incorporate it into my collage and oil paintings this year.

Cheri

2021-Explorations in line, form, color. Seeing beyond our local horizon lines, deeply studying landscapes and embracing their emotive components. Atmosphere, land mass and line, organic shapes moving beyond the familiar, abstractions with a bit of connectivity through familiar identity markers, creating emotional and energetic responses within my work.

Paper and panel studies in January, canvas and panels in February. Creating a body of work resonating a sense of place with color and line movement beyond its literal sense. Developing work with oil, water and color, utilizing new approaches with acrylic, oil stick, oil pastel, mixed media papers, India ink, along with various tools to lay down, lift and uncover initial lines, gestures and marks. Working with new materials that surprise me with new possibilities.

August 7, Friday, 5-7PM Artist Opening Solo Show at Mill Contemporary, Canyon Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

These works are my beginning conversation reflective of current times, with a yearning to keep some history and components of the ‘journey towards now’. Surfaces and textures tell unique stories and have unique and reflective histories, showing beautiful and interesting pathways, allowing subtle peeks into past work and reflections while allowing for current thoughts and passions, creating a full spectrum view of artistic explorations.

A recent Anniversary extended trip to Italy brings memories of travel and influences from historical and textural buildings and towns into my sights, creating a perfect harmony of title with lingering memories for each work.  The essence of Italy, its people, the country’s warm sunlight, ancient gardens and mountain vistas, amazing cuisine, its art history, visible poetry of life well-lived.  After each painting is dry and ready for framing, I sit with each work and study the essence of what is before me, exploring each journey of color and texture and gestural conversation, and title each piece from these reflective studies. 

My husband Jim and I are staying home these days, its not a difficult thing for us as we’re both artists working from home, but somehow this feels different. I’ve been looking at work to be simple, simple, not complicated or busy right now. Somehow this feels soothing during this time!

I’ve recycled a few older canvases, and am re-painting them with a new energy and new ideas. Lots of experimental painting is happening for me, using tools and “printmaking” process concepts that create marks and uncover under-layers of color and textures. I’m exploring my need for peaceful artwork and calmer palettes, bringing white back to the forefront to capture space and clean images. My mantra is to create clean, developed, and sophisticated work. Textures seem really interesting to me right now too! Lots of energy and motion to pull from, to create a “start” using texture instead of my usual vibrant color choices, that’s what’s happening here in my Studio these days!!! Stay Safe!

Such a beautiful morning view! Makes an inspirational moment for sure. Reading from Wolf Kahn’s Pastels, 2000 published by Harry N. Abrams NY, “Tis a gift to be simple.” pg. 70. We lost this amazing colorist this month, an artist I am so inspired by in his color choices, color paths, simple and elegant approach to all things landscape. HIs ability to feel the space, and enlighten us with his approach and strategies, gives us all such an insight into his process!!!

I’m listening to his words and reading and incorporating his wisdom into my thoughts as I apply paint to canvas, interpreting the stories and anecdotes as all artists do, but with sincere thanks and appreciation for the gifts he has left to us, and the ability to understand deeply how he worked.

Keeping shapes simple, but with keen understanding of the nuances of light and mass, using “out of the box” open colors in interpretive moments on canvas, gestures with purpose and yet spontaneous to responses from what is before me. I know it might sound corny, but I get him, thanks to his writings and amazing artwork, and I feel enlightened and inspired to make art thanks to Wolf Kahn.

I’ve been reading about the Scottish artist Joan Eardley , American post-war painter Lois Dodd and British traditional painter Fred Cumings’ books this winter, energized by their take on landscape paintings incorporating their vistas, painterly nuances and environmental interpretations. It seems many of the painters I have recently come to love and study, create work in Plein Air and utilize this arena as inspiration for their vast and energetic compositions, unlike studio painting from photographs. I feel a huge personal growth opening, pushing forward this year with abstract landscape oil paintings, and am scheduling time to visit the Rocky National Park and barns around Berthoud, Ft. Collins and Grand Lake in Northern Colorado. I think I finally see beyond the wind, bugs, short sunlight issues, limited palette choices, traveling easel and schlepping supplies, and realize the intention of truly seeing, truly feeling a sense of place, in this way. I’m excited to see what happens with my work this year, incorporating my experience of landscape and nature into my work with outdoors painting and sketching.

Beginning each new year has such possibilities! I’ve been reading Brian Rutenberg’s “Clear Seeing Place, Studio Visits; Mary Gabriel’s Ninth Street Women; along with the incomparable and late Emily Mason, Miles McEnery Gallery Show from NYC. Parlaying between all three, renewing a firm visual of color and its emotive contexts, sweeping gestures from pure abstract to abstract representation, and back again. Reading about those that have come before me give me inspiration, thoughts about process and development of bodies of work, and a keen understanding of placeholders in history that define what we can and do today with art.

In my studio, I’ve recently finished a large commission project over the winter, painting with acrylics on canvas and oil on canvas, with large sweeps of pure color complimented with black lines and shapes and gestures, super happy with the results! 8 30x48 pieces are the result, hope you enjoy!

During my initial painting sessions exploring abstract movement and gestures, my canvases were painted full frame, fully informed by brush strokes and color pathways.  I see these pieces as emotive energetic paintings, with color explorations and movement as the core.  Continuing deeper with this new language of abstraction, during further passes and more completed oil on canvas, I opened the movement, incorporating both large sweeping gestures with calm conversations in color and responding more intuitively to its narrative.

My non-objective series in oil this year has become even more open, further developing these canvas passages between color and gestural dialogue.  I’ve been choosing saturated colors which unveil a pure statement of color that is compelling my gestural responses.  

It’s the most exciting work I’ve done to date, as an artist exploring both medium and process and learning and experiencing, all in the quest of furthering my ability to convey confidence in what I’m saying as an oil painter in the abstract.  I stand back a lot more these days, and read each work as it unfolds, really listening to what it wants from my brush and color choices.  Allowing the painting process to be simple or complex, the overall final view to excite with both statements of energy and peacefulness, final harmonies building as layers of oil on canvas that communicate the story of my process to each viewer.

9-12-2019

Had an amazing experience of camaraderie, artistic instruction in process and development of painting, along with observance of individual processes both unlike and similar to my own. Dialogue both verbal and non-verbal that enriched my artistic touch and experience, something new and invigorating to share through my paintings. Passion, reverence to gesture and pure color, pure materials, spontaneous process and push/pull towards a finished end-work. Thanks to Krista Harris and the fantastic group of career artists she amassed for this Workshop!

Our home in upstate New York was perched above a bluff overlooking the Hudson Valley and the history-rich Hudson River. I would sit on our staircase looking out the window, squinting to see the river’s distant edges and tree-lined shoreline bending southeast towards Storm King Mountain, a hazy natural river view filled with atmosphere and ever-changing colors and weather and sunsets.  These views were magical to me.  The movement and sounds of the boats and barges on their river journey to and from New York City, all these memories holding so much magic and possibility for me to explore in my work.

Sometimes something stirs deep inside you when you make art your life’s work, waiting for exploration and discovery. I want to paint these scenes from memory, over and over with colors, gestures, nuances of perspective.  To capture somehow my experience of place and that emotional connection to the landscape as I saw and felt it, and share that with others, using paint and process as my dialogue.

Evolving as an artist does, my interests grow, change, re-define. I’m interested in the process, the full exploration of tools, paint, mediums, substrates. Organic shapes and views come into my realm, I get inspired by shadows, moving clouds, shapes on the ground of twigs and forrest vignettes. Studio time gets organized, paintings get started, inspirations move me forward into the next group of work.

Im not an artist that only paints one thing, one way, as I think for me to be an artist is to challenge myself, do the unexpected, be unafraid, try. Each day, until I am pleased and am ready to move on to the next work or group of paintings.

Bringing lots of landscapes to this lovely town, to showcase the love I have of our Colorado Landscapes, skies, mountain and tree vistas. Hope to see you there!

A lovely show, well attended with many visitors, met new friends and collectors too!  Installed several abstract works, and am ready for a painting summer!