Thoughts on Reds and Pinks in “Color Story” Solo Show, Denver 2023:

The primary color Red is eye catching, less being more, intriguing, hard to tame and quite a painterly commitment.  There’s a richness unspoken, a power of intention.  Being moved by first marks creates an energy for me in my studio.  Toning down initial impulses can take an entire painting’s lifetime, solutions and “next moves” might include layering greys over the boldened rouge’s strength and brightness.

My desire is to leave traces and hints of the original emotive energies that Red suggested while complimenting and challenging the overall composition with new discoveries in gestures, shapes and colors. 

Thoughts on Greens and Blues in “Color Story”

Blues give me a feeling of expansive space, vast skies with cloud formations easy on the eye, allowing perceptions of distant hills with flowers, mountains, cool breezes.  Adding green creates drama and can insert natural moments, as many lime greens are stimulating to the eye and some dark olives are mossy, craggy, yielding a sense of damp moss and dirt.  My impulses are fine-tuned with the use of varied warm and cool shades of blues and greens, but are they natural enough and do they compete with our perception of what is real in nature? 

Taming greens can become hard work, toning their vibrance and intensity down by neighboring them with rich varied blues to balance all that is too yellow green, too far from natural foliage.  Blues however seem to yield a good balance in many of my compositions, whether they are warm or cool or grey or bright, they all work for me.  Maybe it is the addition of the off-putting greens that keeps the blues so exciting for me, allowing me to dig deeper in complimenting and contrasting the saturations and values of each color as they speak together.

Thoughts on Yellows and Oranges in “Color Story”

While reading Joan Mitchel biographies I often picture her French gardens filled with sunflowers, a constant inspiration in her later works.  Whether newly fresh from spring, summer heat coloring their yellow and peach petals, or dark ochre and burnt sienna folding over finished in fall, these wondrous flowers brought a personal reflection that we feel in her paintings. 

Transparent yellows added to opaque under paintings create glimmer and shine like our sunshine.  I could add many different hues of Yellow, as they all have a place and a purpose, and layering them is very effective for an overall feeling of joy and simple pleasure.  Yellows to me bring me much happiness, hope, feelings of contentment and goodness to share.  Their history is mixed but for us in modern day times, we are allowed to feel freely. 

In Summary

My process as an artist is to share reds, pinks, blues, greens, yellows, oranges and more as they sing their harmonies with sunshine and optimism and discoveries on canvas.  There are hues that simply go without saying and are meant to be felt.   My artistic journey is in sharing these non-verbal stories that immerse one in the personal feelings the painted colors convey.

Cheri Vilona, 2023