Living in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains with all its beauty and inspiration is a gift that any artist would appreciate. Vicki draws upon this inspiration for many of her paintings, as well as creating images that are more dreamlike and abstract in nature. She has been painting in oils for over 35 years and teaches painting lessons at Isothermal Community College, Tryon Painters and Sculptors, workshops, and classes out of her home studio in Tryon, North Carolina.
She began painting at an early age, and was encouraged to do so by her mother, who was artistic. At Cottey College in Nevada, Missouri, Vicki began her formal art studies, then later went on to earn a degree in art from The University of Southern Indiana. Additional courses in realistic drawing and plein-air painting were taken through The Atelier art school in Minneapolis in the 1990’s. It was there that Vicki met her most inspiring teacher, Ceceile Hartleib, who she credits with teaching her more about painting than she ever learned from any other teacher.
After living in Minnesota and New Mexico for many years, Vicki and her husband moved to North Carolina in 2010. Here she continues to paint skyscapes, landscapes, dreamscapes, metaphysical paintings, as well as abstracts in oil, acrylic, watercolor and alcohol ink.
Vicki’s paintings have been shown in over 80 exhibitions, many of them solo. Her paintings hang in private collections across the United States and she welcomes commissions. She is represented by several galleries in North Carolina.
Artist Technique
Vicki had some training in traditional oil painting techniques when she attended classes at The Atelier Art School in Minneapolis in the 1990’s. After spending many years creating art on location (plein-air), she took a lot of those techniques and applied them to her studio paintings. She first tones a canvas with a solid color to remove the bright white canvas (which can be distracting for choosing values during the painting process). Often, the color she tones the canvas with is either a rose color or a soft, warm yellow. After the canvas is toned then she sketches the drawing of the landscape with thinned down paint. Shadows areas are painted in first with a dull purple, which can be lighter or darker values, depending on the contrast desired. If it is a landscape painting the sky will be painted next while the shadow areas are drying. Everything has to be done in stages and there is always drying time between applications of paint. Then the rest of the colors are blocked in, paying attention to value changes. After the first layer is dry, then Vicki will add detail and the final highlights where they are needed. Often, a bit of the rose or yellow from toning the canvas can show through here and there, especially in the sky area. The toning and under painting allow for the final layer to be thinner if she wants the hues from the first layers to show through and add depth to the painting.
Artist Statement
Nature has always been the greatest inspiration for my paintings. I feel very grateful to be living in the mountains of North Carolina and have this constant beauty around me which I can take and create paintings from. My paintings are an outward expression of the inner gratitude I feel. I hope that those who view my artwork are uplifted in some way and perhaps can even feel the same connection with nature I felt when painting. I came from a family of artists and writers so creative activity was encouraged from an early age. It has been fun to experiment with many different mediums through the years. My favorite has always been oils, with alcohol based inks a close runner-up. I have explored lots of different subject matter through the years, including landscapes, animals, dreamscapes, metaphysical paintings as well as abstracts. I feel that art (at least for me) should make a person feel good when they view it. It is a way of bringing more love and happiness into this world.