Rebecca Allan

Winter Thicket (Amherst, Virginia)

2011

Artist Comments
I used my finger tips to apply many layers of translucent cool colors in oil and wax. There is a softly calm feeling to the quiet distance of the winter trees in the background while one sturdy pine comes forth. Hints of apricot and lavender glow from beneath misty layers. My choice in this color palette lends itself to any season's decor, inspired by Wolf Kahn. The edges of this piece are natural wood. This piece is wired to hang.

About the Artist
Valerie Berkely uses her finger tips as brushes to create her abstract paintings. For Valerie, the art is all about the process, the paint, her mood, and the moment. She admires the artist Wolf Kahn, who once said, “the picture is the conclusion of an experiment in which the hint of an image becomes actuality." Like Kahn, Valerie’s paintings combine pictorial landscapes with painterly abstraction. The vibrant primary colors capture the hues of the sun rising and setting, and the texture of her fingers across the surface divides sea, land, and sky. There is something very dreamy about these works, exemplified by their color, texture, and atmospheric quality. Valerie’s first “art epiphany” was seeing Seurat's La Grande Jatte at the Art Institute of Chicago. “Bowled me over! I actually fell down. And I knew I was to become a painter.”

Words that describe this painting: Impressionism, Wolf Kahn, transparent, translucent, layers, abstract landscape, oil, wax, finger painting, impressionism, landscape, representational, oil painting, purple

Trees In Winter...