Whenever Cindy Wickingstad puts brush to canvas she seeks to capture life’s beauty.
That spirit can be found in Wickingstad’s new show at the Showcase Gallery this month, In Pursuit of Beauty. It’s a collection of recent paintings that celebrate life’s beauty and joy.
“People can find the joy behind them and the beauty,” Wickingstad said. “(A painting) is an expression of feelings, that’s the kind of artwork I’m attracted to.”
Wickingstad is self-taught and has been an amateur oil and acrylic artist for years now. She said she has always made art since she was a child and has developed a contemporary style that relies on bold colours and broad brush strokes.
Wickingstad said her art has recently taken on a new dimension in her life. After suffering some personal tragedies she has found painting to be “good medicine” to deal with her grief and pain. Over the last year, Wickingstad said she’s focused on developing a new more expressive style of painting better able to capture emotions.
“Painting is difficult. It takes a lot of time and effort, like anything creative but I can’t stop doing it, I love it,” Wickingstad. “I want to relate to the beauty around me, it has a little more feeling than just reproducing a photograph.”
In Pursuit of Beauty consists of nine paintings from the last few months, two of which are “fresh off the easel.” Most of them are inspired by natural beauty with Wickingstad drawing inspiration from a recent camping trip to Jasper and her backyard especially.
“I’m really trying to vary my brushstrokes and use vibrant colours. It’s almost like a gestalt type of painting where there’s hopefully a lot of feeling and expression in the artwork,” Wickingstad said. “I’m a bright and expressive person and it just has to come out in my art. It flows through me.”
Wickingstad’s show is on display in the South Cariboo Business Centre’s Showcase Gallery until the first Tuesday of December. The business centre is open Mondays to Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. to noon.
patrick.davies@100milefreepress.net
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