EFA STUDIO PROGRAM: Member Artists
Vicky Colombet
I am exploring a territory where abstraction and nature meet. Even though my paintings are intentionally non-objective, they are inspired by landscapes. I am trying to capture a fleeting moment in the life of nature suggesting contemplation. My work is subjective, internalized and abstract. It is inspired by traditional Chinese painting, Eastern philosophy, physics and poetry. Also, the writings and beliefs of Schopenhauer and his theory of the Sublime and Leibnitz’s ideas about micro-perception.
From 1974 to 1977, I studied painting in the Paris atelier of the iconoclast Henri Dimier (1899-1986). I had an interest in the metaphysical beliefs in what transcends the physical nature of the world and reality. With Dimier, I was introduced to the old techniques of using oil medium with pigments in a deconstructed process of grinding and mixing pigments with various solvents (oil, copal resin, plaster and water). I have continued with this technique and I have made it my own. With the unique vibrations of pure pigments, I have learned through experimentation with the different velocity and viscosity of mediums and the different granulation and weight of pigments, to translate the ephemeral elements of nature: the mist, the wind, the flow of water. One could also refer to my work as Land Art meeting the tradition of classic oil painting.
I should emphasize that the surfaces of my paintings are totally flat and smooth. The formation of fractals, particles, patterns of chaos in my paintings give the viewer the illusion of a 3-Dimensional topography. Thus, there is an ambiguity to what we see with an uncertain scale - microscopic or macroscopic - it could be a magnified particle that we are seeing or a planetary or interstellar landscape.
My medium (safflower oil, alkyd, mineral spirit) is very fluid. I work with the canvas laid flat on a large table. I use smooth varnishing brushes made of goat hair or squirrel hair to avoid brush. stroke marks. The disappearance of the brush marks reinforces the mysterious quality of the painting and it allows the artist to disappear and for nature to emerge.
