Wendy Gillespie: Capturing Nature’s Power and Beauty

The landscapes of Wendy Gillespie transform her native New Zealand's landscapes into expressions of her own. “New Zealand has beautiful, provocative scenery everywhere,” she says, and in her work she brings the beauty and drama of that scenery into focus. Mountains, forests, and bodies of water in motion are all depicted in environments that not only communicate nature’s power, but also capture its harmony. Gillespie’s sharp eye for light and color gives her works a soft glow and a dynamic feeling of space and movement. That combination results in a distinctive mood, a dreamlike ambiance that makes each scene a personal statement as well as a record of the natural world.

Working in oils on canvas, Gillespie maximizes the effect of the rich, deep colors that oils can provide. From the subtleties of tone she finds in a field of grass to the dramatic shadings of a mountain peak or body of water, she is able to use color to powerfully direct the viewer’s attention, leading the eye toward the crest of a wave or a patch of shadow moving across a meadow. In addition, her compositions have a strong sense of how slightly shifting the balance of an image can bring it alive. This is especially impressive when considering the diverse sizes of her images: from works less than a square foot to a panorama over 20 feet long and 7 feet tall.

Perhaps most important is how Gillespie’s technique allows her to transmit emotion. “My painting style is one where I want to evoke a passion, mood and feeling,” she says. Having worked as a counselor and teacher, Gillespie knows how art can change the lives of both the artist and viewer. Her work powerfully exhibits a physical sense of that knowledge.

Exhibition Dates: October 14, 2016 – November 3, 2016

Reception: Thursday October 20, 2016, 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Gallery Hours: Tues-Sat 11-6

Gallery Location: 530 West 25th St, Chelsea, New York

Event URL: http://www.agora-gallery.com/artistpage/Wendy_Gillespie.aspx

Featured Artists:

Te Hirangi: Wendy Gillespie / a Solo Exhibition

Wendy Gillespie

About the Exhibition

This fall Agora Gallery will highlight one of New Zealand’s most exciting contemporary landscape artists, Wendy Gillespie, with a solo exhibition. Gillespie creates work that stands out among her peers for its technical self-assuredness. She depicts hills that rise gently out of a morning mist, somehow simultaneously slick with a rosy sheen and flecked where tufts of grass poke up. Her trees offer perfectly brittle bark and fluffy leaves in turn. At distances great and small, Gillespie conjures minute details. She also uses natural light to create a palpable emotional atmosphere that is every bit as important as her technique. She has described her goal as “evoking a passion, mood, and feeling,” be it tranquil, roiling, or mysterious. In these unpeopled landscapes, the sun and the finely wrought colors give the audience a guide to complex emotions. Ocean, empty sky, mountains, plains, jagged shorelines - no matter the terrain, Gillespie executes her portrayal with ease and sensitivity.