Oil painter Cindy Walton of Asheville, N.C. is able to convey a moment of complete serenity in one painting, and total chaos in the next. Her passion for impressionism has led to a teaching career, both locally and nationally, with her next workshop being held in New Mexico this October.
As you’ll see, Cindy’s versatility is due largely in part by her meticulous, painstaking method of creation. She first layers the surface of her canvas with paint and cold wax, incising them with sharp-edged tools and large sticks of paint.
You don’t need a vivid imagination to make out the forces of nature at work in her paintings, from coastlines to mountains, gardens to flatlands. . . just take a look below!
If you’re landlocked like me, you’ll appreciate Cindy’s At Sea painting below, and it will probably even remind you of the first time you caught a glimpse of the vast ocean.
Can you picture it right now?
As the sky mists over in salt and sea spray, you near the golden, sandy beach and see your first sliver of water. The hot sand at your feet is no match for the crisp breeze tousling your hair as you set your sights on the horizon, where seagulls caw and beckon you to become adrift, like them. You hear the ocean crash against the shoreline again and again, and it soothes you to the core.
In just a few, varying colors, Cindy is able to tell this expressive story with her painting above, and we see the story unfold before our very eyes.
Next up, Letters to the Land features stunningly unexpected edges and rough textures that bring to mind one of the Midwest’s brittle, winter storms.
Imagine yourself looking down on a ski resort from your hotel room a few floors up. While the ground is tinted in a light layer of green, and pine trees stand resolute before the menacing wind, a flurry of snowflakes whip sideways in the wind high up in the air.
Cindy creates so much horizontal movement that it turns this imaginary scene into a high-action moment! There’s nothing quite like this type of storm, where you can barely see your hand in front of your face. It makes me glad to realize it’s just a painting, and I can enjoy it inside drinking a hot cup of cocoa around the fireplace!
We’ve seen summer and winter—now let’s focus on fall in Autumn Joy below. Found within Cindy’s “Gardener’s Journal,” the painting is a reflection of her perennial garden as it transitions to a new season.
Just as Cindy finds gardening restorative, so also might you find this painting, which contains all those beautiful autumn colors, from brilliant gold to burning orange.
Here in her garden, spindly remains of plant stalks stand up, albeit dry as straw now and just as fragile. A blanket of dried leaves coats the ground, celebrating their last moments of life with a barrage of cozy colors. And, although there is likely to be a day or two left clearing and buttoning up the garden for winter, hours previously spent gardening during these shortened days are giving way to chai tea lattes, snuggly sweaters and football games.
Of course, there’s much more art to see on Cindy’s website. . . just one example, in her “Prayers” portfolio, Cindy depicts prayers for a dear friend during the last weeks of her life. Created with invigorating teals, earthly greens and moody crimsons, the work in this portfolio is sure to speak to you on a deeper level, evoking a sense of peace and even joy and acceptance in the unknown future.
Make sure to check out that portfolio, and all the rest, on her website today.
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