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| Wine on the Vine ©Sandi Whetzel For Details, click |
(Please PIN THIS IMAGE FROM THE SITE ABOVE, NOT FROM HERE, to properly link it back to that source)
The Pacific Northwest's regard for wine
inspires me to celebrate the wine experience in
my contemporary acrylic paintings. My images mirror the
emotions, romance, fantasies or whimsy that consumption of wine
fosters. My passion for sensual, curvy, shapes and scintillating
color flows into the graceful wine vessels and alluring human forms
infused in my creations.
I explore how to tickle viewers senses
in ways they have not seen in typical wine-themed art. I imagine
surprising, surreal wine scenarios: Sensual. Seductive.
Tantalizing. Romantic. Playful. It's almost as if I produce
advertisements for the wine industry.
Cropping
my wine narratives to a close-up of the pertinent elements dramatically zooms-in on an intimate view of the novel event --
It suggests an
engaging storyline and some mystery for the viewer. I
think people are looking for a simple elegance in
artwork that separates it from the ordinary. That is my goal in
blending fantasy with reality. I aim to grab the viewers'
attention: "Wow! I've never seen anything like that!"
Most people don't realize how much
thought, creativity and risk of failure goes into each painting. Like grapevines selected for wine
production, the idea for a painting is nurtured, allowed to grow and
take form through pruning and reshaping. As with wine after the
harvest, the images are distilled and refined before they are served
up for enjoyment. My art is a visual
elixir
of seductive, unexpected twists
on
wine.
My fascination with uncommon wine
themes began when I competed creatively to promote a premiere wine
event. Before this challenge, I created sensual floras, usually from
some form of visual inspiration.
The only inspiration this time was an imposed
"Wine on the Vine" theme. I pondered all the
"typical" wine images I had seen, but I wanted an
exceptional concept
to illustrate that theme.
As a
starting point, I considered abstract wine bottles among grapevines.
While sketching some robust, curvaceous wine bottles, I got a
brainsmack! I could encase a cluster of grapes inside open wine bottles
growing from grapevines! I was juiced!
As I
continued sketching, ideas for the painting flowed -- glistening
highlights, colored reflections and shadows in the grapes, bottles,
and leaves revealed form and transparency. I added a pearly
textured moon with light radiating around it into an evening sky. The
wind-blown grape leaves, climbing tendrils and the skewed placement
of the wind-tossed bottles, echoed the radiating pattern of the
moonlit sky. It was an elegant,
serene, scene that said, "Wine on the Vine" just about as
well as anything could, in my opinion.
That
experience, creating something entirely from my imagination, taught
me what can be
when I trust my imagination to lead me. Because that painting was
so popular, I created more wine paintings. My wine images promoted
the 2004 Art About Wine Exhibit, the
2005 Umpqua Valley Wine, Art & Music Festival and the Umpqua
Valley Winegrowers Greatest of the Grape
in 2006, 2011 and 2013. In 2009, one of my wine images won a wine
label design contest for the Downtown Initiative for Visual Arts,
(DIVA) in Eugene, OR.
When viewers connect emotionally with
my art, when they experience it, the art is complete.
I hope people feel about my art the way they feel about good wine --
I hope it elicits pleasure and enhances your life experience.
See more of Sandi Whetzel's art here
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