Mary Anita Winklea
Painter, Designer, Fiber Artist
I began painting when I was sixteen. I had never thought of myself as an “artist” or even “artistic” and neither had my family or my teachers or anyone else...and only recently has a memory re-surfaced of a jewel like childhood moment I was home from school sick. I was sitting in my bedroom in front of a sun filled window. An orange flavored baby aspirin was melting in my mouth and I was coloring...the light was bright, and I was surrounded by a calm silence perfection.
It was Vincent Van Gogh who opened my eyes with his words, viscerally passionate words describing color, light and the act of painting. I am still in awe that a seemingly simple paperback book, Vincent Van Gogh: a self portrait filled with his letters to his brother Theo, ignited my heart and I knew I was a painter and I HAD to paint...and so I did.
And so now 50+ years later when I am painting that calm perfection comes over me. And when challenging myself to capture the light and the moment...finding which colors embody the image and stir the emotion, I think of Van Gogh and his words, “As to doubting whether one is an artist or not—that question is too much an abstraction. I confess, however, that I don’t object to thinking it over, provided I can draw and paint at the same time.”
Realistic or whimsical, I discover something new with each piece I create.
It was Vincent Van Gogh who opened my eyes with his words, viscerally passionate words describing color, light and the act of painting. I am still in awe that a seemingly simple paperback book, Vincent Van Gogh: a self portrait filled with his letters to his brother Theo, ignited my heart and I knew I was a painter and I HAD to paint...and so I did.
And so now 50+ years later when I am painting that calm perfection comes over me. And when challenging myself to capture the light and the moment...finding which colors embody the image and stir the emotion, I think of Van Gogh and his words, “As to doubting whether one is an artist or not—that question is too much an abstraction. I confess, however, that I don’t object to thinking it over, provided I can draw and paint at the same time.”
Realistic or whimsical, I discover something new with each piece I create.