Event
Nicholas Wilton: The Color of ChancePost an Event »
Caldwell Snyder Gallery
June 6 - June 30, 2015Info
341 Sutter Street San Francisco, CA 94108 Google Map »Reception
June 6, 2015 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Prism, Nicholas Wilton
Nicholas Wilton: The Color of Chance Exhibition: June 6 - 30, 2015 Artist Reception: Saturday, June 6, 2015 | 4 - 6 PM Caldwell Snyder Gallery | 1328 Main St. | St. Helena
Observing, photographing and sketching in wilderness areas of Northern California provide Nicholas Wilton with the studies that initiate and inform his work. Arranging and composing renderings from life into abstract compositions and groupings provides the underlying structure of his paintings. In them, natural forms are shown juxtaposed with abstract and spontaneous marks and shapes. His process combines intuitive painting with fundamental principles of color harmony, juxtaposition of form and excavated texture. The resulting work, often called “contemporary organic” addresses the spiritual potency of Nature, and celebrates the fragile balance between the natural and developed world in which we live. Nicholas Wilton’s atmospheric, richly layered paintings function like visual poems, hinting at underlying dialogues and striking a delicate balance between spontaneous action and careful gesture. Rendered in a unique, intuitive color palette ranging from bold blues and blacks to soft pastels, his paintings manage to seem at once ephemeral and structured, loosely woven and tightly conceived. Their graphic and rhythmic compositions seize our attention, while their subtle patterns and details—innovative textures, paint drips, embedded symbols—invite quiet examination. Looking at them, we have the sense that we’re reading a private visual language, the result of years of development and introspection on the artist’s part. Nicholas Wilton lives and works in Northern California. He attended the College of Creative Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and graduated from Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, California. Rich in color, texture and symbols, Wilton’s work references a personal vocabulary of botanical forms, patterns and abstract designs. His paintings have been included in gallery exhibitions around the U.S., placed in numerous collections, and featured on book covers, a U.S. postage stamp, and elsewhere in the public sphere. He lives and works in Northern California.