Quiet Hours - Art Opening

Michelle Wilcox is both a studio & plein-air painter in Tallahassee where she will soon receive her Master’s in Fine Art from FSU. Her quiet natured paintings revolve around the idea of looking and taking the time to stop and pause through mindfulness.

Quiet Hours will showcase various series of still lifes, landscapes, and drawings. The artist identifies as a perceptual painter to describe the process of painting directly from life, similar to working in the French tradition of plein air or open air painting. She says about her working process: “I’ve always felt that the act of perceptual painting is inherently mindful. Looking, seeing, and translating bits of visual information into an essence requires fullness of presence which embodies what mindfulness is- the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something. As our culture continues to become more fast-paced and filled with doing, I have found mindfulness to be increasingly important for physical, mental, and spiritual well being.”

Time is important in her work in both the literal time of day and the time she spends making each painting. Her work expresses a mood through light, time, and space of a moment passed. She completes each painting in one sitting and paints the subjects in a one to one scale so they can be a realistic reflection of how much time we are actually able to pause. Quiet Hours is composed of two main series.

The first series presents fruit and ceramic floral plates as its subjects. She says about this work: “In this series I describe the progression of natural daylight through simple observations of shape, light, shadow, color, and temperature. Each painting represents one hour of the day. I’m trying to achieve harmony with these paintings. I have to work quickly before the light changes on me. I simplify and abbreviate where I can, stopping when just enough has been said. It is impossible for me not to think about the long history and tradition of fruit in still life painting, and how can I look at it with a fresh eye.”

Another series displayed in Quiet Hours presents still lifes composed of household objects: books, teacups, and various feminine belongings. She states about this series: “In the book still lifes I present some of my most admired painters, many of them women. I don’t like the way that some academic literature presents some of these women as painters that compromised their careers for marriage & children, so I’m reinvestigating their portrayal alongside feminine objects and symbols such as handkerchiefs, earrings, or reading glasses. The paintings are very much an invitation to contemplate- to pause, look, and question through image.”

Quiet Hours will be on display from February through March 2020. This is Wilcox’s first solo exhibition in Tallahassee. After her upcoming Masters Thesis this spring, Wilcox plans on continuing to paint and to pursue teaching.