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Alternative Art Venue In Ashland Welcomes Mood Enhancing Art By Sandi Whetzel

June 30th, 2014

A kaleidoscope of breathtaking color and graceful, animated images will lift your mood as you savor Sandi Whetzel's vibrant art at Royce Realty during the entire month of December and on January 2, 2013.

Whetzel's contemporary acrylic paintings are distinguished by her passion for curvilinear lines, shapes and harmonious color. The radiant chroma, stimulating motifs and rhythmic movements throughout Sandi's art works are sure to tickle your senses. These contemporary art pieces will complement many home interiors exquisitely. Sandi is also known for her signature paintings to promote the Oregon wine industry. To see more of Sandi's art click here To learn more about Sandi and her art,
click here

The gallery space at Royce is a great example of Whetzel's willingness to explore creative venues for sharing her engaging art. Royce Realty is located at 145 E Main St., in the heart of downtown Ashland, across from Starbucks and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Theatres and a short walk from the Art Center, the hub of Ashland art. The staff at Royce Realty encourages visitors to feel free to stop by and browse Sandi's art during the month of December, pick up a brochure or a map, get the latest information on the local Ashland real estate market, or just ask for a good restaurant suggestion.

Royce has requested Sandi Whetzel's art to enhance and draw interest to their space during the month of December as part of Ashland Art Center's Art2Business program. Participating Art2Businesses choose art from a large screened pool of qualified, talented professional artists with a variety of styles and media. This alternative art venue benefits the artists with greater exposure to their art, intrigues clientele, improves employee morale and draws exposure to the businesses from participation in the Art Walks.

Recently the Arts Center has added a free shuttle service to the Art2Business art venues during the First Friday Art Walks. The shuttle, provided by Cascade Shuttle and Art2B, completes its route covering all the Art2B sites every 30 minutes from 5 to 8 p.m. A list of Art2B stops and the route is available as a handout from the Ashland Art Center where the shuttle begins its route and returns every half hour during First Friday evenings.

ARTIST STATEMENT Sandi Whetzel A WINE ODDYSSEY

September 14th, 2013

ARTIST STATEMENT  Sandi Whetzel   A WINE ODDYSSEY

Early in my art career, I was strongly attracted to curvaceous, graceful shapes in sensual flora subjects. After a few years, I took a slight artistic detour--a painting competition to promote a premiere wine event. To win, I knew I'd have to create a concept conveying their theme, Wine on the Vine, better than any other. This challenge was pivotal--I had limited experience inventing paintings from my imagination. I thought about all things wine--grapevines, vineyards, wine bottles, goblets toasting, finely set tables, formally-attired maitre d's, etc. However, I was looking for an exceptional concept.

I honed in on the graceful shapes of wine bottles, thinking I might paint them abstractly, nestled among grapevines. I sketched five robustly curved wine bottles hanging from grapevine stems in groups of three and two--each bottle placed at a slightly different angle, gently swaying in the wind. More ideas for the concept occurred as I continued sketching. Aha! I added a big cluster of grapes growing inside each bottle. And what about adding a pearly-gold textured moon above the grapevines? Using large circular brush strokes, I radiated the moon glow out into the evening sky. Determined, I gathered fallen, wind-twisted grape leaves and grapevine tendrils to study their curving structures. I experimented with the direction and position of each leaf and the careful placement of just a few graceful tendrils to enhance the visual flow of the vines.

Ideas for the painting continued flowing--glistening highlights, colored reflections and shadows in the grapes, bottles and leaves revealed form and transparency. The wind-blown grape leaves, the climbing tendrils and the skewed placement of the bottles echoed the radiating pattern of the moonlit sky. The elegant, rhythmic movement appealed to many viewers. The painting succeeded because it came entirely from my imagination--I devoted considerable thought to each element of the design, expressing Wine on the Vine like no other. This painting experience taught me what can be when you trust your imagination to lead you in your creative endeavors.

The overwhelming enthusiastic response to that first wine painting inspired me to enter other competitions. Each contest yielded paintings I might not have created without these challenges. The wine paintings sold more quickly than my graceful floras. Wineries and wine enthusiasts popped up all over the Umpqua Valley. Between wine events, I dreamed up other ideas to fit my twists on wine : elegant celebration, romantic fantasy or whimsy. My wine odyssey continues.

In each painting, my goal is to outshine the previous one. I aim to impress and connect with wine enthusiasts--It's almost as if I am creating commercials for the wine industry. In my wine-frame-of-mind, I ask, "What feelings are associated with wine and how can I convey those feelings exceptionally?" When viewers are drawn-in to the fantasy, they imagine their version of the suggested story line. If I can add a romantic hook, all the better. My passion for curvy shapes easily glides into the graceful wine bottles, goblets and elements I associate with them. Stimulating, breathtaking color, novel subject matter, fluid lines, movement and rhythm are all part of the design to draw the viewer in to my wine odyssey.

Kaleidoscopic Exhibit

August 13th, 2012

A seductive flirtation with captivating, curvaceous shapes and vibrant color sparks my passion for creating contemporary acrylic paintings. I embrace the nuances in forms, color and patterns drawn from the plant world.

My fascination with engaging designs in nature entices me to play with the subjects in preliminary thumbnail sketches to enhance their formation. Part of the seduction is discovering how to integrate the figures and emphasize their tantalizing contours. The decision of where to crop the images makes them intimate with the edges of the canvas. The resulting spaces surrounding the objects become intriguing configurations in the design. I toy with the elements until I've coaxed them into a pleasing arrangement of energy and rhythm that accentuates their distinctive qualities.

My excitement builds as I brush the concept on canvas, anticipating how exquisitely the objects can be embellished with luscious color, sculptural brush strokes and tangible textures. My hand and the pigment-loaded brush become graceful dancing partners, tracing the silhouettes to reveal their structure on canvas.

I savor the freedom and the challenge of going beyond merely reproducing images; to paint them as I choose to visualize them. I hope to achieve an animated, sensuous or playful quality with the graceful motifs that are a recurrent theme in my art. When things are going well, the brush strokes express flourish and a sculpted, carved quality, softness or energy; whatever is needed to convey the character and emotional energy of the structures. Viewers are escorted through the paintings; impregnated with the emotions the configurations and colors convey. I consider my work to be most successful when people express how my paintings make them feel.

I hope the celebration and interplay of forms, patterns and colors in my art provides joy, inspiration and sanctuary to individuals during stressful times of their lives. I create because it gives me pleasure to discover and embellish beauty in nature. I delight in having some degree of control in this one aspect of my life where I can see and render subjects as I choose to visualize them.

You can see Sandi Whetzel's upcoming exhibit, KALEIDOSCOPE, thirteen intimate views of foliage, during the South Douglas County Festival of Arts, Saturday, October 15, 2011. This one day festival will be at Seven Feathers Casino Resort Convention Center in Canyonville, OR. Admission is free and the hours are 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The festival features Douglas County's finest painters, jewelry designers, potters, artisans and live music.

Sandi is very excited about showing this body of work because she rarely gets to share her flora genre. Whetzel is also known for her popular wine images that have promoted the wine industry in Oregon. The popularity of her wine series preoccupies available booth space at most of her exhibition opportunities. In addition to the floras, Sandi will also display reproductions of her popular wine series and her classy wine inspired apparel for men and women.

Currently Whetzel's wine series is hanging at Liquid Assets Wine Bar, 96 North Main, in Ashland, Oregon through November 11th. First Friday Art Walks at that venue are from 5-7 pm, October 4 and November 7th. To see more of Sandi's art, click here.