VICTORIA WEBB
b. Washington, DC

Artist’s Statement

“One by one, million by million, in the prescience of dawn, every leaf in that part of the world was moved.” –James Agee

My work emerges from my immediate locale to offer a deeply personal response to nature. These rolling hills, this lush green that surrounds me in the mostly developed southeastern portion of Pennsylvania, is in imminent danger of vanishing. Art can be a form of activism that helps to alert a culture to inequalities and bad policy. However, it is not from any overt political activism that I end up painting my own backyard, arboretums, green spaces and parks. With true joy in painting and an intuitive improvisation of documenting an ephemeral landscape, I find myself working more often now in the light of day, recording seasons. I want the viewer to remember and be aware that once we had these views, this landscape of incredible beauty. Even on a small plot of land, one can make a paradise.

During my adult years, I’ve made homes in Atlanta, San Francisco, the Midwest and now southeastern Pennsylvania. The Atlanta series echoes twenty years that I spent in the city, working from nature, dreams and an emotional response to the lushness and soul of the south. The Golden Gate Park series concentrates on the intense light and colors of the West Coast and reflects the beauty of the west coast's sea, parks and wilderness areas. The Midwest series references agrarian landscapes and sometimes a more muted palette. I began using much more white in that climate, having always loved snow and the cold of the north. My most recent work concentrates on the region near my home in Pennsylvania and also includes paintings and sketches begun on vacations to rugged terrain like the mountains of British Columbia and Vancouver Island.

In the fall of 2007, I spent almost a month of intense independent study at an artist’s residency in Italy, painting the olive groves, rivers and fields, exploring ruins of semi-abandoned monasteries turned into private abodes. I found great inspiration there from the community’s obvious sense of place and respect for the artist’s hand.

"Giving form to the unconscious does not involve unconscious action on the artist's part... artistic activity, far from being haphazard... is governed by strict laws..." Reactions from the audience and viewer are often based, as Andre Malraux once said, on their own knowledge of the history of art. The framework of the painting holds the essence of light and color in a landscape and nature and makes that a meditation or metaphor of existential experience.

related education

Chatov Studio, Atlanta, GA - Studied portrait painting, color
theory with Roman, Constantin and Marc Chatov.
Odyssey Studio, Atlanta, GA Studied and produced intaglio,
monotype and collagraph printmaking.
Bradford College, Bradford, MA. Studied art with Richard Newman, Chair Creative Arts. Studied music with Cecily Gittes, Chair Music