Join Charlottesville artist, Frank P. Phillips as he facilitates a discussion with exhibiting artists, Tom West and Cate West Zahl.
The conversation will explore the work in this collaboration, Colorscapes, between father and daughter who are both lifelong practicing painters. Both artists are process oriented, painterly painters, which makes for rich, layered pieces with the pentimento intentionally on full display. Please come to learn more about the process and the paintings.
T.W. – My creative process begins with defining the active space in which the abstract image will live and breathe. I apply a grid or language of lines and color which attempt to bring “order” to the image utilizing drawing techniques and implements such as colored pencil, oil markers and oil stick. After the grid, I enter into a process of more expressive and chaotic markings. Finally, I intuitively apply the layers of paint. The goal overall is to offer the viewer multiple entry points into the painting with the hope that both tension and the resolution of that tension is experienced, much like our daily existence as humans.
C.W.Z. – These works pay homage to the unique and dramatic views found on the coast and by the Great Lakes in Michigan. Small studies of flora, tennis courts, and other coastal views accompany the larger works. As part of my practice, I paint small, timed studies from life between larger abstract works -- not only to ground myself in the natural world but to keep up the rigor and technical skill of oil painting. The scale is 1:1, that is, it is meant to reflect, as exactly as possible, the way this flower appears in life. The painting starts out as a blind gesture drawing (looking only at subject rather than canvas) before revisions and layering bring the work to its conclusion later.
Tom West holds a BA in Art and Architecture from Princeton University. He has exhibited at the Princeton University Art Museum, the Art Barn, Rock Creek Gallery, and Kellogg Collection, in addition to exhibiting alongside Cate West Zahl at Landon School. He was a gallery artist at the Barbara Kornblatt Gallery, Washington DC in the early 1990s. Since then, he has shown his work privately from his home studio.
Cate West Zahl first studied studio art under Lee Newman at the Holton-Arms school, and then went on to earn her BA in Fine Arts from Hamilton College. She has been in local shows at Quirk, Second Street Gallery, Welcome Gallery, Chroma Gallery and Phaeton Gallery in addition to showing in Richmond and Washington D.C. Currently she pursues painting from life and making abstract paintings simultaneously out of her loft studio in Belmont, Virginia. Zahl lives in Charlottesville with her husband and three sons.