SHADOW
I love the drama of a good shadow: the severe contrast of light and dark, the layers of darkness that fall on various surfaces, the fanciful patterns created from flattened three dimensional form. Painting shadows is a study in the complexity of light, and often through the process, exposes things unnoticed or unseen. The mesmerizing power and beauty of shadow serves to reveal the extraordinary in the ordinary - a useful thing for the spirit.
ENCOUNTERS
I play with paint, inspired by observation of nature and the beauty I encounter. My paintings are built with many layers of marks, working with gouache for its rich, matte color. It is meditative navigating the tangle of shapes to render a detailed sense of space and place.
The paintings speak to relativity - the contrast of brilliant vs drab, buoyant vs grounded, light vs shadow - visual metaphors for forces/relationships that exist in the world. Intensity, in all things, is so much greater because of the existence of its opposite.
In the spring and summer of 2020, it was the clouds that caught my attention, in the neighborhood and on a road trip to Salt Lake City. Clouds have many personalities - foreboding, dramatic, playful. Yet all feel buoyant - set against the solid elements on the ground.
The Just Before Winter series is inspired by walks near my home in North Cambridge, in and around the Alewife Reservation in autumn of 2020. After the explosion of color was gone, but before winter set in, the local landscape was mostly brown and gray. Yet occasional splashes of brilliant color, where a few leaves hung on, were made more spectacular in the tangle of their gray surroundings.
Among Trees
The exhibit, Among Trees, comes out of my sense of awe when I look at the trees that surround us. I observe trees wherever I am, in both woodland and urban areas.
I like finding passages through dense woods. Visual pathways are created by light filtering to the ground, openings in the tangle of the woodland floor, or water flowing through.
In the neighborhood, trees provide respite in the close space of the city. The organic shapes of trees are a powerful counterpoint in the built environment. Trees are magnificent creatures - uplifting visually, spiritually, and environmentally. I am compelled to paint the beauty among trees.
BIO
Vicki Kocher Paret currently lives and paints in Cambridge. She is a representational painter, exploring beauty in objects and place. Her formal training began with a BFA in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University, and later she completed her Master of Arts in Teaching in Art Education at Tufts University/School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. She is currently represented by Galatea Fine Arts in SoWA Boston. Her paintings are in numerous corporate and private collections, including Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Fidelity Investments Corporation, and Wellington Management Company, LLP.
Vicki’s past positions include serving as the Chair of the Art Department at Waring School in Beverly, and being on faculty at the DeCordova Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. She currently offers classes at the Arlington Center for the Arts and the Eliot School in Jamaica Plain.
ARTIST STATEMENT
As I wander, I see my surroundings through the medium of paint. I notice formal elements, and imagine a painting composed of the patterns, textures, shapes, color, and values I see. The imagery provides a structure for the process of painting. As I proceed from one painting to the next in a series, I explore color and spatial relationships, different marks and methods for rendering the image, and their effect on the tenor of the piece.
Elements in forests and urban neighborhoods are woven together to create a sense of place, recreating the feeling of being in these environments, where trees figure prominently.
The woods are dense, yet there are pathways through – created by light getting through to the ground or openings in the tangle of things growing. I like finding the passage through the visual chaos. In the neighborhood paintings, trees provide a powerful visual counterpoint to the close space, patterns and colors of the buildings. Trees are an amazing element in the city – uplifting visually, spiritually, and environmentally.
Paintings of still life are the result of careful observation of the nuances of shape, color and relationships. Random interactions occur among the objects, forcing play, tension, or cozy interludes, and making beautiful spaces between.
In the end the paintings are the product of my desire to spend time with paint, and to portray the beauty I see in my encounters. Sometimes my subjects are beautiful in odd, quirky ways, and sometimes as expressions of the power of nature, and I am compelled to paint them in detail.