Colors by Roberta is a collection of oil and pastel paintings from three series.
Shippensburg Fantasy, Gardens In the Square, and Barn/Silo Series.
Shippensburg Fantasy
The images are based on a “what if” notion. What if long ago, nature ruled, and nature was the generating factor of the origin of Shippensburg. I always get the feeling of “long ago time” when I enter the downtown area of Shippensburg. I tend to “see” the downtown in terms of 1863 and prior time periods.
Gardens In the Square
I have a strong landscape design/horticultural background. My education in this field is from Rhode Island School of Design. Many of my residential and commercial landscapes exist in Ohio, Kentucky and Pennsylvania locations. I love the mix of painting and designing with plant material.
Barn/Silo Series
This series represents the beautiful architecture of the Pennsylvania Barn, and how they claim the land they are built on. I certainly have a love affair with barns, especially those located in Pennsylvania. These are local scenes of existing barns.
Roberta Rettew Iula, a local artist will have her works display in Lehman library main gallery from February 17 –March 7, 2014.
The artist has a strong landscape design/horticultural background. Her several residential and commercial landscape designs exist in Ohio, Kentucky andPennsylvania. Her love of landscape, nature, architecture, and plants are the main motifs for her paintings.
The exhibit “Colors by Roberta” is a collection of oil and pastel paints from three series: Shippensburg Fantasy; Gardens in the Square; and Barns/Silo.
The artist reception will be held on Wednesday February 19 from 2:30-5:30 p.m.
This events is open to the public.
Artist Statement:
Many of my oil and pastel landscapes have a painterly, expressionist style. My approach is; get the paint or chalk on fast-using pure color on the brush or knife. I move, blend color around in order to produce the gesture, and organic element of plant material.
Actually, I feel that the whole painting is alive. Bricks, cement, someone’s shoes, they all breathe together to make the energy of the painting.
I heavily use the color of the weather, sky, and ground to convey the mood of the painting or pastel.
At other times, I pull from past techniques that I have used in faux work, murals and my landscape architect education and designs.
Urban Oasis Artist Series;
This series combines my “artist/landscape designer” self. My work portrays green spaces with-in town
or country settings. Landscapes, yes, but deals with evoking memories, emotions and feelings from the sense of place, and the relationships between elements in the paintings. It is important to me that the viewer experiences the distinct personality of each locality. I paint client’s existing landscapes or will design the landscape that suits the person’s needs. I then use these to form the drawings and paintings.
