Beth-Ann Wilson

Indiana Dunes

Paintings completed while participating in the Indiana Dunes National Park Artist-in-Residence program in September 2019. I was stunned by the juxtaposition of beautiful natural landscape against the backdrop of industry. My paintings capture spontaneous narratives incorporating figures interracting with their environment oblivious to or complacent with the pollution around them. These pieces are commentary on industrialization, climate change, and human adaptation.

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Don't Drink the Water 36 in x 48 in Sept 2019
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A Day at the Beach 36 in x 48 in oil on canvas Sept 2019
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Man's Best Friend 36 in x 48 in oil on canvas Sept 2019
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Gossip 30 in x 40 in oil on canvas Sept 2019
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The Bather 30 in x 40 in oil on canvas Sept 2019
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Collecting Glass 18 in x 24 in acrylic on canvas Sept 2019
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Sifting 18 in x 24 in oil on canvas Sept 2019

Fire Island

These pieces are from my artist residency on Fire Island in NY from September 1 - September 15, 2018. My focus was on painting to capture and interpret the changing weather and the affect it has on the landscape.

Salt Marsh Creek

Salt Marsh Creek framed oil on canvas 16 x 20 “I've dreamed a green night to dazzling snows, kisses slowly rising to the eyelids of the sea, unknown saps flowing, and the yellow and blue rising of phosphorescent songs.” ―Arthur Rimbaud
Salt Marsh Pool

Salt Marsh Pool + Salt Marsh Pool framed oil on canvas 16 x 20 “The luminous grasses, and the merry sun In the grave sky; the sparkle far and wide,” ―Emma Lazarus
Brackish Reflection

framed oil on canvas 16 x 20 “Light summer clouds fantastical as sleep Changing unnoted while I gazed thereon.” ―Emma Lazarus
Turnaround

Turnaround framed oil on canvas SOLD 16 x 20 “The clouds have seen it all, in the dark they pass over the graves of the forgotten and they don't cry or whisper. ” ― Philip Levine
To The Edge of The Dune (Cloudy Sunrise)

To The Edge of the Dune (cloudy sunrise) + To The Edge of the Dune (cloudy sunrise) framed oil on canvas 16 x 20 “I saw the sun with mystic horrors darken And shimmer through a violet haze; With a shiver of shutters the waves fell Like actors in ancient, forgotten plays!” ―Arthur Rimbaud
Volatility (Heavy Sky)

framed oil on canvas 16 x 20 “I, for my part, when the wind sings loud in its might, I bid it hush---nor awaken again the storm” ―Edith Nesbit
The Weekenders

The Weekenders framed acrylic on canvas 11 x 14 “And bid them rest safe-anchored, nor tempt again The tumult, and torment, and passion that live in the sea?” ―Edith Nesbit
Table for 2

framed acrylic on canvas 11 x 14 “Love is never easy going Always there's complicated fact With every step showing Some on to a lost tract Yesterday were much of clouds Of every its coming hour Among the lonely crowds In the gloomy coldness shower” ― Peter S. Quinn
Just Before Sunset

framed oil on canvas SOLD 11 x 14 “And twilight comes with grey and restful eyes, As ashes follow flame. But O! I heard a voice from those rich skies Call tenderly my name; It was as if some priestly fingers stole In benedictions o'er my lonely soul.” ―Emily Pauline Johnson
A Congregation of Vapors

framed oil on canvas SOLD 11 x 14 “While the sun is peeping Through some cloud-hole And Glancing from above” ―Susanta Pattnayak

Fire Island II

These pieces are from my artist residency on Fire Island in NY from September 1 - September 15, 2018. My focus was on painting to capture and interpret the changing weather and the affect it has on the landscape.

Anticipation

oil on canvas 11 x 14 “Who is this lady in the rain? Always like a shadow Walking to somewhere in drain Because she must go Is she a lover of someone? Around the next street Someone whom might be gone When she comes in her wet feet” ― Peter S. Quinn
Low Horizon (Crest of the Dune)

oil on canvas 11 x 14 “A bright sunny day After days of incessant rain When thin silvery clouds pass leisurely Wind is also in no hurry” ―Susanta Pattnayak
Cross-Cast (Cool Dune)

oil on canvas 11 x 14 “Footsteps on a sandy shore Are they the ones from me before?” ―Jim O’Donnell
Off Duty

oil on canvas 11 x 14 “I seem to hear a bar of music float And swoon into the west; My ear can scarcely catch the whispered note,” ― Emily Pauline Johnson
Atmospheric Distortion (Twilight on the Beach)

framed oil on canvas 30 x 40 “To-night the west o’er-brims with warmest dyes; Its chalice overflows With pools of purple coloring the skies, Aflood with gold and rose;” ― Emily Pauline Johnson
Erosion

framed oil on canvas 16 x 20 “In the evenings, as I drink a last toast to what is no more, And to what never was. I will dream no more dreams but my own.” ―Patti Masterman

The Enchantments

I successfuly crowd-funded a cross-country trip that culminated in backpacking for a week in The Enchantments region of Washington State. These paintings were created in the studio upon return from the trip. Many of the paintings were awarded as "perks" for contributing to my campaign.

Alpenglow

11x14 oil on canvas 2018 “Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
Aasgard Mirror

11x14 oil on canvas 2018 “Walking: it hits you at first like an immense breathing in the ears. You feel the silence as if it were a great fresh wind blowing away clouds. There’s the silence of woodland. Clumps and groves of trees form shifting, uncertain walls around us. We walk along existing paths, narrow winding strips of beaten earth. We quickly lose our sense of direction. That silence is tremulous, uneasy. Then there’s the silence of tough summer afternoon walks across the flank of a mountain, stony paths, exposed to an uncompromising sun.” ― Frédéric Gros
Pass Reflection

11x14 oil on canvas 2018 “Some of us are drawn to mountains the way the moon draws the tide. Both the great forests and the mountains live in my bones. They have taught me, humbled me, purified me and changed me.” ― Joan Halifax
Through The Looking Glass

11x14 oil on canvas 2018 “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” ― Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Still Water Reflection

11x14 oil on canvas 2018 “Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.” ― Henry David Thoreau
Morning Glow

11x14 oil on canvas 2018 “Throw a stone into the stream and the ripples that propagate themselves are the beautiful type of all influence.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
Looking Forward, Looking Back

11x14 oil on vanvas 2018 “We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.” ― Henry David Thoreau
View From Above

18x24 oil on canvas 2018 sold “The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon. We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
Buddha of the Boards

11x14 oil on canvas 2018 “Should humans conquer the mountain or should they wish for the mountain to possess them?” ― Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss
Matchstick Men

11x14 oil on canvas 2018 “The world is emblematic. Parts of speech are metaphors, because the whole of nature is a metaphor of the human mind.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Postcards from the Enchantments

These watercolors were created 'en plein air' on a backpacking trip to The Enchantments region of Washington State in the summer of 2017. They were painted on watercolor paper that was printed with postcard backs and mailed to individuals that backed my crowdfunding campaign to make the trip possible.

Alpenglow
Aasgard Mirror
Aasgard Pass
Dragontail
Square Rock
Colchuck Lake
Peninsula with Trees
In th Pines

Spain Series

I love to travel and find a great deal of artistic inspiration in being somewhere that is unfamiliar. I savor the uncanny.

I take hundred of photographs and sort through them when I get home. Using snapshots as photographic references I can relive the journey.

My travel paintings are postcards to myself.

Fountain

oil on canvas 24"x36" 2012 Fountain near the Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain
A Cool Breeze

oil on canvas 24"x48" 2012 Toledo, Spain
Riverside

oil on canvas 24"x48" 2012 Toledo, Spain
A Walk in the Woods

oil on canvas 18"x24" 2012 Toledo, Spain
Forgotten Passage

oil on canvas 30"x40" 2012 Toledo, Spain
Fortified

oil on canvas 20"x24" 2012 Toledo, Spain
Quiet Reflection

oil on canvas 18"x24" 2012 Toledo, Spain
Midnight Serenade

oil on canvas 24"x36" 2012 Passageway to Plaza Meyor, Madrid, Spain
Last Call

oil on canvas 24"x36" 2012 Madrid, Spain

Scotland Series

My first series inspired by travel.

Scotland was very romantic and I really tried to capture the moodiness of the skies and the restlessness of the country-side. Scotland, to me, was peaceful yet uneasy... like a graveyard.

Clachan-Siel

24"x36" oil on canvas
Lighthouse

16"x20" oil on canvas
"Seafari"

22"x28" oil on canvas
Easdale

24"x30" oil on canvas
Another Path

24"x36" oil on canvas
A Path

24"x36" oil on canvas
Across the Water

16"x20" oil on canvas
Cottage Through Leaves

24"x36" oil on canvas
Four Boats
Bridge Over The Atlantic

36"x48" oil on canvas

Grandma's House

This was by far the most emotional series of paintings I have ever painted. All of the images are painted from snapshots from the hundreds, maybe thousands, of pictures I took of my grandmother's house after she passed away.

The once vibrant household where we would spend Thanksgivings and Christmases and countless summer's nights laughing and eating and being filled with merriment was now a tomb. Every object a relic that reminded me of her and how all I really had left were those memories.

In my snapshots I attempted to document and distill what was left. In my paintings I attempted to keep those moments alive. But in the months after her passing they couldn't help but to reflect my sadness and grief.

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Grandma's House II

More paintings from the same series described above.

The once vibrant household where we would spend Thanksgivings and Christmases and countless summer's nights laughing and eating and being filled with merriment was now a tomb. Every object a relic that reminded me of her and how all I really had left were those memories.

In my snapshots I attempted to document and distill what was left. In my paintings I attempted to keep those moments alive. But in the months after her passing they couldn't help but to reflect my sadness and grief.

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sunporch.jpg
rockingchair.jpg
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piggy.jpg
melwindow.jpg
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About Beth-Ann