Wendy Westlake

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Minnesota-based artist Wendy Westlake is known for her individual and original modern style, often infusing mid-century influences, as well as her accomplished palettes and intuitive forms, resulting in a unique and splendid pictorial harmony displayed throughout her balanced compositions.

In much of her work, Westlake investigates the layered and complex visual language between artist and nature. Throughout her career, she has returned to the natural world as inspiration, and over a decade ago, it served as a catalyst for her venture into vibrant, large-scale botanical abstractions.

Westlake’s paintings are often inspired by the changing seasons, especially the long-awaited transition from winter’s lingering chill to spring’s renewal and vitality of spring. Instead of portraying the cold, merciless grip of winter in her paintings, Westlake offers viewers a vivid promise of spring’s return, as her abstract forms and palettes conjure warmth, growth and renewal. Organic imagery in many of her works suggest blossoming trees and branches, sprouting plants, lush vegetation, dense foliage, and vibrant flowers in bloom.

Westlake writes: Daylight hours dwindle, and the air grows colder, signaling that winter is just around the corner. I often find these gray frozen months challenging. Lake swims, bike rides and walks through lush green forests feel like an impossibility. Having seen the cycle repeat itself over and over again, I wait, trusting that the rest and dormancy of this season are a necessary mystery. What appears lifeless will be renewed. 

 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Westlake approaches painting with a sense of adventure; each canvas is an opportunity to explore relationships through shape and color. Originally from Washington state, she earned her Associate degree in Applied Art from Pima College in Tucson, Arizona, where she studied oils, ceramics and printmaking.

By 1992, Wendy Westlake was in Minnesota where she became heavily involved with the Twin Cities watercolor community. In 2012, she became a board member of the Minnesota Watercolor society, eventually becoming President from 2014-2016. Westlake soon craved working on a larger scale than paper would allow, leading her back to her earlier training with oils and acrylics.

Working out of her studio in Zumbrota, Minnesota, Wendy Westlake is continuously influenced by her background in watercolor. She is also inspired by the American Abstract Expressionists, particularly the color fields of Mark Rothko and collages of Conrad Marca-Relli.

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