The “Colorful Characters” exhibition focuses on three artists with a keen eye for color and a love for the creation of unique beings. Whether it be Hélène Morbu’s pottery-as-artifact, Jennifer Davis’ wacky creatures, or Christel Weyts’ observations of humanity - one cannot deny the love they have for their creations – nor the affection and sense of affinity they inflict on the viewer.
Hélène’s ceramic vessels are intentionally reminiscent of ancient pottery. She is inspired by the aesthetics of our ancient ancestors, their architecture, and the natural world. Her artworks are brought to life from these inspirations in combination with her love for the 20th century Art Deco movement. All together, these references inform her work during the creative process and shed light on the creation of her own extraordinary contemporary body of work. Hélène’s ceramic art is unique in it’s combination of beautiful patterns and textures with a charismatic line up of geometric forms and vibrant color pallette.
Jennifer’s paintings speak first to her fantastic sense of humor, but they linger in the mind because of her extraordinary sense of color and design. The line and form that compose her painted worlds are abstractions from our material world, but are more elegant than simple cartoons. Her characters are filled with life, whimsy and theatrical energy. They engage the viewer with an invitation to come and smile. Jennifer’s paintings are like postcards from another more fabulous world.
Christel is a master painter creating the appearance of watercolor using acrylic paints. Her signature light-touch resonates through her works creating a unique aesthetic. It’s remarkable how consistently different her paintings are from most artists using acrylic. However, it’s equally remarkable how pleasing those differences can be. For example, she uses acrylic in thin washes like watercolor or da Vinci-style oil painting. There are several unique results that occur from her technique. One is that she uses the white of the ground to produce light in her images, which can be very effective for boosting luminosity. Another pleasing result is the scale. It’s very difficult to produce large-scale watercolor paintings, yet most of her acrylic paintings are at least a bit larger than a typical watercolor, and sometimes much larger. Christel’s work is truly exceptional.