Art Chowder September | October, Issue 23 | Page 12

V
icki West works in a sunlit
space in a daylight basement of
the bright, cheery North Spokane
house she shares with her husband.
Her studio and home are full of her
watercolors of people, landscape
and other art works, art books and
mementos of previous exhibitions.
Her space is elegant and gentle,
like much of her artwork.
West’s work is personal, narrative,
and relates to her daily life
experiences. Her work is mostly
realistic representation. Sometimes
the work is detailed and carefully
rendered watercolor. Sometimes
it is more freely applied in larger
acrylic paintings. In most of her
work, it feels as if there is a story to
be told.
West comes naturally to focused
detail after working in the medical
community where she needed to
pay thoughtful attention while
at the same time multi-tasking.
She says that medicine was her
sustenance and art is her passion.
In her work and practice, she
says, she is “always striving to get
better.” Her favorite subjects are
people and landscapes “not animals
or flowers.”
Her largest painting project to
date is called Present Past. This
group of nine watercolor pictures
took seven months to create and
was inspired by implements she
saw while visiting at the Shafer
Historical Museum in Winthrop,
Washington, with her sister-in-law
and husband. The pictures represent
the light play on structures, deep
shadows, and complexities of
overlay and detail. The series also
includes representations of figures
and equipment from mining camps
and sawmills of the late 1800’s.
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ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE