Artby the
Gathering
Art Group
A Visit with Cornelia T . Artist Opens Up Her Studio for Visit with Art Club Members
BY SAMANTHA B .
Art is a line around your thoughts .
— Gustav Klimt
My first experience as a new member of the AWCH art group was to attend the studio tour of our fellow AWCH member Cornelia T ., and what a treat it was . Cornelia is not only an incredibly talented artist , but she is a wonderfully generous host , opening her garden and home to a selection of AWCH art lovers . After the year that we have all had , it was such a privilege to be able to gather ( albeit in masks ) on a wonderful autumn day and enjoy a behind-the-scenes tour of Cornelia ’ s studio .
On show was a selection of Cornelia ’ s work . Cornelia also gave us candid insights into the life of an artist and the complexity involved in developing a final piece . Her recent landscape work has an organic quality ; she captures the wildness of nature beautifully . The nature of the materials she uses is incredibly spec- -ific and the result of many hours of trialing different mediums . The type of Japanese paper chosen and the ink and paint selected
Photos by Shelly S . are incredibly difficult to “ control ” and require a form of surrender to the process . Cornelia herself admits that it has taken many years for her to reach this point , to free herself of her classical training and allow the painting to emerge . Many sources of her inspiration are from nature and childhood memories of her native home in Transylvania . A single work of art can take months to complete .
As the conversation evolved , the group discussed further this connection between nature and art , and Cornelia kindly delved into her basement to extract from her many works some of her earlier pieces . These were abstract works with striking colors and were very different from her current work . As Cornelia described her ideas and the motivation behind the work — the desire to feel grounded and rooted to the earth and how that was a metaphor for her stage in life — more was revealed to me through her work . Here we could see that her art was truly “ lines around her thoughts ,” and I enjoyed immensely learning about her life and artistic journey . Thank you , Cornelia , and all who helped to make for a wonderful experience .
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