Abigail shows in Taos at the:
Morgan Gallery
103A Bent Street
Taos, NM 87571
505-758-2599
www.edmorgangallery.com
and at the:
MA Doran Gallery
3509 South Peoria
Tulsa, OK 74105
918-748-8700
www.madorangallery.com
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
My work has evolved over the past several years, influenced by the skies in New Mexico. I paint clouds--not white, puffy things, but specific clouds and cloud formations. I paint from photographs, which I take myself, because clouds don't hold still. The two concurrent series I'm working on are brilliant late-day skies and manipulated images. These latter are less brilliant usually, and involve overlapping, reversing, juxtaposing, etc. They become more abstract and sometimes more minimal. They also take more time because I have to wait for the first image to dry before I can paint the second (or sometimes even third.)
I have also studied the kinds of clouds, learning that certain kinds--lenticular and cap clouds-- only occur over mountains, and that condensation trails are also considered clouds and only form in humid
air. As someone fascinated by the natural world this deepens my
connection to it and my inspiration to observe and record it. New ways
to use cloud images in a painting are always occurring to me. The
possibilities seem endless, as are the shapes and patterns.
A note on the borders: They are white gesso with a washable acrylic varnish coating. Soap and water for clean up of dust and dirt. They can be framed to your taste if you wish. None come framed and most people hang them without, as the borders are a clean, contemporary look.
BIOGRAPHY
Abigail Winston has been in numerous juried and invitational shows, and has had two one-woman shows in Taos. She will be in Taos Invites Taos for the fourth time this year and has also been juried into "Originals," sponsored by New Mexico Women in the Arts, which is affiliated with The
National Museum of Women in the Arts.
Abigail began drawing at the age of two and was encouraged and taught by her mother, also a trained artist. In high school she studied with Frank Rogers, who trained at The Boston Museum of Fine Arts School. Then she fell in love with dance and earned a B.F.A. in Dance at the Boston Conservatory of Music. She studied with Merce Cunningham, among others, and performed with several small modern dance companies in New York.
Abigail also designed and made costumes for dance there, in Princeton,
NJ, and Washington, DC. She taught dance, choreographed, directed and produced concerts at Skidmore College, Princeton University, The Princeton Ballet Society, and The American University in DC, where she got her Master's Degree.
In 1986, after moving to Taos, where she has long family connections,
Abigail began making felt appliqué crafts: Spirit Boots, Spirit Pouches,
eyeglass cases, and ornaments, which she sold in The Museums of New
Mexico gift shops and various other outlets in Santa Fe and Taos and around the country.
Abigail began recovering her art in 1990, working in oil pastel, acrylic, and oil. At the urging of a friend, the clouds that were the background of earlier work became the sole subject of her work. She does sometimes hint at a landscape under the clouds, usually only the silhouettes of mountains. Her work continues to evolve and she paints more than one series at a time.