UCLA Journal of Radiation Oncology FALL 2024 and ANNUAL REPORT - Flipbook - Page 14
It’s got a nice balance of the hills sloping down on the
right and then that amazing geological form in the middle,
and a sort of softness of the left side with the fog. I like
the contrast of light and dark, the subtle colors and the
restfulness.”
contemplate and to make her own by painting. “Evening
Light” is inspired by the skies and horizon lines as they
drove through New Mexico. She tells me, “I love that
evening light. I got really obsessed with those skies and
mixing those colors. I just kind of go back and forth until
it feels right. I love those luminescent colors for the sky,
for the clouds.” When I ask her about how true to a photo
the sky in “Evening Light” might be, she admits, “A lot
of it is just a 昀椀gment of my imagination. The thing about
doing skies is that it’s basically like doing an abstract
painting. I mean, you can do anything you want. My skies
are so di昀昀erent from painting to painting.”
“Cli昀昀s of the Columbia Gorge,” too, investigates the
Columbia River landscape, and yet the sweeping clouds
and water streaked with movement do not hold the chill of
“Winter’s Chill,” but rather a duskier warmth. “I look at the
shapes or areas of light and dark in the water and also in
the clouds,” she says. “It gives a sense of serenity.”
And serenity is exactly what many of her collectors are
after, the reason they purchase her work. She shares
that an art consultant purchased quite a few for Seattle
hospitals, a doctor’s o昀케ce, and a surgery center in
Bellevue. She acknowledges that they are calming, but
admits, “I never thought about that until everyone started
saying they are so.” Now that there are so many of her
works in Washington healthcare facilities, she says, “From
time to time, somebody will send me a picture of one and
say, ‘Look what I saw when I was in the waiting room!’”
The Zen quality people feel when viewing her work is not
something she did or does intentionally, she says. “When
I’m painting, I just keep kind of taking another step and
another step and another.”
The Airstream trips and the move to Western
Washington have changed neither her limited palette nor
her sense of taking a new journey with each new painting.
She says, “I wanted every new painting to be di昀昀erent. I’ve
always loved aerial views, what I would call a bird’s eye
view. But since I don’t have a plane or know anyone who
can 昀氀y me around, I’m taking a lot of photographs when
I’m taking o昀昀 or landing when traveling. I love that feeling
of being able to look as far as possible.” She shares that
painting in this way feels almost as if she could look into
in昀椀nity, muting the colors as the eye travels farther and
farther into the horizon.
And on the horizon for Wheaton is a year ahead with
three exhibitions already calendared. She will have a solo
show with Shift Gallery in Seattle and be part of a group
exhibit at Con昀氀uence Gallery in Twisp, both in February,
and Perry Carlson Gallery in Mount Vernon will show
her work in July. For more information, visit https://
kimmatthewswheaton.com
More recently, Wheaton has been on quite a life
adventure. She and her husband moved to Western
Washington, living part of the year in a small house for
the last seven years while their new home was built,
working in a 10’x10’ studio. Surprisingly, she continued
to paint mostly large-scale works (her favorite size is 2’x5’
horizontal), although she did complete a few small pieces
speci昀椀cally for group shows requesting them.
Contributed by: Ciara Shuttleworth
Ciara Shuttleworth is an alumnus of the prestigious San Francisco Art
Institute. She has worked for three prominent San Francisco fine art
galleries. Additionally, she has provided art consulting for private and
corporate collections, including Google. She is also a published writer with
works in the Norton Introduction to Literature and The New Yorker. Her
most recent book is the poetry collection, Rabbit Heart.
The other part of the year, she and her husband travel
around in their Airstream. She laughs, “Well, my husband
has gotten into sheep herding. We have border collies,
and for the last 昀椀ve winters, we’ve gone south to either
Arizona or Texas, depending on where the sheep farm
is that we stay at.” While she brought her paint with her
the 昀椀rst year, she told me, “It was a total disaster because
you’ve got dogs all over the place, there’s no place to have
the paintings dry, and I love oils.” An artist/author friend
of hers had been doing a year-long, one-a-day series of bird
paintings on her iPad, so she has given that a whirl. She
shares, “It’s such a totally di昀昀erent process. It’s challenging
but fun. Using the di昀昀erent ‘brushes,’ the smudger, and
the eraser, my iPad paintings look very much like my oil
paintings.” She plans on purchasing a quality printer once
settled into her new studio (which is the tiny house they’d
been living in that includes her current 10’x10’ studio) to
see how they translate as prints.
The trips have also given her new landscapes to
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