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Land, River, Sky: Paintings by Micki Colbeck
At the Vermont Supreme Court
Strafford, Vermont painter Micki Colbeck is a musician and naturalist as well as an artist. While always present in her paintings, a lifelong interest in science and nature is especially evident in the dynamic canvases included in the show Land, River, Sky, on display at the Vermont Supreme Court from January 5 through February 26, 2010.
Viewing Colbeck’s landscapes one can sense the geology of a place and the changes it has undergone as a result of human interaction. A common theme of Land, River, Sky is the balance between wild and cultivated places; little pockets of humanity surrounded by forests.
Colbeck earned her graduate and undergraduate degrees in studio art and art education from Webster College in St. Louis. While at Webster, Colbeck studied with Phil Sultz, who was then producing huge abstract expressionist paintings. Already a figurative painter, she absorbed much from Sultz about color, brushstroke, and the organic experience of painting. “It is after all just paint” says Colbeck, “one’s interpretation of the life around.”
After twenty years spent raising two children and working as an art teacher in Missouri public schools, Colbeck moved to Strafford, Vermont in 1996. Eight years later, she built her studio and began painting daily. She has exhibited throughout the Upper Valley and is a member of Strafford Artworks and the Vermont Arts Council. She also serves as a co-curator at Open Museum, a non-commercial online site for viewing and sharing art. Colbeck’s paintings can be seen at Long River Studios in Lyme, New Hampshire and at her studio.
