BETH WHEELER
Contemporary Landscape Artist
About the Artist
Indiana, PA-based artist Beth Wheeler is a painter of “contemplative landscapes” – hidden, quiet spaces charged with spirituality and wonder. Art and nature have been her favorite escapes from early childhood, when she spent most of her time either with crayon in hand or wandering the woods surrounding her rural home.
Beth studied art at Saint Francis University under professor Chuck Olson, who she followed first to Italy and then to southern France. Upon graduation, she spent two years living in Auch, France, splitting her time between teaching English in the local schools and trekking around the countryside with easel and paintbrush.
After returning to the United States, Beth continued to pursue her interest in landscape painting with an MA in art history at West Virginia University. She focused her studies on the artists of the Barbizon school and completed her thesis on the art of Jean-Louis Roumeguere, an early 20th-century French landscape painter who became a significant influence. She then chose to pursue an MFA in painting at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in the charming small town where she lives today.
Currently, Beth is the manager of a local artist co-operative, The Fox Clark Gallery, and teaches private art lessons and workshops. She continues to draw inspiration from both the local landscape and her frequent travels in Europe. Beth regularly exhibits her work in Pennsylvania and has also shown in West Virginia and Florida. Discover more of her work at The Fox Clark Gallery in Indiana, PA, and @bethwheelerstudio on Instagram.
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"I have always felt a profound wonder, a sacred awe, in contemplating nature. Wandering alone through field and forest is where I am most free, most at peace, most myself–and out of these moments of isolation springs a deep sense of connection to the divine. Through my art, I seek to explore, extend, and interpret these experiences—to recognize their emotional and spiritual import, to alter and reexperience through the lens of memory.
My paintings usually begin with a sketch or a photograph or both, accompanied by field notes made on site. I rarely paint en plein air and prefer to spend my outdoor time simply observing before retreating to the studio. There, unhurried by changing light or weather, I work primarily in oil, building my paintings layer by layer. Often, I incorporate metal leaf as a tangible connection to sacred art. At some point in the process, I will abandon the reference, relying on memory and emotion to finish the painting.
Usually, though not always, I work very small–often 8” by 8” or less. I divide my work roughly into two categories–miniatures depicting open fields or mountain vistas rendered as small as 2” x 3, and small forest clearings that I call “sanctuary spaces.” In both cases, my intent is to draw the viewer into a close, intimate experience of the depicted landscape, creating the sensation of “entering” the work and being alone within that space.
Stylistically, I am influenced by the landscapists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, especially the Barbizon artists of France, the American Tonalist painter George Inness, and Gascon artist Jean-Louis Roumeguere, whose miniatures inspired my own. My work also draws inspiration from Franciscan tradition and Christian mysticism, as I often feel that my experiences of faith and nature are inextricably intertwined."
-Beth