Artists often dedicate much of their education and career to classical modes of expression, discovering their own style along the way. Los Alamos-based painter C. Wood is no different; she has been a longtime plein air and landscape painter with a career background in interior design.
But there was always something else calling to Wood as a painter, she explained, who just wasn’t satisfied in landscape painting. A fascination with Asian textiles and design since her childhood pulled her to the medium she has been exploring since 2014.
“I was trying to go a different direction with my art,” Wood said, “and it just came to me, where I said, ‘I’m going to paint what I love.’”
Wood began focusing on Japanese kimonos and obis, the latter of which are colorful sashes worn with kimonos. She created large paintings that depicted the colorful garments with her own artistic stamp on them.
An exhibit entirely of her kimono paintings showed at the Elverhoj Museum in Solvang last year in October. Some of the works were more abstract, while many were obvious depictions of kimonos. All of them were imbued with Wood’s passion for the colorful, often floral patterns found in the Japanese garments.
“After so many hundreds of plein air paintings, and so many artists painting the exact same stand of trees in exactly the same way, I decided I didn’t want to be remembered for just that, and [wanted to] try something different that I’d never seen before,” she said. “I felt like I created something uniquely my own, so that’s what I continue to do, and I’m still really enjoying it.”
Wood has not been afraid to journey to new places even within her new style. Her latest exhibit, which shows at the Gentleman Farmer in Los Alamos through Nov. 20, blends her passion for kimonos and obis with an unlikely subject: farm animals.
Wood is a longtime friend with the owner of the Gentleman Farmer, Madeleine Jex, she explained, and has shown her work there before. The antique shop includes a focus on bovines, canines, and equestrians, Wood said, and so her new series of colorful farm animals seemed like a great fit for the store.
“It seems like normally this show wouldn’t be compatible, but I always say it’s fun to stir things up,” Wood said. “And she was game for it, so it’s been fun. We even hung some kimono and obi paintings in the show as well.”
Wood said that she didn’t have the Gentleman Farmer in mind when she started exploring farm animals as a subject, but decided to try a “different direction with the kimono paintings.”
After doing her “own thing,” Wood explained, Jex thought the show would be at home in her store. An opening reception for the show is planned for Oct. 22 in the afternoon and will include a tea tasting by Jim Allen of the Santa Barbara Tea Club.
Wood said that the show isn’t a big departure from her new kimono-inspired style; it’s just a further exploration of that. Expanding her own tastes through her art has been an edifying experience as a creative, Wood said.
“I don’t know, I’m just having fun,” she said. “It’s nice to have fun with your art. If you’re already doing what you love, you might as well have fun while you’re doing it.”
Arts Editor Joe Payne is always trying to have fun with art. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 20-27, 2016.