VICKI INGHAM
Pian Grande, oil on canvas, 10" x 20", 2013

Vicki Ingham, a Des Moines-based artist, studied art at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Greater Birmingham Arts Alliance, Space 111 in Birmingham, and the Des Moines Art Center.  She has also studied painting abroad in workshops in both Ireland and Italy.  Vicki earned an MA in Art History from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and she is the author of Art of the New South: Women Artists of Birmingham 1890-1950 (2004).  Her work has been exhibited in Kansas, Alabama, Wisconsin, and throughout Iowa.  Her work was most recently exhibited at the Des Moines Botanical Gardens where she was the featured artist.

Vicki writes this about her work:

"I paint landscapes to celebrate the beauty of the land, the light, and the sky. The views that speak to me most compellingly are domesticated, pastoral landscapes--rural areas shaped by human activity, places not too far off the beaten path. I look for patterns of light and shadow and I especially love the golden light and long purple-blue shadows of late afternoon. I strive to capture those transient effects on canvas to convey a sense of welcome, belonging, and homecoming. 

The land in Tuscany has a musical quality, with rolling hills weaving together harmoniously in an infinitely satisfying way. I try to find that music on the canvas, to convey the muscular shapes of the land. In the neighboring region of Le Marche, the rugged mountains and softly molded hills inspire me in an entirely different way, with their dramatic, ancient, almost architectural forms and clear patterns of light and shadow."

The hills shown in this work surround the Pian Grande, a vast plain in the Sibillini Mountains in Le Marche, Italy.

Vicki Ingham's website