Chalice Mitchell: Oil Paintings

About the Artist

Through my work, I explore the spaces in between gender, religion, sensuality, identity, and impermanence. Fluidity and interrelation are consistent elements both conceptually and aesthetically. Having studied classical oil painting in the western lineage and ink painting in Japan, these two influences overlap in my work.

Brushstrokes break apart and dissolve into the background, inspired by flying white, a technique from ink painting in which the stroke itself opens up to reveal the bland paper underneath, integrating the empty space with the ink, symbolically eradicating dualism. This cohesion of opposite entities (paper and ink, empty and full, body and space, inner and outer) is echoed in oil on raw linen. The physicality of the brushstroke is also pivotal in the Western tradition of painting, from Titian to Saville. These brushstrokes are juicy, fresh, indulgent; they are both subtle and powerful. The visceral quality of paint is not a materialistic denial of the more philosophical elements of painting. The physical and the subjective experience are integrally connected.

The pieces in this exhibition range across style and theme. The use of space fluctuates between full and empty. The color palette moves from subdued to bold and back again. Across the mediums of oil, ink and marble I attempt to understand the spaces between, the intersections, the multifaceted quality of identity, and the nature of human experience.

The creation of some of the work in this exhibition was supported by generous grants from the Martha Boschen Porter Fund and the A.R.T. Fund through Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, as well as the Cultural Council of Northern Berkshire through Mass Cultural Council.

Biography

Chalice Mitchell is a figurative painter based in Western Massachusetts. She has exhibited internationally, including shows in Tokyo, London, New York, Moscow, Athens, Wellington, and Vancouver. Her work is owned by collectors across the world and she has attended residencies in Japan, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States. She has a BFA from Ringling College of Art & Design and an MFA from the University of South Florida.