Artwork by Beth Wheeler
 

                                                                                            

Beth Wheeler lives and works in Indiana, Pennsylvania.  She primarily paints landscapes in oils. Beth's work is most often inspired by the countryside of her native Pennsylvania and that of south-western France, where she has spent time living and working. Her interpretations of these places are colored by her lived experience, spirituality, and a deep sense of wonder.

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"Landscape, for me, is about engaging purposefully with the world around me, developing a greater awareness of and appreciation for the places that I live in and travel through. To paint the scenes that make me pause and fill me with wonder is to extend and interpret these experiences—to recognize the emotional and spiritual import of these moments, to alter and reexperience through the lens of memory. Painting is a relatively slow, painstaking endeavor, removed from the instant gratification that defines much of twenty-first century life. This process itself seems to me a metaphor for learning to notice and value the subtleties of life, from the simple, humble beauty of a cornfield, a stand of gnarled trees, or a crumbling farmhouse to the breathtaking, ephemeral glory of the skies. Such scenes, like their painted counterparts, only reveal themselves when we step out of the bustle of daily life and allow ourselves to be stilled, to be truly present and aware and open. Sometimes natures shouts to us, but most of time, it whispers. I am perhaps most captivated by the whispers.

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While I continue to experiment with a variety of techniques and ways of working, I am fascinated with and influenced by the great landscapists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including the Barbizon artists of France and the American Tonalist painter George Inness. My work also draws some inspiration from Franciscan tradition and Christian mysticism, as I often feel that my experiences of faith and of nature are inextricably intertwined."