With a rich color palette and a loose, painterly style, DeCoster’s vibrant landscapes create a narrative of her journeys, weaving together images from memory and her everyday life. Her summertime home on the St. Croix River inspired paintings of cool, blue waters, textured by flowing, wispy reeds and painted rocks. DeCoster’s memories of childhood trips to Bass Lake, Wisconsin also brought to mind a small pond in Massachusetts, where she has also spent many summers. In this series, DeCoster’s dreamy compositions reveal her fondness for such watery places: bright blue skies are reflected in quiet waterways that are punctuated by supple lily pads, their yellow and white blooms resting at the surface.
Minnesota fields and tributaries, ever present in her travels between her city home and her river-side retreat, inform DeCoster’s series of sweeping autumnal views of the river valley and golden pastures where cattle graze during sunset. This diverse body of images suggests this mature artist’s keen understanding of time and place. DeCoster explains:
“My painting is the way I swim in the world – my way of being on the inside. It makes me feel included in the relationships among things. Age and change keep me aware that time is precious. The process of life is the substance of life, and our thoughts and actions are who we are. The process of my painting is integral to the substance of it. I hope to always stay connected with the energy and vitality of the natural world – our place in it, and what we owe it in return for accepting us. I hope that my paintings will help remind us how wonderful our world is.”
The artist will be present at the opening reception Friday, October 19 from 5-8 pm. This opening reception and exhibition run concurrently with Upernavik: Springtime Place, a solo exhibition of paintings and monotypes by Robert Dorlac in the Annex.
