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Victoria Chick
Artist and founder of the Cow Trail Art Studio
in Arenas Valley, Southwest New Mexico

“I don’t think of myself as a painter of cats even though cat images figure prominently in my work”. Victoria Chick uses the cat image to express the human condition and for that reason the body language and the relationship of the cat to other images in the picture plane is what interests her.

She develops rhythm by a repetition of sinuous lines and shapes across a universal space using acrylic paint on heavy cotton canvas. The line device in many of her paintings represents a separation between concrete reality and the subconscious mind and suggests how these entities influence each other. “I realize when a painting is almost done how anthropomorphic it is – the titles reflect that – and I hope the viewer will identify with the content.” 

The expressive cat images for which Chick is known developed out of self- defense. “ I was doing a lot of landscape and figure painting when I lived near Kansas City and my cats began to be underfoot in my studio. I figured if I couldn’t discourage them I might as well draw them. So my involvement with cat images really began with gesture paintings on paper.”

But her imagery is not limited to felines.   Another influence on Chick’s work was her experience as a registered art therapist in Kansas City. “Many of the people I worked with were non-verbal so I learned to pay attention to their body language and found it to be incredibly eloquent.”  Most of the images are done so the face doesn’t show. I want people to respond to the gesture of the forms and the emotional tensions they create.

Recently, monotyping has attracted her for its expressive possibilities. She can print without a press and work with the accidental textures that happen when paper is pulled from the inked glass plate.

Chick’s studio/barn in a rural mountain valley near Silver City, New Mexico is home to four horses as well as several cats that have traded being feral for square meals and modeling opportunities.

Chick is also a long time collector and now a dealer in fine original prints by American artists of the 19th and early 20th centuries. A portion of the collection is displayed at her studio which is listed by the New Mexico Tourism Department as an attraction in SW New Mexico. http://www.newmexico.org/NM_business_listings/index.php?id=27

Currently, Victoria Chick is represented by the Santa Ysabel Art Gallery in Santa Ysabel, California and the JW Art Gallery in Hurley, NM.

Articles & Interviews
Origins of Celtic Art
Red Cat
Billy Morrow Jackson
19th Century Art Around the World
Avian Artists & Their Prints
Families With Artists
The Art Of Engraving
The Family In Art
The Illustrated Dog
Taking Care of Your Print Collection
Agriculture As An Art Subject
Printmakers of New Mexico
Artists of Yosemite
Collographs
Sneakin’ Suspicion
Some History On Flowers In Art (Featured on Big Blend’s Garden Gossip Magazine)
Women Artists
Color Relief Prints
Relief Prints
Keys to Collecting Prints

Cow Trail Art Studio
Open: NOON to 3 p.m. Mon., Thurs., Fri., & Sat.
Address: 19 Cow Trail, Arenas Valley, New Mexico.
The driveway gate will be open during the above days and hours.

Tel: (760) 533-1897

www.artistvictoriachick.com   

Click Here to Listen

Big Blend Radio Interview

About Artist
Victoria Chick!

New Exhibit: NEW MEXICO CONNECTION

Since the last half of the 19th century, East and West Coast artists as well as European artists have been attracted to New Mexico, joining Native Americans already here to appreciate the unique New Mexico landscape and light.

A new exhibit at Cow Trail Art Studio focuses on the original etchings, drawings, and lithographs of nine of the artists. Some were permanent New Mexico residents; others came just for the summer. Only one early artist was born here and returned after study in Pennsylvania. The artists include Will Schuster, Charles Dahlgreen, Gustave Baumann, Birger Sandzen, Peter Hurd, Earle Loran, Eric Gibberd, Garo Antresian, and Fritz Scholder.

Some of the prints were created around the time New Mexico gained statehood status, some in the mid 20th century, and two of the prints are considered to be in a contemporary style. They are a portion of a collection I enjoy sharing with visitors during regular studio hours.
This special New Mexico exhibit will run until Jan. 31, 2012