Willow Arlenea’s dynamic visionary paintings have evolved to incorporate a unique blend of artistic influences. During her student years her first influences were Realism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and Art Nouveau. She was deeply moved by the energy and passion of Van Gogh’s paintings, delighted by Marc Chagal’s magical realms and exotic distortions, and enticed by Gauguin’s rich colors and dark skinned figures. Her eye soon turned to “primitive” art. She felt drawn to the decorative patterning and mystical symbolism found in Native American, African and Aborigional art, which worked their way into her paintings. A deep resonance with Islamic, Egyptian and Afghani styles also emerged.
Later Willow began working with transparency and overlapping images, painting a distinct edge to a figure, then allowing the interior to consist of what was previously on the canvas. A place of radiant light became central to most of her paintings, with distinct lights and darks and places of negative space. Contemporary Southwest artists such as Bonny, Veloy Vigil and R. C. Gorman began to visibly influence her work, as well as the wonderful shamanic paintings of Susan Seddon Boulet. Willow began incorporating the backlighting technique used by Boulet, as well as the biomorphic patterning of contemporary artist Helen Nelson-Reed. A dear friend introduced her to the beauty of sacred geometry, which appears in her most recent paintings.
Willow’s work continues to evolve. For her, creating a reality on canvas is a dance of polarities. Hard edges balance with a loose expressive style. Lights and darks, flow and pattering, complementary colors, texture and negative space all come into harmony in her work, creating inspiring symphonies of light.
