Canadian-born artist Virginia Howlett creates paintings and installations inspired by the ephemeral qualities of landscape.

She received an BFA with Distinction from Ohio State University and an MFA in Painting from the Art Institute of Chicago. Formerly an Assistant Professor of Painting at Hampton University and at New Mexico Highlands University, Virginia won a Mellon Foundation grant to create artwork in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Virginia creates her work at an island cabin in British Columbia, in the Sonoran desert of Arizona, and at her Ballard studio. Her exhibitions include shows in Seattle, New Mexico, Virginia, Ohio, and Chicago.


Artist Statement
My work is rooted in the tradition of North American landscape painting, informed by contemporary abstraction. I’m intrigued by the ephemeral beauty of nature: the colors of clouds as they move quickly past; the magic, fluid translucency of water; the quality of light at the horizon as the day passes. I see landscapes as meditative, gently shifting fields of color. I group these color fields to create glimpses of the memories of time and place that we all share. So while the work begins from sketches created outside in a specific place, it ends as a universal statement about the potency of landscape for human peace and renewal.