Summerville Journal Scene
Wiley’s 12 x 24 inch painting “White Water Lily” is Flowertown Festival’s official 2011 poster. She saw the water lily in her pond.
“I was really honored because I don’t typically do a lot of floral paintings,” Wiley said. “All of my paintings are inspired by personal experience.”
While Wiley has only considered herself a professional painter since 1996, she has been drawing and painting as long as she remembers. She grew up on a horse farm in western New York and then went to art college.
“Ever since I was a kid it’s all I wanted to do. It’s a passion. Even if I was to never sell a painting, I would still paint.”
Wiley has lived in Summerville for six years and was a member of Art Central until recently because she is soon moving to Westminster, near Clemson. Wiley will still be in town for the festival and is looking for galleries in Greenville and Seneca to display her work.
“I paint entirely on oil. They take time to dry. I can work on up to 20 paintings at a time. It keeps your eyes fresh.
“I want to paint my interpretation of what I’ve experienced onto canvas.”
Wiley sometimes refers to photos and combines elements of more than one photo. “I will change the light and time of day to make it more interesting.”
She said composition is like composing music to create unity and make all the parts work together in harmony so nothing looks out of place.
“Compositions are the most important things you need to work out before beginning a painting.”
Wiley looks at her photos and sketches and makes thumbnail sketches to place the focal point on a canvas.
“You want movement. Your eye follows these leaves around,” she says pointing at the original “White Water Lily” in her home studio. To create depth she adds shadows and submerges some of the lily pads. “You repeat colors and shapes and add variety.”
Journalscene.com is pleased to offer readers the ability to comment on stories. We expect our readers to engage in lively, yet civil discourse. Journalscene.com does not edit user submitted statements and we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted in the comments area. Responsibility for the statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not journalscene.com. If you find a comment that is objectionable, please click "report abuse" and we will review it for possible removal. Please be reminded, however, that in accordance with our Terms of Use and federal law, we are under no obligation to remove any third party comments posted on our website.
