ANTONIA WALKER
Antonia Walker has become known for her paintings of the light and color of the Virginia countryside as well as images of Italy and France. The artist received a BFA from the University of Georgia where she studied painting and printmaking and later attended graduate school at George Washington University when she studied with William Woodward in Brittany. Earlier while living in South America, she studied drawing and anatomy with Spanish sculptor, Benjamin Saul.Antonia just returned from a residency at the American Academy in Rome where she was provided a studio in which to work. Her first residency in Rome was in 1998. During both trips she traveled around Italy visiting Venice, Lake Como, Tuscany and Umbria to draw and paint, and to study the art and architecture. For several years she has gone to Provence to paint the fields and hill villages of the countryside.
The artist’s work has been represented in many collections including the Arts-in-Embassy program of the State Department, and in many corporate and private collections throughout the country including the NASA Art collection and also the Xerox Corporation, the Waterford Foundation, the Journey through Hallowed Ground, the National Gallery of Art and the Washington Post.
The artist’s work can be seen at the Susan Calloway Gallery in Washington, DC, the Handwright Gallery in New Canaan, Connecticut, and the artist’s Studio in Waterford, VA.
“Through the illusion of light, color and space in a painting, I try to reveal the unreality of appearances. The enigma of light and memory is the theme which absorbs me. Light and memory affect the landscape of the mind as well as the vanishing landscape of nature. In the moment when light and color meet, reality seems distorted. The light becomes fragmented as reality and dreams come together. The sudden lucidity of the afternoon light glances off figures and architecture awakening momentary sensations of distant emotions. The haunting of the soul recalls longing, remorse and contentment. The mood lingers until the landscape calms and darkens with the dusk.” -A. Walker
