Landscape and Colors
New Teresa Cerda exhibit on display at Jones House

By Jeff Eason

After a two month hiatus, the Mazie Jones Gallery in the Jones House is back with one of its best exhibits ever. Local artist Teresa Cerda will exhibit a collection of new paintings titled Landscape and Colors in the Mazie Jones Gallery during the month of January.

A public reception for the new exhibition will be held on Friday, January 9 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Jones House. The event, hosted by the Watauga Arts Council and in conjunction with downtown Boone’s First Friday Art Crawl, is free and open to the public.

Originally from Santiago, Chile, Cerda movied to Madrid, Spain in 1990. She and her husband and daughter moved to the High Country in 2005 when he took a job as an Appalachian State University professor and the Cerdas now live in the Triplett community.

Landscape and Colors features bold paintings on plywood using a variety of paints and pigments. Cerda also utilizes unusual techniques and media such as rabbit skin glue, calcium carbonate, beeswax, gold and silver leaf, eggs and other items. The result is a collection of surprisingly deep and textured works, many of which are inspired by nature.

“When I work, I reunite colors and materials on the surface of the wood to which I am applying them, but I do so with particular places in mind, mainly landscapes and cities that have been transcendental to me,” said Cerda. “This exhibit is part of a larger search for an artistic language in which the painting is the object that shapes a particular and emotional reading of the landscape. This series of paintings is called ‘Landscape,’ but they are illusions which aim to please the troubled eye.”

The new exhibition features over twenty works painted during the past three years.

“This work is the result of my observations of the forms and colors of nature,” said Cerda. “This observation became an idea that developed into a language of geometrical shapes and colors. I started this work three years ago.”

Cerda earned her college degree in stage design for theater and cinema. She later worked as the Director of Framing and Decoration Workshops at Fundacion de Arte y Autores Contemporaneos. Later she founded her own painting and framing studio in Madrid in 2000.

“This exhibit it primarily an abstract work,” said Cerda. “I’ve found inspiration in (the works of) Mark Rothko and Paul Klee. For making this work, I used the concept of landscape, although I don’t want to copy it. It’s a poetical concept.”

HCCHS Exhibit

The Open Door Gallery of the Jones House will feature new work by the High Country Christian Home Schoolers (HCCHS). The work is in a variety of mediums including acrylic, watercolor, pastel, scratchboard, quilting and mixed media.

The HCCHS artwork was created at home or during art classes, some of which are conducted at the Thoughtful Thursday home school program at Mt. Vernon Baptist Church. Art teachers at the program are Tara Belk, Holly Soukup and Rebecca Burnett.

“HCCHS is a large group, committed to the vision of helping parents discipline their children through spiritual, moral and academic training grounded in scripture,” said a spokesperson for the HCCHS. “It is the group’s privilege and duty to equip and encourage the family to continue, mature and succeed in their home school journey. HCCHS offers support meetings, and information on fieldtrips, as well as many other events and activities.”

The Watauga Arts Council galleries are sponsored in part by Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff and Grassroots Funds of the North Carolina Arts Council. The WAC’s office’s and galleries are located in downtown Boone at the Jones House Community and Cultural Center, owned by the town of Boone.
For more information, call the WAC at (828) 264-1789.