Gina Hecht

I am a professional artist currently residing in Waunakee, Wisconsin. I paint in oils mixed with cold wax medium, which gives texture and luminosity to my paintings. My paintings reflect nature, with edges and focus softened to create an ethereal feeling.

I use many layers and texture to create a story within my work. I place a high value on depth and form, light and shadow. I achieve both with careful choice of color and focus, as well as the interplay of transparent and opaque paint, thick and thin layers.

While all of my paintings have an emphasis on depth and a feeling of being “in” the painting, my focus explores different perspectives. Some landscapes place the viewer at the edge of a scene, meditatively looking out at the distant horizon. Others place the viewer directly in the middle of a scene, encouraging a walk along a path by a winding creek. And yet others, give a macro view of the landscape, perhaps lying down with the view covered by grasses and flowers. I use each of these different perspectives to guide the emotive feeling of the painting.

While nature and a realistic scene may serve as my inspiration, I am not bound to the actual representation of the scene itself. Instead, a subject may inspire emotion and color palette more than realistic form and line. My intention is to abstract the inspiration so that it invokes emotion and inspires imagination for the viewer rather than telling the story directly. By allowing the viewer to walk into the painting, I want it to represent his or her own story of time and place and feeling.