Sophia Klingbeil

Untitled 1 - Oil on Canvas - Not For Sale

Untitled 2 - Oil on Canvas - Not for Sale

Untitled 3 - Oil on Canvas - Not for Sale

Artist's Statement

The atmospheric color of my paintings is meant to reach into the viewer’s own range of experience. Seen through the lens of a person growing up in a rural community my work portrays what I absorb through my interactions with nature.

I strive to connect the viewer with an emotional response to the color they see. I use the color blue to target specific emotions in my audience. I draw inspiration from the everyday things around me, and the open sky has become a basis for the content of the paintings. Any explicit meaning drawn from the work is created through the individual connections that the viewer brings to the table.

The rising and setting of the sun and moon give me a broad color palette to work with. For me, the sky reflects my deepest fears, my secrets, my love, my wishes, and my thoughts. I have realized through the years that many people tend to take the sky for granted. With my work, I want to take you on a journey into your own thoughts and encourage you without words to explore the world.

Through gentle washes of colors, I can achieve the blended atmospheric imagery that I choose for each painting. By blending the colors on the canvas, I can achieve a better connection between the raw paint on the canvas with the colors taken from the sky.

I have gotten inspiration through the work of Mark Rothko. His large-scale color palettes have encouraged me to work larger to help invoke specific connections between the viewer and the work. These images are meant to stick with you in your mind and give an almost peaceful space for you to get lost in, to go on a journey without leaving the place you are standing in. I seek to let the viewer take their own emotional journey.

Artist's Instagram Site

If you wish to purchase any of these pieces, please contact the gallery director, Jacqueline Nathan (jnathan@bgsu.edu.)