(Published December 2014) The painting is monumental, taking up about a six by ten foot space on the museum wall; a space that now dances and swirls with brilliant color and untraceable abstraction. Straight and curved lines along with varied shapes of vivid color mingle on the canvas to create a haphazard, almost theatrical, experience. Taking in the piece, your eyes dart from side to side, top to bottom, trying to make sense of the colliding figures and colors. Finally you discover a central form, an oval, which seems to act as the eye of a compositional hurricane, surrounded by swirling color and form.

“Composition VII,” Wassily Kandinsky, 1913

The piece is “Composition VII;” its creator, Wassily Kandinsky. It hangs on the bright white walls of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1995 along with only fourteen other Kandinsky paintings, together making up the exhibition “Kandinsky: Compositions.” In front of the painting stands an awestruck Aleta Pippin, attempting to memorize the active bursts of color that seem to radiate Kandinsky’s energy.

“Though only fifteen paintings were displayed, I was thrilled that we went to see the show,” said Pippin. “Pictures of art never do justice to the real thing. Seeing Kandinsky’s paintings in person was inspiring to say the least.”

Pippin had begun painting just a few years earlier in 1992, and like Kandinsky, she started out creating representational work. Her paintings mostly consisted of portraiture, although the desire for abstraction seeped through in the blurring color that occupied the backdrops of her paintings.

Early representational portraiture by Aleta Pippin.

For Kandinsky, the transition into abstraction came in the early 1900s through a series of sparked inspirations, one of which was an 1896 Claude Monet exhibit in Moscow. He was astounded by “Haystacks at Giverny,” a series of Monet’s paintings depicting impressionistic haystacks in fields near Monet’s home in Giverny, France. Kandinsky later writes about his reaction to the work:

“Haystacks at Giverny, the evening sun.” Claude Monet, 1888.

“It was from the catalog I learned this was a haystack. I was upset I had not recognized it. Dimly I was aware too that the object did not appear in the picture. And I noticed with surprise and confusion that the picture not only gripped me, but impressed itself ineradicably on my memory. The painting took on a fairy-tale power and splendor.”

Another push towards abstraction for the Russian artist, who is credited as being the first purely abstract painter, came from looking at his own work in a different light. One night when Kandinsky came home to his studio, he was enchanted by a painting he did not recognize. After a closer look, he realized it was his own piece lying on its side. Kandinsky recognized that subject matter lessened the impact of his paintings, and from that point on he began removing it from his work. This would eventually earn him the title of “the father of abstraction,” and “pioneer” of the Abstract Expressionist movement.

“Color Abounds” by Aleta Pippin, oil/canvas, 30×30″

For Aleta Pippin, the move toward abstraction resulted from a desire to experiment with imagery, color, and various media. She relates to Kandinsky’s epiphany of removing the subject matter for a more timeless and freeing composition.

“When someone views a painting containing subject matter, there is a reaction based on their relationship to that subject,” explains Pippin. “If they’re viewing an abstract painting, they have the opportunity to consider it on a deeper level, for instance, simply enjoying the color or perhaps analyzing the artist’s message.”

Kandinsky, also a renowned art theorist, took a spiritual approach to his work, analyzing the effects of color on the mind and soul. In his book, “Concerning the Spiritual in Art,” he explored his theory that color can create an “inner resonance” with the viewer by provoking a sensory experience within their soul.

Left: “Riding the Range,” Aleta Pippin, acrylic/canvas, 36×36.” Right: “Improvisation 26,” Wassily Kandinsky, oil/canvas, 1912.

To say Kandinsky was a “colorist” is an understatement; he devoted his life to it, which is why Pippin couldn’t look away as she stood before his paintings in LACMA on that June afternoon in 1995. Her work thrives on color and has a similar spiritual bent. “I believe that true art comes from within; color is central to my individual expression,” says Pippin.

“A Tribute to Gerhard Richter..Dancing Through the Seasons,” Aleta Pippin, 48×40″ oil/canvas

The trickling effect of artists inspiring artists is how art movements are born, with creative leaders carrying the influence of master artists that came before them. For Pippin, inspiration comes from artists living and dead who appreciate a sense of color along with timeless and spiritual interpretations of abstract ideas. The visual expressions of Gerard Richter and Claude Monet have directly influenced Pippin’s paintings, and abstract expressionists like Kandinsky, Rothko, and de Kooning serve as an overall inspiration to her painting style.

With these artists as her guides, Pippin creates liberating works of art with an intuitive use of color and energetic freedom.

(Published November 2014) When walking around the bright and airy studio where Aleta Pippin creates her lively abstract paintings, she often stops mid-sentence to notice a spot of vibrant red, subtle blue or energetic yellow on one of her canvases.

“I just love the color in that piece,” she suddenly interjects.

Aleta Pippin’s studio, Santa Fe, New Mexico

It’s not hard to detect that Pippin is a colorist; she’s quick to tell you how much she loves color and this fascination is easily apparent in her work. While her artistic process is spontaneous, her work is created without premeditation. Over time, she has noticed continuous changes in her style, technique, and of course, use of color. She thrives on artistic experimentation, which keeps her work fresh and exciting to collectors and to herslef as a creator. However, she also spends time reevaluating where she’s been and how her career is artistically progressing, while also maintaining a consistent style that is true to her body of work.

A work in progress in Aleta’s studio. Notice the painting on the easel.

This is the completed painting – Energy Abounds by Aleta Pippin, oil on canvas, 48×48 inches.

“This time of year, I start to assess what I’m doing and why I’m doing it,” explains Pippin. “I ask myself if I’m going in a direction I want to continue.”

Circle of Life created 2012

In the past several years, Pippin has been subconsciously directed towards a “softer” color palette as she calls it, shifting away from the saturated primary colors that typically permeated her canvases. While she still uses bold red, yellow and blue hues, she has started mixing softer, muted colors on the canvas that give her work a more complex feel.

“Besides being experimental, what I offer is color,” says Pippin. “That’s always the feedback I get from collectors and people who view my work – that they love the color. So that’s where I am right now, I’m working in more color blends than staying with primaries.”

Since Pippin allows her present emotions to dictate her painting, she can’t pinpoint the exact moment when shifts in her work began to happen. She guessed the color palette altered when she started working on smaller panels in acrylic, but can’t assign the beginning of the transition to any single piece or moment of revelation.

Inspiration…An Inside Job created 2014

“I’ve created anywhere from 850 to 900 (from 2004 through 2014) at this point in time,” says Pippin. “When and why do they start changing? It’s interesting even to me.”

As you make your way through the organized chaos of Pippin’s studio, stepping over drying canvases and carefully avoiding clusters of paint bottles (“I spend a lot of time on the floor,” Pippin confesses), she will stop momentarily to explain the history and “past lives” of some of her paintings, even comparing an image of the original work with the current one. One of these reworked pieces is “Momentum,” which has existed under three different titles.

Now a lively abstraction of muted purples, bleeding blues and bursts of yellow, it was first an impressionistic nude titled “Compelling.” After deciding that a nude form was not harmonious with her current aesthetic at Pippin Contemporary, she decided to rework the piece to stay true to her abstract style. Then came the painting’s second life as a nonrepresentational “Sunrise, Sunset,” and now the layers of renewed color finally hang at the gallery as “Momentum.”

Compelling original nude under Momentum, 2012

Momentum, 48×30″ oil on canvas, 2014

Inspiring ideas, subconscious artistic decisions, and quick movements of color on canvas – it all happens in Pippin’s sacred studio space. The Santa Fe artist creates an energy with her work that she can feel while she paints, the same energy that her collectors take with them when they buy one of her paintings.

“I can always feel a shift when I come into the studio. I don’t know what it is, but there are positive things happening here and it feels good.”