Wendy Chidester
(Salt Lake City, UT, 1964 – )
Wendy Chidester is a photo-realistic oil painter that focuses on paying homage to lost relics of the past in her till-life paintings. Artifacts like vintage cameras and projectors, 1940’s trunk luggage, bubblegum machines, childrens’ pedal cars and tricycles, and old telephones and typewriters are represented nostalgically in her work. She frames these objects as icons, memorializing the color and ingenuity of the past. Chidester was born and raised in Salt Lake City. After graduating from the University of Utah with a BFA in the late 1990s, Chidester was painting in the studio of David Dornan. One fateful day, rain prevented her from working on an open-air landscape painting. She decided to visit a local antique store and found herself drawn to a particular vintage camera. She ended up borrowing that camera, and later other objects, to use for newly-inspired still-lifes. In her artistic process, she paints with oil, and then scratches and glazes to create a realistic aged effect. Chidester now travels the country searching for antique treasures to paint. She has amassed an impressive collection of these timepieces, and will even sell them to clients when they buy her paintings.
(Salt Lake City, UT, 1964 – )
Wendy Chidester is a photo-realistic oil painter that focuses on paying homage to lost relics of the past in her till-life paintings. Artifacts like vintage cameras and projectors, 1940’s trunk luggage, bubblegum machines, childrens’ pedal cars and tricycles, and old telephones and typewriters are represented nostalgically in her work. She frames these objects as icons, memorializing the color and ingenuity of the past. Chidester was born and raised in Salt Lake City. After graduating from the University of Utah with a BFA in the late 1990s, Chidester was painting in the studio of David Dornan. One fateful day, rain prevented her from working on an open-air landscape painting. She decided to visit a local antique store and found herself drawn to a particular vintage camera. She ended up borrowing that camera, and later other objects, to use for newly-inspired still-lifes. In her artistic process, she paints with oil, and then scratches and glazes to create a realistic aged effect. Chidester now travels the country searching for antique treasures to paint. She has amassed an impressive collection of these timepieces, and will even sell them to clients when they buy her paintings.
Artist Objects
