Cindy Wilbur

Cindy was born and raised in San Diego. She has loved art as far back as she can remember. Her letters to Santa were always for art supplies and dolls. After out-growing dolls, her parents converted her playhouse into her first studio.

In her mid-twenties, she moved to the Central Valley of California. At the time, she was painting in a more whimsical style. Her work was featured and sold in galleries and shops along the Pacific Coast.

In her thirties, she graduated from the University of The Pacific in Stockton with a multiple subject credential and a supplemental credential in Art. Cindy taught second grade for several years and during the summers taught private art classes for children.

Since that time, Cindy`s work has encompassed many different styles and genres. She started out painting mostly portraits and figures but after having a home on the Central Coast, her love of not only painting the landscape began, but her love of painting outdoors as well.  She especially loves now traveling and painting in various new areas and meeting up and painting with fellow artists all across the U.S. and abroad.

Besides her formal training at U.O.P, she has studied under such known artists as:  Kim English,  Daniel James Keys, Brian Blood, Gil Dellinger, Kathleen Dunphy,  Jeffrey Watts,  Peggy Kroll Roberts, Timothy Theis,  Anita Louise West, Johnnie Liliedahl, Dean Packer, Bob Burridge, Mark Farina and Lori Putnam

I once heard a saying, “To be inspired means to be in spirit“.  For me, being out among God’s great creation is the best inspiration.  There, all of my senses become part of my painting, not just sight but touch and sound, all flowing together onto my canvas. “Light”, is probably what first inspires me to paint a certain scene, light vs. shadow, warm vs. cool; or lack of light, creating mood and atmosphere.

I love my studio time as well.  It is there that I can create larger paintings, carrying with me the memory of recent outdoor experiences.  It is there that I have the time to add my own style and nuances to a scene already lightly captured ‘en plein air’.  I remember well my very first studio.  It was a doll house that my father converted for me as a child. There, out in the yard, I learned the pleasures of freeing my creative energies into something I could share with others.

My work is most known for its impressionistic or “painterly” style, favoring serene, pictorial landscapes.  I prefer to suggest, rather than render, simplifying large shapes of color and value, leaving the details to the viewer.  I feel this allows them to explore my paintings, the same way I so eagerly explored my surroundings. My goal is to convey my feelings through my heart and brush in hopes that the viewer will gain the same sense of spirit that inspired me.