Michelle Vezina Peterlin is an artist whose work vibrantly combines color, form and nature with hyper focus. She describes herself as an allegorical painter who tells stories through vibrant composition and imagination. Large scale leaves, flowers, stems are arranged in an almost abstract composition. They are intertwined with bugs, fish and winged birds. It’s a world both familiar and brand new. Dragon Flies dance with Fireflies at that magical moment just before dusk, a pool of fish so large you can almost feel their rush, and happy spiders co-exist in a bunches of pigment dense posies.
Peterlin studies our spiritual relationship with real and mythical creatures. The Garden, she uses doves, hawks, vultures, a phoenix and mythical dragons to illustrate a spiritual battle raging next to a physical fight. These creatures are universal, timeless and understood across cultures. They portray morality and visceral physicality within a fight where no one wins.
Landscapes through Peterlin’s eyes are alive with bold unabashed color. Vivid blues, hot pinks and fiery reds make the viewer see the world in hyper color glory.
Throughout time, color has been a language. It is painted on caves, Egyptian pyramids, medieval paintings and Andy Warhol prints. These are things we understand intimately and intuitively. In Peterlin’s paintings, color sings out the heart’s song through passionate reds, pinks, oranges, lively greens and moody blues. Peterlin’s work is large scale, and she wants the viewer to become fully immersed in the world she creates.
The Garden. © Michelle Vezina Peterlin
Peterlin’s work is influenced by the artists Marc Chagall, Thor Carlson, Georgia O’Keefe and philosopher Baruch Spinoza’s treatise on the relationship between God and nature. An example would be the artist’s painting Titled Dreams, where the thoughts, hopes and dream world of a young girl dance on the rim of her hat. Ballerinas, animals, Albert Einstein and his math equations are all alive in harmony against the back drop of rope pearls, paper lanterns and fairy lights.
The artist is an avid lifelong hiker and animal lover. She has taken what she observes in nature and turns it into art. For the last 2 years, she has been working exclusively on her new solo exhibit titled Gossamer. This show celebrates of all things ethereal, the filmy things born on the wind or flowing through water. The exhibit will launch in 2022 and the artist is currently scheduling its exhibition throughout the United States. The Gossamer show will begin where she began Gardner, Massachusetts at the Gardner Museum during the month of October 2022. The artist will be on hand to provide gallery talks and to teach classes in drawing and painting plus sign a limited number of prints.
Michelle Vezina Peterlin is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where she studied under legendary painters John Grillo and Leonard Gongora and received a degree in painting. She was born and raised in Gardner, Massachusetts. Currently, she resides with her husband in Evansville, IN. She has been a professional artist for over 30 years and currently exhibits her work throughout the United States.
