Virginia Goesch was selected as December Artist of the Month
and has her artwork exhibited at the Cheyenne County Community Center
and the
Sidney Public Library through Monday, January 13, 2014. Goesch’s focus
is landscapes rendered in oil
and acrylic paints and the things included in the landscapes. She also
paints people and animals. She finds herself drawn to old things--their
function, imperfections, their shadows and their impact on the land.
She states, “I’m influenced by how I grew
up, where and when I grew up in rural Nebraska—the Depression, being
poor, the
wars, storms, and being alone in the rural parts of Nebraska.” These
are reflected in Goesch’s work, which
show the sensitivity of having grown up during hard times and yet with
the
delight of color, wonderment, and happy times, too.
She finds she’s still amazed at taking a flat piece of paper
or any surface and creating distance and depth with paint. As a child she was interested in distance,
changing skies and clouds, colors in the sky, plants in the pasture and the
trees. She grew up around horses and
cows and she tried to draw the horses.
“I knew there was a way to know how to draw and I finally found it,” she
said. Goesch said that she is still
challenged by color, the seasons, and the time of day. She remains amazed at summer lightening
revealing a storm, of the depth of light and the reflective quality of it. She continues to question, observe, and
learn. She describes her work as
somewhere between realistic and impressionistic.
Goesch has been a member of the Cheyenne County Art Guild
since she moved to Sidney in 2003 upon her retirement from the teaching
profession. She has attended numerous
workshops on watercolor, oil, and pastel.
Her works have been shown at Kearney, Neligh, Sidney, Holyoke, CO,
murals in local businesses in Sidney, and the Cheyenne County Fair. Her work has won many awards and been in the
Association of Nebraska Art Clubs Conference Annual Show. One of her special awards was winning the
People’s Choice Award at the 2013 CCAG Spring Show with her artwork titled “Red
Barn”. Great things are coming from
this fine artist, Virginia Goesch!
