Artist of the Month: Roseline Koener

It’s difficult not to feel happy when looking at Roseline Koener’s artwork. The Westhampton artist enjoys bright pinks, vivid oranges, luscious reds and ocean blues. The vivid rainbow continues with greens, purples, magentas, yellow and whatever hues strike her fancy when making her paintings.

Color creates vibrations through the way they combine and intersect, Koener said. This mimics the vibrancy of life. To make her art, Koener paints on paper or fabric and then cuts the “painting” into pieces. Those pieces are collaged, piled and glued to create a single painting bursting with colors and textures.  

 “In a simple way, the colors vibrate and react like music,” she said. “For me, the paintings are like stained glass where the light comes through the color. They vibrate the color so one resonates from the others, even off those in the bottom. The bridge links the colors like an invisible rainbow that links everything in the painting.”

Koener mostly paints on cotton fabrics and handmade papers. She uses tempera paint, pastels and ink to make her art. Paintings are not planned beforehand—she paints, cuts into pieces and then collages to create her paintings.

Sometimes Koener uses graceful motions borrowed from a recent interest in dance to make swooshing brush strokes. Other times, her paintbrush or a textured flower stem remains steady. Regardless of how the paint is applied, Koener stays open to her “inner child” to make artwork originating from her “inner core” or “truest self,” as she describes it.

“I’ve found a freedom of the gesture and that freedom lets flow from the energy from the core,” Koener said.  “This is where our most authentic self lies.”

Visual inspiration is found in the ocean and gardens and the colors Koener remembers from Africa. Mostly, her artwork comes from an internal landscape where children are free to play and spontaneity is encouraged. Letting instinct lead the way allows her paintings to be layered with emotions, she said.

Koener’s life journey mirrors the same spontaneity and devotion to staying close to her heart found in her art making. The Belgium native moved to Africa as an adult and then New York City, years later. Not satisfied with Manhattan, she found a new life for her and her daughter, Joanna, when she boarded a taxi and discovered Westhampton in the late nineties.

An art gallery on Main Street in Westhampton Village soon followed. Koener closed the gallery after several years to spend more time on her art. Later on, she began leading workshops for personal development through reflection and creativity from her atelier (art studio) in Westhampton. She continues to hold retreats and workshops for people interested in developing their “own best, authentic self” and expanding creative possibilities, Koener said.

Koener’s art has been exhibited internationally and nationally. Locally, her art has been shown at the Quogue Library, Guild Hall in East Hampton, Art Sites Gallery in Riverhead and other places.

Her art can be seen online here.  Information on workshops and retreats can be found at here. 

If you would like to nominate an artist of the month, e-mail Erica.Jackson@Patch.com