An oil painting portrait by Victoria Gillieron, a Greenwood artist who creates portraits, landscapes and still-lifes. Gillieron is the featured artist at the Southside Art League’s Off Broadway Gallery through the month of September.
SUBMITTED PHOTO
The magic of a particular scene is impossible to miss.
Victoria Gillieron never knows when the inspiration will hit. Maybe it’s walking through the grocery store and the light hits the produce in a striking way. She could pass a person who would make a perfect portrait, or drive past a field of flowers that takes her breath away.
But once it does, the feeling is unmistakable.
“It just depends. It grabs me in the moment,” she said.
Being open to the beauty of even the simplest items has driven Gillieron’s growth as an artist. The Greenwood resident is the featured artist for September at the Southside Art League’s Off Broadway Gallery.
She is relatively new to painting, but after about 1,000 paintings completed, she is more confident in her talents than ever before. While acknowledging that not every painting she’s created is a masterpiece, she sees each one as a privilege, a chance to challenge herself and an exciting way to create something that will bring hopefully bring enjoyment to others.
“Sometimes those little snapshots in my head speak to other people, and they just have to have it.”
The way she tells it, Gillieron didn’t know what she wanted to be when she grew up until she was 45 years old. Her children had gone off to college, and she was at a crossroads of what to do now with her spare time.
Anything was an option.
“I said I’d try a little bit of everything, and I did,” she said. “All of the things I tried, I’d do it for a little while and then I’d get bored of it and was ready to jump to the next thing.”
Gillieron had worked a variety of different jobs — real estate agent, broker and appraiser, customer service, seamstress, carpet installer and more. None of those jobs gave her a feeling of happiness and joy like being an artist.
That changed when she tried out painting.
“When I started painting, I thought, ‘I’m never going to learn this.’ It would never be perfect. It changes every day. I would never get bored because I can always change the things I paint, the way I paint, the palette I use. It was the perfect thing,” she said.
Wishing to learn more, Gillieron started studying with a variety of talented instructors. She signed up for a studio at the Stutz building in downtown Indianapolis, a well-known incubator of local artists.
Interacting with artists of every type helped build her skills and knowledge immensely.
“They really took me under their wings,” she said. “It was seriously like being wrapped around this angelic group who taught me and helped me. It was amazing.”
Though she tried many different genres and styles of art, one thing that caught her attention was portraiture. She found joy in capturing the magic of a person, or even the portrait of a beloved pet.
“People are so happy and so emotional when they get the painting. It’s like you’ve touched their hearts,” she said.
As a member of the Southside Art League, Gillieron has taken part in numerous classes and events the organization offers. She has also bonded with the creative types making great art throughout Greenwood and the southside.
For her September show, she is including between 20 and 30 Impressionist-style oil paintings. A number of the paintings are centered around her time on Sanibel Island, Florida. In the island’s Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, she found indescribable images of birds, flowers, trees and the seashore.
“Sometimes, I’d just paint on the beach, and people would come up and want to buy it,” she said. “I always loved when people did that.”
IF YOU GO
Victoria Gillieron exhibition
What: An art show featuring between 20 and 30 Impressionist oil paintings by Gillieron, a Greenwood resident
Where: Southside Art League Off Broadway Gallery, 299 E. Broadway, Greenwood
When: Sept. 6-30
Gallery hours: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday; closed Sunday through Tuesday
Reception: Gillieron will host a reception for the public from 6 to 8 p.m. Sept. 15 at the gallery. Light refreshments will be served.
Information: southsideartleague.org
