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A Lifetime of Art | Michele Page Webster
Written By: Luke Osteen | Issue: 2021/06 – June
Michele Page Webster’s creations are truly a mixture of the Mundane and the Sacred.
Michele Page Webster
It’s easy to see why Michele Page Webster’s work is so irresistibly evocative.
There’s the obeisance to the principles of design. These fundamental elements are Scale, Progression, Texture, Color and Lighting. She applies them to her paintings with an engineer’s precision, yet tempered by an artist’s instincts shaped by a lifetime of study and practice.
And, of course, there’s her choice of media. She started out in oils, then moved on to mixed media and acrylics. This progression has given her works a subtle freedom and allows a full spectrum of colors and textures and emotional shadings.
Page was born and raised in Florida, where she developed at an early age an appreciation of the natural beauty that adorns our planet, including light, colors and textures. She began to imagine paintings in her mind and how they should be composed long before picking up a brush.
Today, she finds expression on canvas. Page paints many different subjects, and enjoys using different genres. She believes that all of this keeps her art fresh and allows it to evolve.
You can feel all of that when you gaze upon her art. There’s something about the colors and the very specific placement of her figures. Her landscapes invite contemplation – they’re familiar, even comforting, but there’s an element of unearthliness about them as well.
And while we’re considering the power of her work and its hold on the imagination, there’s one more element to take into account.
It was when she took her art to Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico, that she discovered El Santuario de Chimayo, a Catholic shrine and National Historic Landmark known for its “Holy Soil” that’s said to have miraculous curative powers.
Inspired and feeling a powerful and irrefutable communion with the Sacred, Page gathered a small sampling of this earth, and brought it home. Today, she incorporates small amounts of the soil into some or her art, saying that, “the Holy Soil blesses the art and the home.”
Now some of those viewing Page’s work may say that adding dirt from a holy site is a ridiculous conceit, but when we consider the undeniable power of these creations, who among us will deny that they offer at least a hint of transcendence?
Page’s art can be viewed by private appointment. You can contact her directly at (850) 322-7660 or by visiting pagetheartist.com.
