Eutierria

Eutierria — Fernberger FERNBERGER Menu Release Eutierria , Vicky Colombet's second solo exhibition at Fernberger can be understood as a synthesis of her interconnected series: Landscapes from Above , From the Floating World, Antarctica, Light and Water , and the Monet Series . The concept of eutierria, a term coined by Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht describing a deep sense of harmony and connectedness with the Earth, lies at the core of Colombet's decades-long practice. Rather than depict a specific place, Colombet seeks to evoke the very idea of landscape. She conceives of her paintings as landscapes in and of themselves. Like the natural environment, her works capture the fleeting vibrations of mist, wind, water, and light, functioning as visual catalysts that invite contemplation. By minimizing visible brushwork, Colombet allows her hand to recede, creating the sensation that nature itself is forming the image. "I would like to give [my works] the feeling that it is nature painting," she said in a 2020 interview with Marianne Alphant for the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris. "The brush produces the wind, the speed; the pigments provide the earth, the rocks." Her pursuit of an "inner landscape" is supported by her singular use of pure pigments. Natural in origin and ground by hand rather than industrially processed, these materials lend her paintings a subtle, almost auratic vibration, offering viewers a heightened perception of color. Many of her pigments are, quite literally, of the earth. Each possesses distinct physical properties—weight, density, texture—that determine how it moves across the canvas. Colombet harnesses these differences in her mystifying compositions, allowing particles to settle, layer, or disperse in ways that mirror natural processes of sedimentation and movement. She blends these pigments with oil and alkyd mediums to form a paste similar to commercial oil paint, then dilutes the mixture with mineral spirits to further release the pigments' unique characteristics. Her process recreates terrestrial conditions at a human scale, guiding pure pigments suspended in liquid across the canvas with ultra fine brushes. For Colombet, "every element participates in the creation of the painting: the brush, the paints, the canvas, how I breathe, how I move. Everything counts. It all materializes. It gives the incarnation of the painting." She describes her practice as a collaboration between herself and her materials. Having studied and practiced Buddhism for decades, the dissolution of ego in her work and her submission to chance represents a quiet meeting point between Eastern and Western methodology and philosophy. Anchoring the exhibition Eutierria is a pivotal 2024 painting, Mozart in the Summer (Chasing Light) , among the first large-scale works in which Colombet incorporated metallic pigment. The painting was exhibited at the Torggler Fine Arts Center in Newport News, Virginia, in Reflections: Surface and Substance (2024). Initially, she saw her use of reflective material as an extension of her ongoing interest in the interaction of light and water. Over time, however, the silver pigment came to feel more closely aligned with her Antarctica series, evoking prismatic glacial structures and refracted light—an association that carried into subsequent works. The exhibition also includes paintings incorporating gold pigment, another recent addition to Colombet's palette. Gold is one of the few elements formed not on Earth but through cosmic events, a fact that lends it what Colombet describes as a "refugee" status on this planet and adds a poignant dimension to its place within human systems of value. This celestial thread is paired with a suite of new works that extend her From the Floating World and Monet Series , continuing her exploration of light on the surface of water. These paintings introduce a more intimate scale and an intensified palette that includes vivid reds. In Sunset #1630 , red pigment interacts strikingly with reflective silver, while works such as Going Into the Wilderness #1602 , with its deep and complex greens, suggest that entering nature, though grounding, can also feel otherworldly.