The Mysterious Allure of Siobhan Wilder’s Black and Grey Paintings

Siobhan Wilder, a founding member of the Seattle Artist League in 2016, has been honing her painting skills in my classes since 2015. This quarter, she steps into the role of an accomplished artist, teaching drawing, painting, and critique with us. The League is dedicated to fostering the development of each artist’s unique voice. Wilder has found hers in the realm of small, enigmatic works on panel, using only the simplest palette of ivory black and titanium white. With these fundamental pigments, she skillfully uncovers the intricacies of her scenes, demonstrating both patience and meticulous attention to detail.

Siobhan Wilder’s art studio, nestled in the turret of an old Seattle house, serves as a sanctuary for her craftsmanship. Here, she applies oil paint to smooth wooden panels, creating textures reminiscent of bone, porcelain, parchment, iron, silver, and damp stone, all cloaked in shadow. The compact size of her studio naturally dictates a small scale for her creations, and it’s fitting that before she began painting, she worked with antique watch parts. Siobhan Wilder’s paintings draw you in, revealing more detail, like opening an intricately designed, mechanical watch. As you open the watch, you first see the general mechanism, but as you look closer, you’re drawn into an increasingly complex and detailed world of tiny gears, springs, and cogs, each piece working in harmony but revealing more intricacies as you continue to observe. Just like Wilder’s paintings, the watch invites deeper scrutiny, rewarding the viewer with its layers of detail and craftsmanship, hidden at first glance.

In selected paintings, asemic writing suggests passages from a secret diary or alchemist’s notes.

Asemic writing is an art form that mimics the appearance of writing but lacks any actual, discernible content. It presents as abstract, script-like symbols that invite subjective interpretation, focusing on visual expression rather than conveying a specific message. This style blurs the line between writing and visual art, allowing for personal interpretation and emotional engagement.

Within Wilder’s artistic universe, narratives dwell just beyond reach, and curated elements come to life, remaining motionless only as long as your gaze lingers upon them.

Wilder credits a variety of inspirations for her style. The stark drama of Thierry De Cordier’s seascapes resonates through her use of monochrome, the moody mysterious scenes in black and white, like film noir.

From Antonio López Garcia, she borrows an attentiveness to the detailed descriptions of space and place.

Her compositions, as if selections from a timeless cabinet of curiosities, reflect Charles Paget Wade’s influence. Each object is carefully chosen, placed with intention, and steeped in narrative potential. These are not random assemblages but deliberate selections that conjure a sense of history, memory, and the allure of discovery.

It’s here, in the descriptive obfuscation in single cinematic stills, that the viewer is both voyeur and participant, piecing together the narratives that linger tantalizingly out of reach.

Each piece she creates is a testament to a slow and deliberate art of painting, where every hour spent is a detail emphasized, a secret whispered. Here, in the quiet of her turret studio, Siobhan Wilder invites us to lean in, trying to peer closer so we can hear the enigmatic stories her brushstrokes tell.

You can see more of Siobhan Wilder’s work on her website and on Instagram @blue_eyed_crow

In the next post, we’ll take a peek at one of Siobhan’s personal interests: the intricate art of miniature paintings.