Chee Kludt Ricketts

PLEASE NOTE: BIO AND W-9 SHOULD BE ON FILE IF 2014 RECORDS HAVE BEEN RETAINED.

For forty years Chee and her husband resided in metropolitan areas—Atlanta, Fort Worth, Washington, D.C. and Hampton Roads. In retirement, they moved to Greene County near Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, finding country living to be much to their liking.

As a Signature artist and award-winning member of the Virginia Watercolor Society, Chee enjoys exhibiting her watercolors and acrylics whenever possible. Her work has been featured in solo shows at This Century Gallery in Williamsburg, Blue Skies Gallery in Hampton, The Louisa Arts Center and The Shenandoah Valley Arts Center in Waynesboro, as well as numerous juried group exhibitions throughout the South. She has given demonstration talks about her work at the Annie Gould Gallery in Gordonsville and the Beverly Street Studio School in Staunton. Locally, she is a member of the Firnew Farm Artists’ Circle in Hood and the Central Virginia Watercolor Guild in Charlottesville. She currently serves on the Board of the Art Guild of Greene.

Her technique varies with the medium that she uses and currently she alternates between watercolor and acrylics. If not working from memory, she favors painting from direct observation, either from actual objects that are set up in her studio or from local landscapes outdoors (en plein air) on location. Typically, her palette is composed of a limited triad, a combination of one red, yellow, and blue pigment (plus white) from which  all of the other pigments are mixed.

Her paintings often navigate between reality and interpreted vision, creating impressionistic scenes of subtle tension. Her approach is both spontaneous and controlled, where quick brushwork, granulated washes, and manipulated light are countered by passages of precise rendering.   It is her goal to express her feelings—to interpret, rather than record; to inspire, rather than simply remind. Evoking the essence of the familiar, Chee seeks to transport the viewer to a heightened appreciation of ephemeral moments in time.

Chee’s paintings hang in numerous public and private collections, including the International Storytelling Festival Visitors’ Center in Jonesboro, TN, Augusta Health System, Rockingham Regional Medical Center, UVA Health System, Ferguson Enterprises Headquarters in Newport News, the City of Hampton, VA,  and Thomas Nelson Community College, Hampton, VA.

A native of Camden, South Carolina and a graduate of Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA, Chee earned credit in additional classes and graduate courses at The College of William and Mary, Old Dominion University, Christopher Newport University, La Salle University, and Thomas Nelson Community College and has studied with nationally recognized artists. She feels, however, that practice is the best teacher; therefore, she devotes as much time as possible to working in her studio or en plein air on the hills surrounding her farm.