Meet RC deWinter

Regina Coeli deWinter is a photographer, digital artist and writer living and working in Middletown, Connecticut. Her work has been published in print and online; in addition, one of her pieces has been licensed to Disney/ABC for use on the show Desperate Housewives. In October 2011 she will be mounting her first solo gallery exhibition, to which the public is invited. To view more of RC’s work, please visit her website as well as her galleries at Imagekind.

Our interview with RC deWinter

Q. Do you consider ART your Career? How did it all start for you?
A – I do now that I have no other job. When I was employed full time, pursuing art as a career was one of my top goals – now, although my income is severely reduced, I am doing just that and enjoying it immensely. My interest in art was fuelled by the beautiful color illustrations by the greats – Renoir, Degas, Velasquez, Rembrandt and also some of the early modernists like Miro and Kandinsky – in a set of encyclopaedias we had while I was growing up. I also remember being fascinated with photography from the time I was a child – some of the first pictures I shot were when I was about age 9, with an old black-and-white Kodak Brownie. I still remember the pictures I took of an old hay rake in a field…I wish I still had them!

Q. How would you describe your work? Do you focus on a particular genre? Why?

A – Hmmm…eclectic is the word. I don’t really hew closely to any genre, although digitally painting antique rooms and furniture from my photographs – as well as flowers in an “Old Masters” style – are a couple of favourite styles. I am now branching out into more Impressionist-style work along with fantasy. In photography, portraits are my specialty.

 Q. Why did you join the ART for Cancer Group? What is the significance of this group to you?

A – My mother is a breast cancer survivor – and giving back for her complete recovery is important to me.

Q. Do you create for yourself or for a specific market?

A – I produce what I ‘see’, what I feel, what I like. I am no good at aiming for a specific buyer or market. That’s probably why I don’t sell as much as I would like! But I have been invited to mount a solo exhibition that will be open every Saturday throughout the month of October at the Arts of Tolland Gallery here in Connecticut. I am honoured to be the first digital artist invited to exhibit at this venue.

Q. What are the most important tools you use in your work? What is your workspace like?

A – The most necessary and important tools are my eye and my imagination – to see something either in reality and be able to shoot a good photograph of it, or to see something in my mind that I want to express. Naturally my cameras are critical components, and also my computer and scads of software that enables me to design, paint and draw digitally.

Q. What is an interesting fact about yourself that not too many people know?

A – My first career in creativity was as a singer-songwriter, a profession I followed for several years up and down the eastern portion of the US.

RC supports the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation, which funds research into a cure for breast cancer.

	Vintage design, furniture and objects are ongoing reminders of how we used to live and the beauty that can still be found in bygone days. ‘Mother’s Chintz’ Chaise captures the easy elegance of Victorian New England and invites the viewer in to enjoy the innocent comforts of the past.
	‘The Road Home’ is a visual expression of the path each of us has taken and continues to take during our life journey. The dark calm is my personal meditation on how I arrived where I now am as well as the mystery of the future, symbolized by the curving away of the road into the forest.
	I have always been passionate about growing and being surrounded by flowers of all kinds. ‘Basket of Roses’ is a romantic photograph embodying my admiration for the beauty of flora.