Seimandi & Leprieur Gallery will host the opening of In Studio, an exhibit by Chicago-based artist Julie Anderson Mathias, who will be in attendance, 5-8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1 at the gallery, 33 W. Anapamu St., Santa Barbara.

In Studio will include 12 paintings by Anderson Mathias, whose work is rooted in her lifelong interest in color and abstraction. The exhibit will be on view until Nov. 8.

“Her approach has been shaped by her background in interior architecture and her decades of experience as a muralist, working directly on buildings and at an architectural scale,” the gallery said.
 
While studying at Syracuse University in the early 1970s, Anderson Mathias encountered the work of Morris Louis and Helen Frankenthaler, whose approaches to color and composition left a lasting impression.

Her later career in interior architecture, including at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, further developed her understanding of scale and proportion.

Anderson Mathias typically begins her paintings with sketches, color studies, and geometric structures. As the work develops, however, the original plan gives way to a dialogue between intention and discovery. Throughout this process, color remains at the heart of her practice.