‘As If at the Sistine’

Wanda Reagan started painting roughly a decade ago, after she attended a life-changing “Southern Lights” exhibition at The Bascom Art Center in Highlands, North Carolina. “It was a show that featured abstract works by four women painters,” she said. “I have since been able to take a workshop with one of them in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which was such a highlight for me.” Ironically, one of Reagan’s paintings can now be found on display at the very site where she was first inspired to put brush to canvas. It will remain there through the end of November.

When asked if she would be interested in sharing her talents with all of you by providing the cover for this issue of The Newton Community Magazine, Reagan did not have to think twice. Soon, she was at work in her element, and we were the beneficiaries.

“The inspiration for the painting began as most of my paintings do, with a blank canvas and mark-making to get me started,” Reagan said. “I then randomly choose a color palette that I add to as the painting goes along. There’s a lot of subtraction, addition and mark-making using different types of tools to scratch into the surface of the painting as I go along. I’m influenced a lot by what I see in nature, and I actually get into a flow state by listening to music as I paint.”

Reagan calls our Fall 2025 cover “As if at the Sistine,” in reference to a poem she had written. The painting took her upwards of 15 hours to complete.

Picasso once said, “Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.” Wanda Reagan probably understands those words better than most.

Thank you Wanda Reagan for providing the art work for the 2025 fall cover. Wanda’s work is available for sale on online at wandareaganart.com.

by Brian Knapp