Felice Willat

THE ZEN OF THE LAND

unites a visual trilogy of country people, their landscapes and lifestyles in humanist, spiritual, pictorial harmony. Willat brings a centered, thoughtful and organic approach to photography and to the living of a purposeful artists' life. The serenity in her images is both pensive and evocative; mirroring her contemplative intellect and ebullient personality. The artist’s best works percolate with a Mandala-full of life forces that emanate from her subjects, which she shoots in situ. Her most interesting pictures linger in the mind's eye. They move the viewer into spaces where we breathe deeper and slower- harmonizing with those who inhabit the visual world that Willat creates.

“I can get lost in the moment. The shutter seems to click on its own when I'm fortunate enough to capture someone at one with their environment. My favorite shots are not portraits and they’re not landscapes. I like to shoot people going about the living of their lives within their lands. They become defined by how and where they live. That’s what I’m known for.”

Jemmaa El Fna, a cityscape of Marrakesh’s town square, is a pageant of humanity where horse drawn carriages, push carts and shoe shine stands are readying the famous marketplace for day’s end. It perfectly expresses the interchangeability of Willat’s desire to characterize those she shoots by the places they inhabit and to portray these places by the persons who populate them.

Felice Willat is an award-winning travel photographer and publisher, whose images from Burma, Morocco, China, Vietnam and Argentina, capture the beauty of the human landscape across cultures. Willat's photographs have been juried into the Los Angeles Center for Photography, Photo LA, Photo Independent, TAG Gallery, Bergamot Station, the Brand Library, Glendale, CA, and numerous other venues across the United States and in London, UK and Italy.In 2010, Felice won First Prize, for her Travel images in the Southern California Council of Camera Clubs’ annual juried exhibition. In 2009 Felice published The Quiet Between, Song of Burma, a book of photography and poems.

Felice sees her camera as providing a sense of time expansion and stillness. She says, “I could capture a moment, something sacred or commonplace, an unconscious gesture, a tattered clothesline, a red plastic pitcher, or a worn prayer book. I like to leave the familiar, travel to far-away places, and find the gift of really being present.”

Selected Exhibitions

2015

LAPhoto – Fabrik Magazine Gallery

Topanga Canyon Gallery – Juried Group Show – Featured Artist

Juror – Michael Zakian, Director, Weisman Museum

2014

Captured 2 – Second Annual Photo Competition – Santa Barbara Tennis Club

“Climbing Cardinals” – Best of Show

Los Angeles Center of Photography – First Annual Member’s Show

Photo Independent – Raleigh Studios – Inaugural Debut - Zen of the Land

LA Photo – Fabrik Magazine Gallery