KINGFIELD — SugarWood Gallery welcomes KiKA Nigals as December’s Artist of the Month with an open house reception,  Dec. 4  from 5 to 8 p.m. Nigals’s work will remain on exhibit and available for sale during the month of December.

Nigals on creating meaningful abstract art:

“In the last couple of years I have finally started painting the way I have wanted to paint since I was a child. I remember going to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City with my dad and how he explained the abstract and modern artists there. It left a life-long impression and for decades I strove to paint abstract paintings that had meaning, life, and emotion, and not just pigment on a surface. I was able to depict and paint still lifes, landscapes, and portraits, but what I always found challenging was creating abstract art that had depth and purpose. After decades of artist angst, discussion, self-exploration, and then enlightenment, I started painting in the way that I had hoped to back when first visiting MoMA.

“I paint from an inner creative and inspirational energy, my experiences, reflection of what is going on in my environment, as well as what I smell, feel on my skin, hear, and taste in the air. I paint my mood, how the dampness feels on my skin, the smells around me, the feeling of a sandstorm on the beach. I interpret these experiences in my paintings.”

Nigals’ said the paintings in this exhibit come mostly from her “Horizons” series which she called “interpretive landscapes.”

SugarWood Gallery is located at 248 Broadway in Farmington. Store hours are 10 a.m.  to 5:30 p.m, Monday through Friday and until 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.