10.5.08

Artist Statement--My art embraces the nuances in forms, color and patterns in nature--and more recently--the wine industry.

A seductive flirtation with captivating shapes and vibrant color sparks my passion for designing contemporary acrylic paintings. My art embraces the nuances in forms, color and patterns drawn from nature--and more recently--the wine industry.

My fascination with engaging designs entices me to play with the shapes in preliminary thumbnail sketches to improve their design. Part of the seduction is discovering how to arrange the forms and emphasize their intriguing shapes. My pencil caresses and traces their curvaceous contours, exaggerating some curves and adding others.  The decision of where to crop the images makes them intimate to the viewer.  Cropping also creates interesting spaces between the forms. I play with the design elements until I’ve arranged them into a pleasing pattern of energy and rhythm that showcases their distinctive characteristics.

As I brush the design on canvas, I anticipate how exquisitely I can embellish the shapes with luscious color, sculptural brush strokes and unique textures. My hand and the pigment-loaded brush become graceful dancing partners, gliding over the contours of the forms to reveal their anatomy on canvas.

I savor the freedom and the challenge of going beyond merely reproducing images--I paint them as I choose to visualize them. I enjoy having some degree of control in this aspect of my life. When things are going well, the brush strokes express confidence, a sculptural, carved quality, softness or energy; whatever is needed to convey the character and emotional energy of the forms.  I hope to achieve an animated, sensual, or whimsical quality in the recurrent graceful motifs of my art.

The arrangement of compelling shapes, vibrant chromas, directional brush strokes and tactile textures pulls viewers through the paintings, engaging them with the emotions the shapes and colors convey. I consider my work to be most successful when people express how my paintings make them feel.

Because of the experimental nature of my work, I love the versatility, quick changeability and texture mediums of acrylics.  I like to extend the paintings around the gallery-wrapped edges of the canvases.  It adds to the third dimensional quality of the art--the paintings stand on their own, without a frame to “finish” or detract from them.

Creating paintings within the confines of an imposed theme, as with my wine series and other promotions, has been a productive stimulus to conceive works illustrating those themes--without that stimulus, I might not have created some of my most successful works. Inventing paintings from my imagination is somewhat like birthing a child. The creation is a part of me. It is mine--but distinct from myself. However, it will always be a reflection of me.

I hope the celebration and interplay of shapes, patterns and colors in my art provides joy, inspiration and sanctuary to individuals in their homes and work environments during stressful times of their lives.

No comments: