Finding YOU

I love abstract art!  I also enjoy creating, teaching and painting abstract paintings.  Yet, I have come to realise that I am a landscape artist, leaning towards semi-abstraction.  For me, I feel an emotional connection to the landscape whether it is an abstracted one or not.  I need to feel even just a hint of representation to produce my best.

This came to me after years of experimentation.  And after many years of searching for what I love to paint which gives me comfort and happiness, I came to realise that I am a landscape artist.

My paintings starts of like an abstract, but something happens and it get's morphed into what looks like land, then water, then trees emerge as the sun sets.  Voila... a landscape!  I work on three to five paintings at the same time, sometimes with different colour palettes, usually starting with dabs of paint slathered with ink, alcohol, water, sometimes manipulated roughly, with nowhere to go.  Working with some sort of guide, a sketch or a photograph, but usually at this stage, I am not sure where I am heading to.

Classical music helps me to connect with my soul... helps me also to keep calm during the screaming stages when things go into the blur between logical reasoning and abandonment.  As a painter, you just have to learn to trust yourself.  Trust your experimentation and to not be afraid of destroying what you created.  Arthur Bernard quoted; " A painting is destroying and building, destroying and building, over and over again. A good painter must be able to do this and not be afraid of this."

Cheers,
Marissa

"Summer of Sixty Nine" 10" x 10" Mixed Media