Tags
abstract sensibility, Adirondack chairs, Adirondacks, brushstrokes, Catskills, colorist, farm, garden, glazing, interior landscape, Mother, painterly, place of the heart, scumbling, seasons
I paint through the seasons, “en plein air,” surrounded by pools of texture and color, in both the natural and the human-altered landscape. From mountain meadows and lakes to lavender gardens and urban shop windows, resonant themes emerge. I notice how a place affects my interior landscape, and how my painting reflects the spirit of a place.
Watching, listening, hiking, dancing with trees — trusting intuition and gesture — infuses the work with an abstract sensibility. My approach is colorist and painterly — images emerge from the rhythms of brushstrokes. I do not require fidelity to local color; expressive color may feel more true. Glazing and scumbling layers of color builds depth and luminosity, softens edges. This may evoke a place of some mystery, a place of the heart.
Marsha-Connell-Mother Garden 3-oil- 43×36″
This painting was inspired by the splendid “Mother Garden” at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center. Its abundant old-fashioned plants and worn Adirondack chairs evoked memories of my grandparents’ farm between the Catskills and the Adirondacks.
Marsha Connell Studio 