Meet Sonoma County Artist Marsha Connell by Satri Pencak. Published: January 29th, 2015

Tags

art, colorist, drawing, exploration, expressive, farm, gallery, gesture, Hokusai, interior landscape, landscapes, luminous, nature, observation, painterly, paintings, place of the heart, Santa Rosa, science, scumbling, seasons, Sonoma county, upstate New York, view

A conversation with the artist by Satri Pencak has been published on the Sonoma County tourism site, perfect timing for a reminder about my upcoming lecture and slide show with biologist Shawn Brumbaugh
Art & Science: Views of Pepperwood Preserve
Monday Feb. 2, noon to 1 pm.
and exhibit Pepperwood Preserve: Paintings by Marsha Connell
January 15 through March 26
Santa Rosa Junior College, Petaluma Campus,
Herold Mahoney Library Gallery, Building 700
680 Sonoma Mountain Parkway, Petaluma

Meet Sonoma County Artist Marsha Connell

Photo credit Lizbeth Hamlin. Marsha Connell and “River’s End, Day’s End, 3”_o/c_36”x36 at Fulton X Gallery’s Art Trails Exhibition, October 15, 2014

Thank you, Satri!

Spirit of Place

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.