My style of painting was born out of trauma and further moulded through an interest in sculpting and years of emotional and exhaustive soul-searching. I am a minimalist. My approach to painting is simplicity, as opposed to the complexity of over-awareness. I do what I want - what I feel, in the way of how I use my surfaces. Growing up, I was an outsider and understood from a young age that opinions are the invisible hands that often shape people. It seems that one cannot exist without being afraid of what other people think or of being misunderstood. If enough people take offense to what you create or something else about you and you allow that to influence who you are, you become invisible. Painting, for me, is intimate. Many of my paintings carry personality and are emotionally charged. I paint for me and my relationship with art is both passionate and exceedingly personal. I am self-taught, with no money or interest in attending art schools. Despite being self-taught, my paintings have often been compared to notable artists of the past. Comparisons are somewhat lazy and often inescapable. No matter your medium or love language, you are bound to be compared to someone else. I must say that from the very beginning of tasting art, as a child and into womanhood, I have always carved my own path for what and how I feel compelled to express myself. After a long hiatus, I wanted to start fresh with my paintings and move things in a different direction. Part of this new vigor includes using smaller surfaces, higher viscosity mediums and revisiting my early techniques and framing. Presently, my focus centers around heavy body acrylics and rigid surfaces. I layer my colors on top of each other using tools like brushes or palette knives. Sometimes I add other mediums (like gels) to compliment my artwork but for the most part I prefer to stick with varied body acrylics. Smaller sizes are, for me, more enjoyable to work with — I enjoy honing in on detail within my paintings. I crave movement, color and energy. My fondness for drawing and sensitive palette have been constants throughout my embrace of art. Generally it can take me anywhere from a couple of hours to several days or weeks to complete a painting.
Framing
When I first considered framing my new paintings, I opted for glazing them (positioning them in a frame behind glass). However, after some thought and a little experimentation, I realized how undesirable glares are. For this reason, my new paintings are not glazed but rather they are framed without glass for better display, allowing texture from my brushstrokes to be seen more clearly. My framed paintings are framed in durable (usually wooden) frames without glass. These frames, when handled correctly, are less prone to damage and also protect the art from warping over time without affecting the original quality. I try to choose durable frames that compliment my paintings and that allow them to be displayed on surfaces like tables, desktops and walls, for convenience. Framing my paintings simplify things — allowing them to be displayed immediately upon arrival straight out of their box.
How do I capture my artwork?
I presently scan all of my finished paintings to capture their true quality or very very close to it. Bear in mind that sometimes actual colors shown within my artwork may vary slightly from your monitor. This is due to computer monitors and screens from different devices possibly displaying colors differently. In the past I photographed all of my paintings using a digital camera. After changing surface size, I switched to scanning. In my experience scanning my art is the best way to capture the true quality of my paintings.
Previous works (2015-2022)
Acrylics were the very first painting medium that I gravitated towards. When I first began painting, as an adolescent, it seemed only natural to reach for a medium that I was already familiar with from art class. Prior to now, I completed my acrylic paintings using brushes, palette knives and occasionally semi-heavy gels, over triple primed gallery wrapped canvas, stretched canvas and sturdy professional canvas panel boards. I did not frame them but rather I wired some of them to hang and left some of them as they were. I mostly used very tiny brushes, when completing my acrylic paintings as it gave me more control. As for oils, I completed those paintings over triple primed gallery wrapped canvas, using only my palette knives. My oil paintings are comprised of thick, sometimes layered, colors and an abundance of texture that can be seen and touched. My impasto-acrylic paintings are actually what first inspired me to embrace thicker mediums. I stopped painting with oils, due to discovering that I am allergic.
Pricing
Browsing art on a screen is ok but being able to display a special, one of a kind work of art in your home can be an incredible feeling. Paintings have the ability to breathe life into a room; turning ordinary walls into sections of escape, or corners of conversation. Art is important to me, as is being able to give those who desire my art a fair opportunity to make that happen. My paintings are one of a kind originals that are not available for prints. I feel that original works of art hold a special pulse, one that prints cannot replicate. In terms of pricing, consistency is key for me in more ways than one — not to mention attainability and practicality. I like to price my art in a way that is appropriate but also attainable. My formula for pricing my paintings is pretty simple: Time x Materials (including frame) x Size + Transactional fees. As mentioned previously, I have recently transitioned to smaller canvases. The sizes that I focus on are 8x10s and 8x8s. All 8x10 and 8x8 paintings are framed. My flat price for both are as follows:
8X10 Framed Paintings - $178 plus Shipping
8X8 Framed Paintings - $168 plus Shipping
(Click here to view my flat rates for shipping.)
(Total excludes tax. Tax automatically varies depending on your location)