Artist Statement

 

Born 1959 Rosenheim, Germany Arrived 1989, California

"My work is a continuous investigation of abstraction and the exploration of the human form. It is a visual diary, a “paper trail” of a process, spontaneous yet deliberate, personal yet universal. I work in series that can start as a concept of the mind, an idea, a thought, a vision of a finished work. Or it can begin as an emotion, a feeling, a process of the heart. Working both figurative and abstract is what I love to do.

When I work on a theme, like stripes for example, I explore it in oil, acrylic and encaustic, working figurative and abstract until it exhausts itself, or leads to another theme. I apply what I’ve learned, from working with shapes, forms and lines in my abstract paintings, to find the simplicity that is needed for abstracting a figure. Similarly, my abstract work profits from my figurative experience. I work in layers of paint, creating luminous color, depth and voluptuous texture. Painting for me is a dynamic, intuitive process. A drip or smear can reveal part of that process. I like that!"

- Brigitte McReynolds