Tara McKiernan Kovach
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Wading Heron

                       ABSTRACTS 		Waterville

             LANDSCAPES



ARTIST STATEMENT

My abstract paintings are informed by the landscape, both on grand and intimate levels. Whether it is the color cast by the late day sun seeping through the leaves or a budding flower about to bloom, these impressions feed my paintings. By shifting from macro to micro views, from painting to painting, or sometimes within one, scale is lost and the viewer can get enveloped into an endless landscape or the center of a flower. I begin each painting with intuitive marks, and respond to those marks on both emotional and formal levels. There is a play between spontaneity and purpose. Each painting reflects my personal connection to the landscape, as well as memories triggered by color relationships that evolve on the panel. Color and mark-making vary depending on what energy is driving the piece, whether it be a remembered landscape or a more specific natural object. The palette is very personal; certain colors are painted decisively, while others are intuitive. By using several media, a variety of surface textures are created. There is a weaving of paint from thick to thin and from flat to glossy that flows through each painting. Some areas are left translucent while others are built up lusciously with paint and wax. Explosive, erratic marks melt into sensuous, poured passages that suggest deep, atmospheric space. I have no preconceived notion of composition. Throughout the process of painting, I rotate the piece, working it from all sides, both on the floor and on the wall. Each painting sets up the challenge of balancing formal elements while investigating a personal experience.