Featured Artist Lynn Welker

Enjoy the abstract portfolio of painter Lynn Welker, and be sure to visit her website for more from this talented artist.

 

 

I have always been an artist. Due to family influences, my path was set from the beginning. Oh yes, I have pursued other interests along the way but none compelling enough to dissuade this art-based life. Nothing can compare to the moments of complete joy when new worlds are being created from my imagination.

 

 

My interest has always leaned toward the abstract. At the University of Cincinnati, I developed a strong foundation for art and design. Mine was a traditional fine art education that soon transitioned into a personal style of experimentation and invention. I prefer to capture an idea rather than reproduce a world others have already seen.

 

 

Soon after college, I left the wooded landscape of Ohio behind. Settling in Southern California offered fresh views of complex geology. From rocky hillsides and stony cliffs to the ocean at my doorstep, my vision became awash with rich earthy colors and never ending textural patterns.

 

 

As a former art resource specialist, I designed educational materials for teacher’s grades K-12. Even now, I continue to be driven by the need to innovate. I paint intuitively, looking beyond the surface, exploring the effects of erosion, sedimentation and the passing of time.

 

 

My current work is titled “Community”. This group of mixed media paintings on paper exhibits evidence of man’s presence in an imagined landscape. Although each is different from the next, one common thread repeats throughout the series. Structure or houses meander across the land, hide in corners, under cliffs asking to be discovered and acknowledged.

 

 

Because I value the importance of improvisation and spontaneity, I begin randomly applying acrylic paint. Then I attach a few strokes of painted rice paper. Looking from all sides, I search for an entrance to begin creating an interesting narrative. The process takes many weeks since I work on multiple pieces, going back and forth between them, playing one against the other, until each has been resolved. There is no planning, only the spontaneous act of invention through a spirit of adventure.

 

 

Sometimes paintings come to life as a result of random intervention. One day I was visiting my daughter-in-law where she boards her horse. I asked why so many of the old oak trees were uprooted and resting in wooden containers.

 

 

I learned that the east end of the stable had been sold off for development. Several barns and arenas were being removed and those stately trees, relocated. Back in the studio I completed Last Tree in the City and The Last Horse.

 

 

Combining the familiar with the unexpected, the past with the present, the viewer is led on a seductive path of discovery. I invite you to step into my intimate world, walk around, explore, traveling back and forth from the mind to the heart.

 

Lynn Welker invites you to follow her on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. 

 

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