Featured Artist Theresa Otteson

Theresa Otteson’s stunning oil paintings bring memories vividly to life. See more of her portfolio by visiting her website.

 

 

Painting is an expression of me, a portrayal of something, someplace, or someone I feel a connection with.

 

 

Every painting has a memory attached to it. Places I have been and enjoyed and been fascinated by, whether it’s the architecture and the history it represents, the reflection of water on rainy streets or a mountain I’ve climbed.

 

 

A challenge I enjoy is painting flowers. I have an English cottage style garden or at least as much as one can have in Utah. I love to watch the flowers grow and to see the pleasure they bring not only to me but also to others.

 

 

Each flower is unique. There are so many varieties in shape and colors. Many of my still life paintings remind me of my grandmother. She loved flowers, drank tea, and liked to read. I even used some of her linens in the paintings.

 

 

When I decide on a subject to paint, I focus not only on these memories but the colors and shapes that I see. Color is amazing. It can be bright, bold, subtle, subdued. It creates a mood, which quite often is the mood I’m in when I choose the subject.

 

 

Upon close examination, an object that appears to be one color is actually many. Mixing the paint together on my canvas helps me create the variations of colors that I see.

 

 

I enjoy painting shapes and being able to create the illusion that they have volume on a two-dimensional surface.

 

 

I can paint a circle that represents a soap bubble and it looks like a sphere. A trapezoid and rectangle can become a book.

 

 

Shape is also, in a way, an extension of color. As light bends around the surface of an object, the variation in color expands.

 

 

I want people who view my work to see two things: first, a story, whether it is their own or mine. Second, the beauty and variety I see in the obvious, surprising and even mundane things in the world around us whether it is city streets, gardens, landscapes, objects or even the pavement we walk on.

 

Artist Theresa Otteson invites you to follow her on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

 

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