Featured Artist Elaine Florimonte

Artist Elaine Florimonte’s abstract landscape paintings consist of layers of paint that focus on the interaction of light. To see more of her art,  vist her website.

 

 

I love paint. Love it. Really, really love it. I love to push paint onto a new surface and scrape it off and layer it on again. I like to put it on thick and smear it until it thins and then draw into that mark with graphite and collage. Each transparent layer of paint reveals a new combination of color and pattern that intrigues me.

 

 

The act of painting is one of constant exploration and discovery for me. I have been working as an artist since 1993-ish.

 

 

I began as a figurative painter, drawing from images of my father’s gardens. Through education, trial and error (read—a lot of painting), I began learning the language of art.

 

 

I developed a natural color palette, cadence in my mark making and a sense of design. Fluency in art is developed just the same as fluency in any new language.

 

 

In my most recent work, I am focused on landscape.

 

 

My pieces are often suggestive of different places I have traveled. I am struck by the way light interacts with land and water. Long shadows sliding over stones and grasses pull me in. Some of those impressions I capture with my camera, but mostly I just see them and experience them. I feel the relationship between line, value and pattern created by the space.

 

 

In my studio I try to paint instinctively, following the informed practice that comes from years of experience. I choose a few colors and begin spreading it around letting the wet surfaces seep. Those marks lead me to the next mark or choice for additional media.

 

 

When I study the work of other painters, I see them as either colorists or tonalists. I am a colorist. I use color to create a “sense” in my paintings—awake-ness, devotion, excitement, tranquility. The magic of a work comes with the story that the viewer brings to the work. Every color conjures its own meaning. Every spacial relationship communicates its own message to the viewer.

 

 

I am an artist educator, teaching introductory and advanced art at the high school level and working on my own artistic practice for twenty-plus years.

 

 

During the summer months, I create a painting each day as a part of an ongoing creativity challenge. I began this practice four years ago after being inspired by a former student and fellow artist, Gary Lockwood. These small 6” x 6” paintings keep me in the studio and connecting with collectors and artists via social media. These small compositions often inform my larger work. My work can be seen at Touchstone Gallery in Washington, DC.

 

Artist Elaine Florimonte invites you to follow her on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

 

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