Featured Artist Roxanne Driedger

Artsy Shark presents the work of Canadian artist Roxanne Driedger.  Enjoy her portfolio and read about her inspiration here and on her website.

 

 

I am a self taught artist and I have always had a passion for art and natural beauty. In the past, I have expressed this passion through pencil sketches. After my children left for post secondary education, I finally had the time and motivation to become active as an artist, and fortunately discover a God given ability to paint.  I came from a family that enjoyed spending a lot of time together outdoors. My mother always encouraged us to seek out the beauty in all things, from a dew drop on a flower to the colourful, unique patterns etched into a rocky shoreline. This outlook on life has inspired and influenced my artistic expressions.

 

 

I find that most of my inspiration comes from my deep appreciation for nature; from the movement of the air and the scent of the earth. I love the colour and constantly changing light and shadow. I love the power of nature and how it can make everything else seem so small and insignificant. I appreciate how landscape shows the passage of time and shows our history with its geography. For me, painting is an opportunity to spend more time in these tranquil places and share them with others. My ultimate goal when painting is to successfully capture these feelings and sensations.

Photography is another pastime of mine, which I often use to assist in capturing these extraordinary places and moments of fleeting light. I then use my art as a way to share the sensations I experience when I see such an exquisite scene, whether it be light dancing on the water or accentuating the curve of someone’s neck. Recently I have also enjoyed painting outdoors and have realized the advantages of being surrounded by natural light and colour.  Being relatively new to painting, I  look forward to expanding on my experiences and exploring different methods to help develop my own unique style.

 

 

My favourite medium to work with is acrylic on canvas. I enjoy using the bold, bright, colours that nature provides. Presently my style of painting varies from naturalism to realism; sometimes it’s the fine details of a scene that captures my attention and requires a more realistic depiction, and other times it’s the mood or feeling of the scene that I wish to portray, and I’ll lay down a more relaxed and natural interpretation. Another area of interest I often explore is portraiture; putting personality into a portrait is essential. Seeing not only the exterior of a person but expressing a part of their character is vital. Every good portrait tells a story. Rather than formal portraits, mine are usually situational; I try to capture a particular moment or emotion in my subject’s day. I look for those everyday experiences that we all share, and by expressing the character and the essence of that moment, tell a story to which we can all relate.

 

Painting has become a tremendous passion of mine in the last few years, and eventually I would like to work as a full time artist. I have dedicated a large portion of myself to the arts and hope to continue to share my artistic abilities with others. I am continuously working on new pieces, and am in the midst of creating a portfolio of my work. I am from a very small town and hope to find representation at a gallery to increase my exposure and have somewhere to share my accomplishments.