Award winning artist, Marie Massey, studied Fine Art at the California College of Arts and Crafts, UC Santa Barbara, UC Berkeley and at the Loveland Academy of Art as well as with many well known contemporary artists. In the year 2000, after an international career in marketing and business development, Marie devoted herself to painting and teaching full-time. Marie is currently represented by select galleries across the US including the San Francisco Women Artists Gallery, Studio Silzer Gallery in Pacific Grove, Ca. and the Independence Gallery in Loveland, CO. She also teaches painting for adults working in oil and acrylic for the City of Monterey.
Marie’s work is impressionistic and expressionistic in nature with a contemporary bent. She explains that sometimes an idea for a painting spontaneously presents itself as in plein air painting when she can be inspired by the quiet meandering of a river, the vastness of a desert gorge or the way afternoon sun lights the curve of an arch. Sometimes her paintings are inspired by impressions and feelings of a place. Marie uses technique to express relationships to create a sense of distance, time and space.
Marie uses a “Painting in Layers” method which combines the value, shadow and shape ideas of chiaroscuro with color concepts from the impressionist painters. The first layers of underpainting create a structural foundation for the painting. The succeeding layers, applied with an open stroke, allow the underpainting to shine through and add relevant detail and subtle light effects. Marie continues to sketch and re-sketch throughout the process so that the image achieves an organic quality with the impression of movement and dimension.
Inspirations include Monet, Bonnard, Cezanne, Jackson Pollock and Wolf Kahn. I admire the ability of these artists to take a fresh look at the world both inside and outside themselves, see it’s beauty and express it in paint.
See Marie’s work at mariemassey.com
