247 East Main Street
Ashland, Oregon 97520
541-488-9006

10am to 6pm Tu-Sat
12am to 4pm Sun
closed Mon

Mabrie Ormes

Artist's Statement

My gardens are painted on location out of doors. I focus on making a record of the visual rhythms expressed in the foliage. The effort takes me into a meditative mental space. The paintbrush, loaded with oil paint, may be flicked, stroked, dotted, dabbed or pulled along the canvas to illustrate some barely glimpsed beat of color. In all but the smallest paintings it is a process undertaken over a series of days at approximately the same time. Each layer of paint adds its notes on color, light and shape to the composition. I bring my human mood to the work and each day's slightly different temperature, wind and light greet me in the garden. Over time, the painting is infuse> with the energy and variety of all these experiences. A viewer of the final work might find harmony or cacophony, or both. Either way my intention is to allude to the deep resonances found in contemplating even the smallest part of a garden.

Bio

I grew up in Washington, D. C., left for college in Vermont, then entered the Peace Corps. After two years in West Africa, I returned to the States and moved out West. I have been here ever since. I have lived in Idaho, Oklahoma, Colorado, and California, where I spent nearly 20 years before deciding to move, in January of 2010, to Ashland, where my mother needs my attentions in her old age.

I received a Masters in Painting and Drawing from the University of Colorado in Boulder in 1989. I spent six years doing odd jobs while I developed a huge installation drawing entitled 'Peripheral Vision'. I showed parts of it all over the United States. I made the decision to make my living as a studio artist in 1994 and since then I have been largely self-employed as a fine arts painter. I have had shows and been represented over the years by various galleries in Idaho, Oklahoma, California, Colorado, and Oregon. In May of this year, I was in a group show entitled "Figuratively Speaking" at Hansen-Howard Gallery here in Ashland. Nowadays, you can view my paintings at The Vagabond Rose, in Chico, California and at Art and Soul Gallery, on Main Street in Ashland, Oregon.

Canyon Canas