Welcome back to another long-awaited installment in our "Meet the Artist" series. This time, we're proud to introduce Marva. You may notice that we don't have a self-portrait. Instead, we include a scene from her past that's quintessentially Marva. If you ever looked through our blog, taken a deep breath and felt you were on vacation—chances are you were looking at one of Marva's landscapes.
Marva's been painting with us for a while now, beginning with the same simple exercises we all did. But even from the start, she imparted her own style to those exercises. The soft colors of her color wheel blur and blend like those of nature.
And her three-way fruit demonstrates the rich texture she is known for. No matter if she's painting wet, dry or in combination, you can tell who painted these.
Through the years, Marva has experimented with different genres—flowers and still life scenes...
... and even portraits. These early efforts highlight Marva's unique talent for bringing depth and texture to areas that could be flat and lifeless. Notice her masterful touch with details like the hair below.
But from the beginning, Marva has been irresistibly drawn to landscapes—intricate, detailed, richly textured landscapes, like these scenes from around the world.
And as she painted the different layers of foliage, mountain, sky and sea, Marva developed a mastery of the color green—one of the hardest colors to use well. See, too, how she's managed to differentiate the different types of trees and shrubs by color and texture. Yet, all the while, weaving all the disparate elements into a beautiful unified tapestry that puts us in mind of Klimt's landscapes.
Even water and sky are deftly patterned in her hands, giving a sense of movement and life.
Marva often returns to a favorite theme—a cozy dwelling nestled in foliage. As we are invited deep into the scene, we can't help but feel a tremendous sense of warmth and hominess.
In her hands, even stone and rock are warm and alive, as can be seen in these scenes from Greece and Ireland.
As a diversion from the intricate detail of her landscapes, Marva occasionally takes a break to paint flat poster-like paintings like these—sweet, retro tributes to her roots as a flower child.
Which brings us to the present. Marva's combined her love of nature and pattern with the color and simplicity of her posters in her latest series of silhouettes. She has incorporated people—flat and almost featureless, but filled with movement—silhouetted against the brilliant colors of sunsets and sunrises. We can't wait to see where this goes!
Don't you feel like you've just been on a relaxing vacation? Or do you feel an urge to put some flowers in your hair, mellow out and get back to the land? It's the Marva effect! There are some things we've noticed:
- Marva loves nature. She's a master landscape artist, drawn to them from her earliest paintings. Yet, each painting is fresh and unique and deeply "noticed."
- Marva loves detail. Yet, there's a meditative quality to her details that evokes a sense of calm and peace rather than frenetic energy. Her attention to every leaf makes us want to slow down and notice the beauty she's sharing with us.
- Like many of us, Marva works in series. She has themes she loves and returns to, subtly moving forward and improving with every exploration.
- Marva has a wonderfully sure hand with color. From the exuberance of her sunsets and posters to the subtle colors of her landscapes, every color is perfectly in tune with every other color on the paper. And no one commands the range of verdant, natural greens that Marva does. She's truly the queen of green!
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