Kaaren Marquez

Kaaren Marquez

My goal is to reimagine conventional landscape painting and present a new view of the world. I love travelling internationally and throughout the Bay Area, sketching, photographing, and absorbing. Working back in my home studio in Mountain View, my newest collection uses principles of Cubism to incorporate distorted perspectives, exaggerated forms, and curvilinear organic shapes to create whimsical landscapes filled with joyful color and energy. My intention is to give viewers the experience of moving through a landscape both physically, by combining views from multiple angles, and visually, by capturing how the eye takes in an entire vista. When I take the time to really immerse myself in a location, my eye doesn’t just take a snapshot of a view but wanders from point to point in a variety of sweeps; creating new shapes in my mind as I compose the scene. Using expressive brushwork, I add texture and try to maintain the spontaneity of seeing something for the first time.

Constantly evolving over the years, my work spans watercolor, acrylic, and oil, from realism to representational and semi-abstract forms to fully abstract compositions. Landscapes remain my true passion and I love plein air painting which challenges me to capture the essence of a scene within the constraints of time and environment. In the studio using both Photoshop tools and lots of pencil value sketches, I engage in deliberate planning, deconstruction, creation, and exploration to enhance my creative expression. Focused primarily on oil now, I enjoy using new techniques– cold wax and palette knives to get added texture and movement or starting with a colorful abstract acrylic or watercolor underpainting to provide vibrations between exposed transparent and opaque passages.

Kaaren has been painting professionally for the past fifteen years. She graduated from Stanford and pursued a successful engineering career with HP and Agilent before embarking on her art career. Her award winning work has been juried into many local, national, and international shows, most recently the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, the Pacific Art League in Palo Alto, and the New Museum in Los Gatos. Her work is currently available at Viewpoints Gallery in Los Altos, Gallery 24 in Los Gatos and Lisa Lisa Hair Salon in Los Altos. Her paintings can also be found in private collections throughout the world. More information about Kaaren Marquez is available on her website at www.Kaarensart.com
Email: kaarenmarquez@comcast.net
Website: www.kaarensart.com
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