Melissa Husted-Sherman

I want to paint from my emotions, as directly and spontaneously as possible. I try to remove the intellectual barriers that prevent a spontaneous connection to the painting. The catalyst is usually something simple: a brilliant color, a shaft of light, shapes coming together. To capture this instant, I work quickly. Initially, each painting is about the image that inspired it. Then it becomes about the intrinsic beauty of the paint; its color, the way it moves across the paper, the marks I make. Finally, the work concerns the energy and joy I experience while painting.

I seek a balance between realism and abstraction, developing a rich expressive paint surface and using exciting color. I want the beauty of the paint to be as important as the image itself.