Marcia Hales

Artist Statement

I am always motivated by creating something new to see. It would seem that the child in all of us is awakened by experiencing something for the first time. I want my paintings to provide the viewer a field for visual exploration, and perhaps simultaneously a new place for thoughts about what happens next. The work I have done in the past few years attempts to address spatial relationships with marks, lines, and forms.

My attraction to depth in painting coincides with that which interests me visually, and mostly the space between things. I am intrigued with that which might be hiding in the dark, layers of forest, cavernous spaces, things floating, etc.
Layering lines, forms and color is done with attention to the developing shapes and color combinations formed in the process. I am concerned with the distances between them, and try to vary them. I often challenge myself with a secondary theme, like a break in the pattern, a new texture to the background, some recent translucency, or maybe inserting an unplanned color. I am only finished when the work in some way exceeds what I originally intended.