Mary Ellen Sleeper-Prewedo – Q1 Art Competition – Artist Portfolio Magazine

• Artist Portfolio Magazine – Q1 Art Competition
• Mary Ellen Sleeper-Prewedo – Moorhead, MN

Think layers upon layers of color, messy texturey(is that a word?) color. Paint that is partially set up and drying and then cut into with a scrubby brush or other tool to create the texture that invites you to reach out and touch. Color and texture inspires me and creates a passion that I want to share with the viewer!
I have created all my life in one way or another and am self taught in all my endeavors. Studying artists that I admire is a much more productive way of learning for me. I create with acrylic paints, impasto and other mixed media material. I mingle the mixed media and paint to create gooey, thick paint that tranlates into the deep textures in my abstracts. It’s exciting to see the colors that emerge when placed on top of each other. I begin a painting with an idea in mind, but usually the painting takes on it’s own life and shows me the direction it wants to go.
I am inspired by weathered and worn wood, old billboards and rusted equipment. Rust and verdigris patina is fascinating and beautiful and I try to recreate that in my abstract paintings. The many layers of colors on weathered wood seems more beautiful to me than new, freshly painted wood. In the layers of the worn paint, I imagine layers of life experiences, mingled together to form someones past and present that will also shape their future. Each different layer of color can mean joy, sadness, a period of not knowing which path to take.
My landscapes veer toward abstract as I like to think that the viewer will see in the abstract something that is familiar to only them. The atmospheric quality of my abstract landscapes invite the viewer to visit some memory that is theirs alone.