“The fragrance of color is the sustenance to my soul” – Nura Mascarenas
Emotion is key to most art, but exactly how each individual artist embraces and allows it to influence the work may vary. Some will filter it through a veneer of cool, intellectual reserve, and others will indulge in an almost spiritual relationship with their creative process. Nura Mascarenas seems to fall firmly into the latter group.
“My process in painting is “feeling” into color one fragrance of color harmonizing and complimenting another. Colors feel like a field of busting flowers in aromatic yellows, oranges, reds, and saffron, or the aroma of a pine forest in shades of green.”
“Each painting is a story and lived experience from the past or present, from feelings of elations to the quieter moments to shades of gray. When I paint I feel the tempo, my hand glides across the canvas, which starts to flow like poetry. The painting gracefully unfolds revealing its mystery with each brush stroke of color, layer upon layer like each line in a poem. Finally, I’ll feel a cacophonic symphony, a finished painting in many warms, cools, light and shadow before me, the story, a feeling, a completed poem through color. Painting is an intuitive process, surrendering to the graceful flow, weaving a tapestry of many threads of color from my inner world.”
"Moody" by Nura Mascarenas, oil on arches paper, 9.5x9.5in, 2016, $300
The reference to tapestry seems apt, since there is a quality of weaving in the build up of layers, both tangibly in the mark making, but also in the interplay of color.
“I am always inspired from the greatest works of art, to the simplest line drawings; nature is by far my biggest influence from mountain ranges with their endless patterns, to ripples of water on the sandy beach, and everything in between.”
"Octave" by Nura Mascarenas, oil on paper, 10x10in, 2016, $400
Nura Mascarenas will be participating in the 2017 Open Studio Weekend, sponsored by Louisville Visual Art and University of Louisville’s Hite Art Institute. Her studio in the Portland neighborhood will be open the weekend of November 4 and 5. Tickets for Open Studio Weekend will go on sale October 16. Click here for more information.
Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Education: Rocky Mountain Collage of Art, Denver Colorado
Gallery representation: Greenwich House Gallery (Cincinnati Ohio).
Website: www.nuramascarenas.com
Instagram: Nura English
Scroll down for more images
"New Day" by Nura Mascarenas, oil on canvas, 10x11in, 2016, $400
"Fallen Layers" by Nura Mascarenas, oil on paper, 11x11in, 2016, $400
"Over and Under" by Nura Mascarenas, oil on arches paper, 10x11in, 2016, $425
Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2017 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.
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