Passing Storm

Original Oil

by Erin Spencer

Framed Size: 12.5 x 14.5

Looking at art is seeing the world through new eyes. My approach to painting begins with observation and study of the natural world in all its splendid variation. Whether working from life or from sketches back in my studio, my paintings become translations of what I perceive. The beauty of this is that I will always have work to do, poems to create from my personal impressions of the world. My style tends toward tonalism as I seek to distill the elements of the landscape to their simplest forms, looking for a balance between representation, abstract mark making, and emotional gesture. Everywhere I go I see stories in the landscape, and I strive to find ways to tell that story through my work.

I have spent more than seventeen years documenting landscapes from around the country and in Europe, all the way from California to New England and from England to France to the Netherlands. I live and work in Rhode Island with my husband, Peter, and our three children by my side. I have been exhibiting since 2008, and my paintings are included in private collections around the world including across the United States, Canada, Europe, Israel, Australia, and Japan.