Elsa Marley Limited Edition Fine Art Giclee on Canvas:"Salmon Dance"Item #: MIMA-323Artist: Elsa Marley Title: Salmon Dance Image Size: 12.3" x 23" As Shown (Multiple sizes available - select size options above) Edition: Standard Limited Edition to 25 Medium: Fine Art Giclee on Canvas Artist Statement: Methodology I create a palette board made up of areas of water broken by ink and color, with different chemical reactions to each other. Some paints are heavier some are more transparent. Chinese ink has a gumminess that reacts to the water and each different color. Once the palette begins to reflect a combination of wet and dry, I dip Chinese paper unto the palette lifting and dipping until the paper is saturated with the color and textures that I want. The composition develops spontaneously as I go along. The dance with the paper reacts to the nature of the materials and the image as it appears on paper, as well as my own body movements and breath. Like Tai Chi. When it works there’s a great feeling of communication between the materials and me. Once the paper has dried I mount the work either on canvas or in a scroll format. Influences The first half of my painting career 1958-68, Canada and NYC, The landscape and Abstract Expressionists. 1961 I was invited to work/ exhibit in a group sponsored by Miro in Spain. 1963-668 In the SF Digger movement, 68- founded a commune, in the remote Salmon River mountains. in CA., I raised 4 children teaching, and Taught myself watercolors. Early 80s I returned to school for my masters degree. In mid 1980s I lived in China, studying and working with Chinese artists in Hangzhou and Shanghai. Exposed to an eastern understanding of space and calligraphic line, I began to synthesize east and west in collaboration with painter Chen Keliang. We toured China and USA with 150 scrolls, China has a history of collaboration. An artist masterful at painting bamboo might work on the same painting with one accomplished at depicting the essence of a rock or a mountain. Chen and I developed methodology and techniques that I still use today, mixing Southern Song Chan (Zen) landscape with western Action Painting and my love for remote mountain places. 2002 I painted in Tibet. In 2002 collaborated with Ming Ren on Tibet scrolls. Won an award for the Tibet collaboration in Florence, Italy: I'm an East/West painter/poet who likes to travel to wild places, to collaborate with others, and write poetry “Wild as the wind in your heart. …” Where mountain spirits bend over positive and negative calligraphic lines. 8/8/05 Painter/ poet, Elsa Marley currently works in her Oakland, California studio and teaches Chinese Brush Painting at City College, San Francisco, as well as conducting yearly art tours to China and Tibet. Ms. Marley has shown her paintings and collaborations at number international venues. Her work is included in art collections in North America, Asia and Australia. In the 1980s, Ms Marley spent four years living in China, working on a Sino-American art project sponsored by the Chinese Cultural Bureau and the American Consulate, which toured China and the US. In 2003 She was the recipient of the Florence International Dell’Arte gold medal for collaborative work with Ren Ming based on their 2002 trip to Tibet. In 2004 she published Tibet Poems, a collection of watercolors and poetry done in Tibet. Ms. Marley continues to do collaborative work with fellow artists as well as her solo work. |
