Featured Artist Deb Hall | Artsy Shark


Artist Deb Hall presents a remarkable group of complex layered abstract paintings filled with color and texture. View more of her portfolio on her website.

 

“Red Cliffs” acrylic/mixed media on wood panel, flush mounted on box frame, 12″ x 12″

 

In artist forums and receptions, I sometimes introduce myself as an emerging artist, at a mature age. Friends sensitive to our youth-culture bias ask why.

 

Abstract mixed media landscape by Deb Hall

“Future Post” acrylic/mixed media on wood panel, flush mounted on box frame, 12″ x 12″

 

It’s the most truthful shorthand I have for why I stepped back into my art practice after years of letting it languish.  Aging, no emotional maturing, finally brought me to a place of why create, rather than what to make.

 

Abstract art with a collage of squares by Deb Hall

“Havasu Memory” acrylic/mixed media on wood panel, flush mounted on box frame, 12″ x 12″

 

The old Renaissance maxim, “Every painter paints himself” only holds true if the painter in question welcomes and revels in all the pilgrim parts of both the ego and the soul. As a mature artist, I know myself better. I know aspects of myself like fear of failure and the need for control can keep me from being open, playful and experimental.

 

mixed media abstract beach landscape by Deb Hall

“Sea Glass Beach” acrylic/mixed media on wood panel, flush mounted on box frame, 12″ x 12″

 

I also know, from experience, that I thrive when I risk failure and stay open to new trials and adventures. In other words, my art practice is about building a fuller, more authentic life.

 

mixed media abstract landscape by Deb Hall

“East, Toward Home” acrylic/mixed media on wood panel, flush mounted on box frame, 12″ x 12″

 

In every painting session I am meeting myself — revealing what delights my eye, grabs my attention, begs for exploration. I work abstractly and beyond selecting a particular color palette, I don’t preplan my imagery.

 

“Unknowable Things” acrylic/mixed media on wood panel, flush mounted on box frame, 12″ x 12″

 

Staying open to what arrives is my only strategy. Responding intuitively to what next in terms of adding fresh adjacencies of color, pattern, texture and forms is how I build my visual story.

 

Layered abstract mixed media painting by Deb Hall

“Summer Eve” acrylic/mixed media on wood panel, flush mounted on box frame, 12″ x 12″

 

As a horticulturist, retired landscape designer and geology-loving trekker, I’m truly enamored with exposed earth strata and the geometric adjacencies of multi-hued fields and textured growing fields. As a city dweller, I also find the flat and papered walls of urban streetscapes equally compelling. In all ways, it’s these weathered terrains and my curiosity about what lays beneath and within them that informs my art.

 

Geometric abstract painting mixed media by Deb Hall

“Landscape of Second Guesses” acrylic/mixed media on wood panel, flush mounted on box frame, 12″ x 12″

 

Like the paths I tread, my art is layered, textured and conveys a sense of history waiting to be discovered. I use multiple passes of paint over collage elements I find or print myself. Selective sanding and glazing add depth and, often, a patina of age. In this manner, I express my deep interest in what time both builds and degrades.

 

Deb Hall invites you to follows her on Instagram and Facebook.

 

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