NOW SHOWING
art from the heart
Stop thinking. That’s what abstract expressionist painter Maxine Taylor wants people to do when they view her work. “People tend to intellectualize everything,” she believes. “My art connects with emotions. Don’t worry about understanding it. Just feel it.”
Taylor has embraced that philosophy since she started painting in the mid-1970s, after moving with her family from California to Prince George’s County. As a young mother, she first painted impressionistic landscapes. Then in 1987,Tayor shifted her creative focus to abstract expressionism, using watercolors and a bright palette with large brush strokes. “My brush strokes come from the heart,” says Taylor, 62, “That arm’s movement expresses my feelings and energy.”
A move to Butcher’s Hill in 1996 inspired new subject matter. Baltimore’s unique cityscape. Over the past decade, she has continued to paint prolifically and show regionally, but she now works on larger canvases, favoring more subdued colors that reflect the city’s gritty nature. She also has moved away from watercolor washes and instead creates a base layer by sprinkling powdered pigments directly onto canvases coated with a wet, matte glaze. New, too, are the figurative elements—lines for buildings, stoplights, train tracks—that float among her wide, whitewashed brush strokes.
But what has remained consistent is emotion—both in the visual interpretation of her work and in the creative process itself. “I control the composition, but I let the painting go where it wants to go.” –Sarah Achenbach
Maxine Taylor’s work will be part of a group show at Montage Gallery of Federal Hill from Jan. 1 through Feb. 16. 925 S. Charles St, 410-752-1125, montagegallery.com
© Style Magazine 2008