Welcome Featured Artist Joan Maureen Collins

"I paint primarily with acrylics on canvas, paper, and board – both small works and large pieces that you can almost walk into. I love to create abstract designs, but they are always grounded and inspired by natural and urban landscapes, and sometimes the human form. My painting is physical and messy. I paint a bit like a sculptor, moving, adding, and scraping paint around the canvas.  I find that technique results in striking contours made of heavy, opaque color and texture against thin, filmy transparency.  I also make many of my brushes for effect, using feathers, ropes, springs, wire, and other desert, beach, and urban findings.  One of my favorite painting tools is a butcher knife I grabbed from the kitchen over 20 years ago.​" Joan