Elaine Kehew Artist Statement

Nature is the primary source of my subject matter – I am drawn again and again to repeating patterns of natural objects to use in still life, like organic sign-symbols. My love of shape, volume and color has found a home in Abstract painting, and ambiguous imagery allows me to reveal a dynamic between non-human forms. These shapes evoke emotions in the viewer, who projects his own psychodynamic between objects, and the narrative is complete.

I paint using traditional fine art materials and frame the work with local African hardwoods in simple squares hewn with hand-tools.  Color is paramount to my work- I look for unexpected combinations, yet they are restrained and controlled to maintain a sense of life rooted in the earth. My finished canvases do not hide my process, rather they reveal traces of the work including rips and mends, gilding and erasures, and corrections, so that the viewer can see and experience the art process along with me.