An award winning, international contemporary watermedia artist Maureen S. Farrell is  a signature member of the International Society of Acrylic Painters. She maintains a studio in her home in Cambridge, Maryland, where she has resided since 2004. Maureen worked as a rural mail carrier for 23 years, while raising her family as a single mother in upstate New York. Her passion for art truly bloomed after she remarried, retired and reevaluated her whole purpose in life.

Having the good fortune of finding Karen Rosasco, she not only found an excellent teacher, but a good friend and mentor. She spent extensive hours studying on her own, and over the course of several years studied with many other professional artists, including Robert Wade, Mel Stabin, Catherine Anderson, Carla O’Connor, Charles Reid, Carrie Burns Brown, and directed individual studies under Steve Aimone.

In 2012, an extensive workshop in watermedia renewed her excitement, and she has painted in acrylics ever since. The daily handling of catalogs, magazines and newspapers have influenced her use of collage as she often works them into her mixed media paintings. Using various techniques of layering paint and media, Maureen incorporates abstract images of flowers and landscape into her artwork, but focuses primarily on her love of the figure.

Maureen’s paintings have been juried into local and national shows and can be found in private collections across the US and England. She has taught watercolor workshops and served on exhibition committees for local galleries. Her artwork has exhibited with Maryland Federation of Arts, The Maris Elaine Gallery at National Harbor, New Century Artists in Chelsea NY and Jordan Faye Contemporary in Baltimore, MD. She is represented by West Annapolis Artworks, Annapolis, MD, and The Bishop’s Stock, Snow Hill, MD

Artist’s Statement  

Joy, fear, happiness, anger and hurt are all emotions that are present in our lives. Creating art allows me to express such emotions without uttering a word. My figurative art contains partial abstraction. With inspiration from a recent one week workshop, I am currently creating non objective abstracts.

During the process of creating marks and using text and symbols, I use  charcoal, paint, pastel and graphite,  going back and forth, adding and subtracting, using white paint, all while trying to keep balance to the work. As a result, there are many layers to each painting, creating a unique richness to them. As I move between these figures and abstracts, I am attempting to bring the obvious to the mysterious, expressing deep emotional responses to life, as I know it.

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April