Yvonne Shukovsky

Painter and Photographer

In my oil pastels and mixed media paintings I want to capture a sense of the outdoors without being “on site” so as to create both a mood and suggestion of nature. In the paintings on canvas I explore subtle relationships of tone and color as I buildup layers of texture. I prefer to use soft tones and a quiet light.

Painting in a smaller format creates an intimacy between the work and the viewer as one must look closely and interact on a more personal level with the work. Painting from memory gives me a more intimate view and original interpretation. These small pieces very often evolve so as to give the illusion of large landscapes having deep space. As I am in a meditative mode I allow the work to take on a life of its own. A landscape may evolve into a seascape and I allow it “to be” and I feel that I am in that space.

Hopefully my work will “speak” to the viewer.

In my photography, a local transfer station (town dump) and a local repair yard for heavy construction machinery has become my haunt - a gray drab, cluttered place becomes a beautiful place filled with magical shapes and color. Looking through the viewfinder I focus on details that are so easily overlooked. When one looks at a pile of junk there is the appearance of chaos and one can not see that there are regions of luminous color and shapes forming intriguing compositions. I use the camera to get close to my subject so as to narrow my field of vision and thereby shutout the external chatter of the world. This becomes a form of meditation for me as chaos and chatter, both external and internal are silenced. This process hopefully transforms a collection of discarded materials into a magical composition of form, texture and color.

I have exhibited widely in the greater Boston area, New Hampshire and various national competitions. My work is in many private collections nationally and internationally. I am a juried member of the New England Watercolor Society, a distinguished artist of the Concord Art Association (Mass) as well as the New Hampshire Women's Caucus for the Arts and various art associations. I attended the Ohio University-School of Fine Arts, Boston University, B.A. and the Decordova Museum School in Lincoln, Massachusetts.

Website: http://shukovskyart.com/

Email: yshukovsky@gmail.com