DVAA Member since 2018
Marie Bender
Website:
About:
The Beauty of form and the joy of color and light are elements Marie Bender aims to highlight in her work. Although the majority of her artwork is focused on still life, she captures a wide array of stunning landscapes and portraits.
With an immense passion for art, Marie began drawing and painting at an early age using the natural landscape that surrounded her family’s home in a rustic suburb of Philadelphia. She attended Tyler School of Art at Temple University where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts and continued to refine and share her artistic talent through advanced classes and various workshops. Marie also studied artistic anatomy for two years at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. One of seven children, Marie often used her siblings and surroundings as subjects, quickly learning the benefits of artistic and client collaboration. She established a weekly artist’s circle where artists come together to work with a live model and share insights, techniques, ideas and inspiration. Trained to work in various mediums, including egg tempera and gouache, Marie now works predominantly in oils.
Artist Statement:
“I believe in celebrating the everyday, every day. My inspiration comes from the commonplace, ordinary things around us: a sea shell, a carpenter’s plumb, a glass bowl. My intent is to ignite a sense of awe and wonder in the viewer. To make them smile and help them see the extraordinary beauty of the world in which we live.
I work from life, setting objects on a table in my studio. Through the use of birds, insects and other small creatures I combine the inanimate with the animate, the still and the not so still. Most of the wildlife I paint are native to the northeastern United States. Although I sometimes use photo reference for the pose, I have a varied collection of preserved species that I am able to examine for more precise information. Also, my home is surrounded with feeders and birdbaths, giving me ample opportunity to observe and record.
I am primarily a still life painter but also enjoy landscape painting, particularly working en plein air. I find being out in nature to be both restorative and inspiring and have integrated elements of landscape, such as skies, into my work. I seek to share the splendor and the joy that is all around each of us. To query the familiar, explore the magic, enjoy the occasional bit of whimsy and to celebrate the everyday, every day.”
Exhibitions at DVAA:
