about me…
Hi! I am Elsa, an artist based in Merida in the Yucatan Peninsula where I live with my husband, two young boys, and our cute furry dog Coco.
Art and design have always been an important part of my life. Teachers and friends from school will remember me as the girl that was always drawing in her notebooks. I have drawers and boxes full of pieces from all stages of my life-in many techniques and many styles.
I attended SCAD(Savannah College of Art and Design) for college where I had the opportunity to explore different disciplines of arts, from: textile design, sculpture, drawing, painting to graphic and electronic design. I graduated with a degree in Interior Design and Electronic Design and worked in an architecture firm as an Interior Designer for a few years. In my free time I kept painting in my small apartment.
It wasn’t until a few years ago when I took an abstract art workshop with Dr. Nancy Hillis that my love affair with abstract art began. I fell in love with the freedom of abstract art and mixed media and loved the creative expression it allows.
Since then I have been on a journey of learning and exploration and have taken as many workshops as I can with amazing artists such as Pauline Jans, Nicholas Wilton, Lewis Noble and Alice Sheridan.
I decided painting was too important for me to be a side gig and I now have a regular studio practice which I deeply enjoy!
An abstract exploration…
For me each painting is about the journey. I start the painting without any preconceived plan as to what it will look like, only by selecting a painting palette with the mood I am trying to convey.
In the early stages I like to enjoy the exploration of different materials and try out new ideas. This phase is really fun and very free.
Through layering these explorations the painting slowly begins to build. It is an adding and subtracting process. Some parts of the painting show in the next layer, while others get covered, creating depth and a sense of history in the painting.
As the painting progresses, I enter a more intentional and slower phase. This is the editing phase where I decide what the design will be and how to strengthen or support it. This more deliberate part continues until the painting feels right and there are no more moves to make.
Each piece is an opportunity to discover something new and I love to be surprised with what emerges. I enjoy painting intuitively and without the constraint of reference images. However, I find that my internal language visual language is deeply influenced by my connection with nature and my paintings are abstract landscapes most often.