Biography



		Mary Ellen Neff Born in Milwaukee, WI, USA 1985-92, Workshops and Advanced studies in Maryland and Virginia BA in Art, Webster University
	Years ago I learned to sail and employed the forces of wind and current to navigate. I raced around buoys for the pure joy of it. My art is a personal vision. Manipulating paint is pure joy! Both these activities are very cerebral and very challenging. About my Art Abstract painting is a visual language, full of symbols and marks that mean something. It is my job, as the artist, to provide clues so a viewer can “get it.” I only speak for my own art, but some marks can be categorized. Geometric shapes are safe enough. Nothing is more predictable than a square, unless a broken line leaves a door open for something to enter or leave. Humm. . On the other hand, rounded lines, patterns and seemingly organic shapes are dynamic. They direct the eye around and engage the viewer’s curiosity. The interaction between organic and geometric marks and shapes is very important in my work. It is a push-pull element.

Painting with Encaustic Wax Encaustic paintings have a very special energy. Layers upon layers of wax are infused by heating and sculpting with metal tools and brushes to bind the pigments before they cool. It is is an exciting process, perfectly suited to the way I sculpt with a palette knife. Around the year 2000 I began using wax as a medium for my oil paints. Then gradually, I used less oil and mixed dry pigments into the wax. Wax adds transparency and luminocity, but leaves the door open for opaque color sealed within the layers. It makes a traditionally two dimensonal painting become three dimenstions. Waterways: a Series Waterways is an ongoing series of 9’’ x 9’’ encaustic paintings that I started in 2004. Some of them occupy this page. The series is an ongoing experiment in encaustic techniques. Each painting began without preconception, other than color compatibility. They hang alone, in pairs or in groups. In 2005 sixteen paintings hung briefly as a grid.

Abstract Works By Mary Ellen Neff

Abstract Works By
Mary Ellen Neff