Artist Statement

"Everything, even the mundane can be made interesting with the right contrast.

Whether through color, highlights and shadows, spatial relationships, or subject matter;

contrast creates the drama that brings art to life.

"Birds and Beast" explores contrast at all levels.

Big and small, acute and abstract, dynamic and static.

My goal is to evoke excitement and calm simultaneously - just as nature does.

Though detailed and sharp edged, this series is the result of an abstract and emergent process.

There's a moment after hours and hours of layering acrylic paints

of varying translucency that a tipping point occurs.

It stops feeling random and suddenly every brush stroke plays a monumental role.

This shift in modalities, this contrast between exploration and articulation - this is what drives my work."

Caryn West ~ Artist