Pat Marsello has been painting brushwork since 1977. She paints on clay, paper and silk and has sold her work through galleries and art festivals nationally since 1990. She also teaches, runs workshops and gives presentations at her studio as well as museums and universities. Her approach to brushwork is impressionistic and simple, using basic materials and mindful strokes, brushwork which is efficient, but never lacking, deliberate, yet also spontaneous.
Artist Statement
I discovered brushwork in 1977, at a show of Sumi-e paintings at Dartmouth College, and was moved by the simplicity of stroke and the elegant composition which is the essence of all brushwork. After attending an intensive brushwork week at the Phoenix Workshops in New Hampshire, I went on to study under Betty Painter in Arlington, Virginia. Upon moving back to New Mexico in 1980, I painted for a summer with Taiwanese painter Ooh Mei Shou.
It was then I realized that brushwork is comprised of three elements. The brush is the magician’s wand, and if handled correctly, can create a world out of thin air. The ink is the blood; it holds the possibility of Ch’Iyun, or the living spirit of a painting. And the paper is the skin, the texture that accepts the ink and absorbs the energy of the brush. It is the dance between these three, the brush, the ink and the paper guided by the hand and the heart that makes brushwork.
In 1990, I found clay, studied wheel and slab work with master potter, Lou D’Amico, and set up a studio for both pottery and painting.
Since then I have lived as a working artist, painting brushwork on paper, silk, and ceramics. In 2004, I traveled to China to study landscape painting with renowned artist, NingYeh.
For over twenty years now I have sold my pots and paintings at Art Festivals and galleries around the country, as well as teaching workshops at museums, schools and universities. Now I instruct out of my studio, and sell at art festivals and galleries in New Mexico. My approach to brushwork is impressionistic and simple, using basic materials and mindful strokes, brushwork which is efficient, but never lacking, deliberate, yet also spontaneous. These are the elements of art that are important to me. Reducing every part of a piece down to its simplest form. For in its simplicity is the beauty of its essence. It is this quality I try to create in every piece of art.
