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Artist Statement / Biography

Painting serves as a space for exploring the relationship between color, nature, and emotional experience. Color functions not only as a descriptive element, but as a primary language through which sensation and atmosphere emerge.

Organic forms and fluid compositions draw from landscapes, plant life, and shifting environmental conditions. Layers of paint build depth and movement, suggesting cycles of growth, change, and erosion. Contrasts between intensity and softness create tension, reflecting the complexity of emotional states.

Each work balances observation and abstraction, allowing natural influence to merge with intuitive mark-making. Surfaces evolve through repetition, adjustment, and accumulation, resulting in compositions that feel both immediate and contemplative. The work invites sustained looking, where color and form unfold gradually, revealing connections between the external world and internal experience.

Education

University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA:  1976, BA Art, cum laude;  Study Abroad:  Young Judaea Year in Israel, 1972-1973, work study program

deCordova Museum School, Lincoln, MA 1996-2012:  acrylics*;  watercolor;   pastel;   monoprint;  photography;  handmade decorative books;  drawing;  ceramics;  collage
*studied with Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern until her passing in 2020
Currently working with Pauline Jans, Penticton, Canada, 2020 to present


Workshops
Academy of Design,, New York, NY, February 2004 "Pastels with Wolf Kahn"
"Painting from the Source", Boston, MA, 1998 Aviva Gold
The Artist's Way, Boston, MA, 1995, 1996 Julia Cameron

Memberships
2011 - present Concord Art Association, Concord, MA
1996 - 2015, 2023 - present Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA
1994 - 2006 The Artist's Way Group, Framingham, MA
2016 - 2018 Member of Fort Point Artists Community, Boston, MA
2016 - present Member of Arts Wayland, Wayland, MA

Curator

2015 - 2017
Responsible for the display of monthly art exhibits at Brick Wall Kitchen, Brookline, MA

Travel

Israel, England, Italy, Switzerland, France, Hawaii, Iceland, Southwest US, East and West Coasts of US

All rights reserved. All images copyrighted 2010 and beyond. Rena Shear

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