Artworks features Alexis Terry Bouchard for May

||| FROM B.J. ARNOLD for ORCAS ISLAND ARTWORKS |||

The Orcas Island Artworks presents these new paintings by artist Alexis Terry Bouchard as the featured artist for the month of May. She paints and makes art to connect to and show her appreciation and curiosity of the natural world.

She uses color, shape and form combined with the rich internal world of symbolism and meaning. Her paintings are a dance between what is seen and unseen, conscious and subconscious, the past and the present.

An initial spark begins a work of art. It can be a story, an image, or a current or past event. That spark becomes a rough stretch in charcoal. on cold pressed paper. Next, Alexis blocks in colored and black India ink creating a sense of positive and negative shape. The painting continues to evolve with the use of Acryla Gouache, which is similar to acrylic but has a super opaque and matte quality.

Many layers of color and line are applied as now the challenge of attaining balance drives the artist. This is achieved through repeated patterns and shapes, inversions, multiple outlines, repeated patterns, intersecting lines, and strange color combinations. Her work is deeply layered and symbolic, an expression of the divine feminine, alchemy, animism and magic.

Continuously inspired by the beauty and mystery of the natural world, she often finds meaning in the simplest forms. Her art is an expression of the relationship between our physical and spiritual experience and the interconnection of all things. The ways in which memory, history, emotion and perception can inform the present moment continue to drive her desire to create. A painting can synthesize this complexity in a unique and surprising way, and while she may control the start of a painting she is often surprised and gifted the end result.

Orcas Island Artworks located in Olga, is a cooperative gallery featuring over 40 members. It offers a carefully curated selection of fine art and handcrafted pieces by talented, passionate artists who call Orcas Island home. Visitors can explore one-of-a-kind works that reflect the unique spirit of the San Juan Islands. The gallery is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.