Stacey Warnix

What inspires you?

Immense, expansive horizons, where earth touches sky in bending undulations

Describe your creative process.

As a gestural painter, I tend to start with little more than a color theme in mind. Since I almost always work on raw textile, there is an immediate permanence to the first marks and color blocks. I work up in smaller layers, sometimes embedding papers or fabric remnants into still-wet paints. The juxtaposition of thin and thick, translucent and opaque, create contrasts that I embrace or obscure as I work my way across the face, accumulating more layers. My thoughts, like the gritty nubs and imperfections in the raw textile, melt into subtle tonality and ethereal obscurity.

What are 3 words that best describe your work?

ethereal, uplifting, atmospheric

Who are some artists that have influenced your work?

Georgia O'Keeffe, Richard Diebenkorn, Helen Frankenthaler, Joan Mitchell

What is the most important tool when creating your work?

Music - as a gestural painter, music helps me clear my mind and get out of my get out of my own way

What is the best piece of advice you have been given?

It was a very specific piece of advice about a painting I was working on, an observation shared by a gallery curator whom I respected immensely. He pointed to a blurred and stippled area of my painting with delicate shading that he especially enjoyed and he told me to make more of that magic. Ever since, anytime I do, it always works.