Kerry Marquis

Places that I know most intimately or places that I visit inspire me. I particularly enjoy going for a run or walk – in new or in familiar places. The emotional impact that the place creates in me inspires me to want to express that in a painting or drawing. It may be the overwhelming color of the area – like the greenest green haze that surrounds you in the foothills of South Carolina in the summer or the cool blue-greens and blues and browns that swirl around you when walking through the Florida marshes.

I usually start an artwork with a purposeful visit to a place, a run or a walk through an area, just emptying my mind and looking. A second visit finds me with camera in one hand and sketchbook in the other, working to capture some of the sense of place that impressed itself upon me. My hope or intention is to set off a series of imaginations in the viewer, as my responses do in me.