Joie de vivre Painting

Michele Pew is a self-taught abstract painter who grew up in the Washington DC suburbs. She graduated from the University of Maryland and continued her studies at The School Of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City and Tressle Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. Her mother is a passionate art collector and was a longstanding docent at the The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC. Her Aunt was a well-known artist and art teacher in Mass. Pew was constantly surrounded by art. No family trip was complete without a stop to see a new exhibit along the way. She worked as a Creative Director for multiple Television/Cable Networks for over 15 years. In 2016, she gave up the daily grind of a full time corporate gig to go freelance so she has time to play in a new sandbox and pursue her love of painting. She has said, “Painting for me is like recess but for adults”. Her career in the creative arts along with her study in fine arts collide to bring her paintings to life.   Pew's abstract expressionist paintings are studies of color and energy. Her canvases are tossed with bold brushstrokes, playful drips and at times, aggressive drabs, that conjoin and splatter. She enjoys discovering new techniques and experimenting with the movement and balance of color to yield dynamic images, shapes, and strokes. Pew possesses an intense confidence with her medium. She is willing to destroy it to find new ways of working with it. In any given work, there’s a variety of techniques and materials. She currently works with acrylics, metal leaf, oil bar, oil pastels, chalk, and charcoal. Her paintings are driven emotionally. A professor from her studies at SVA once said - "Michele wears her heart on her paintings. You can get a sense of what was going on in her life by looking at her work. She uses textures and different mediums to convey the layers of that emotion, leaving her completely exposed. When you critique Michele’s work, you’re critiquing HER”. Pews works are held in numerous private collections worldwide. Her studio is in Brooklyn, NY, which she shares with her deliciously cuddly and goofball retriever/collie mix rescue dog, Jack Black.