Spring in the Bay Area Painting

Maria Karpenko won a national art competition in elementary school in Germany and started painting oil on canvas at the age of 9. She had her first solo exhibition at the age of 10, selling more than a dozen paintings. Local newspapers profiled her in articles with titles like "A 'Phenomenon': First Exhibition at Age 10." She had another solo exhibition a couple years later, shortly before she moved to Canada with her family. While attending high school, she had her third solo exhibition and has been working on commissions ever since. Before Maria started painting, she spent about two years visiting museums and galleries in Europe. She was enthralled by French Impressionism and chose Claude Monet as her mentor. Maria’s parents took her to Claude Monet’s house and garden in Giverny, France. She studied his work and the work of other impressionists by flipping through art books countless times. She copied a few of Monet's paintings to learn and practice his technique. The Walk (Argenteuil) (1875) and Poppies (1873) are among the paintings she copied. She quickly moved on to her own paintings—mostly landscapes and floral compositions. About 4 years ago, Maria started to explore Abstract Expressionism. This year, she tried acrylic paints for the first time and fell in love with them. They give her new ways to capture the emotions a place or a moment evokes. Their drying speed forces her to work faster and in a more "expressive" and spontaneous way. She has learned that the process of an Abstract Expressionism acrylic painting is as much part of the finished painting as the painting itself.