"Barriers" Painting

Maria Morales is a fine artist based in New Jersey, USA, known for her use of mixed media and acrylic abstract paintings that are a reflection of her inner thoughts, emotions, and struggles exploring themes such as identity, nature, and beauty.

Born in Portugal, Morales moved to the US as a young child. She attended Parson’s School of Design (NY) from 1978 to 1982 and received a BFA in Illustration. Her career has spanned graphic design, print production, web design, computer graphics trainer, and technology research and strategy. Nevertheless, throughout she has always pursued her primary passion of painting.

The artist has participated in numerous juried exhibitions and her work is in private international collections including in the US, Europe, UK, and the Middle East.

Morales started her career creating oil paintings consisting of portraits, still life, and landscapes in a realistic style for many decades. Abstraction slowly entered her realistic artwork and since about 2020 she mostly creates abstract work.

The body of work Morales has created this past year has an ethereal feel representing happy, uplifting feelings and memories expressed as a counter reaction to this time of social unrest, economic upheaval, government overreach, and human cruelty.