Michelle Ranta

Recently I have been working on a series of smaller paintings, still lives and portraits, in which I try to pay attention in the umpteenth degree to every little thing. God is in the details. I am looking at the beauty of reality. I am finding the fascinating small variations in value and color-- absolutely everything on this planet has a gradation.
With my larger narrative paintings I am immersing myself in my love of telling stories and watching the subtle psychology of human interaction. These new still lives, even though an entirely different genre, are really rather similar. I am constructing miniature little worlds with the interactions of objects and colors also telling a story. When I tear down a still life set up in my studio after months of painting I have a strange feeling of nostalgia, like when the first cool winds of September announce the end of summer. Only my paintings remain as a memory. But it is so much more than a construction, it is about the process of exploring and discovering this amazing complexity that is the visual world.
I remember when I first became seriously interesting in drawing and painting, I was passionate about landscapes. A cloud, a tree, even the asphalt pavement suddenly became...