October By The Sea, Riis Park Print

I have painted my plein air watercolor works on paper along the coast of Maine, and New York City’s urban settings including the beach at Ft Tilden in Brooklyn NY, and various other locales such as Green Wood Cemetery, Prospect Park, and Bush Terminal Park. Working from nature fulfills fundamental aspects of my artistic practice by developing a rigorous eye, that coupled with a succinctly painted gesture combine to bring a sense of place to my imagery. I prefer the term “interpretive” when describing my landscape compositions. While my art is rooted in observation of the elegant intricacies of nature, I employ a visually poetic style to gain a heightened awareness of my surroundings. Less literal, sub-visual content enters into my compositions, much as the atmospherically ethereal experience of fog, wind, and improvisational processes such as dream formation, flow into consciousness. Although my multimedia in-studio works still respond to the natural world, they generate sensations emanating from the fluxing boundaries of representation and manifestation. Using poured plaster, powdered pigment, and found objects, I create tactile, 3D surfaces that embody a quirky ethos. Nature’s influence establishes a foundation in my art practice. A mesmerizing gaze can extend into more ethereal realms, bringing an esoteric recognition and awareness of an exalted catharsis. I am constantly aware of the limitations of art to embody those heightened states, and anchor my work to a muscular, physical connection in the here and now. We live in a gem-like, pearlescent universe, offering bountiful opportunities to appreciate the splendorous narrative of our movement through the cosmos. My art is simply an ongoing diary of the journey, which is constantly humbled by the overwhelming bombardment of inspiring stimuli. I believe artists need to sort through distracting noise of fashionable décor, and distill their most meaningful experiences into compositions that exemplify perceptual integrity and invention. As a mature visual artist I bring a fulsome perspective to my professional endeavors. My career has spanned almost 50 years living and working in New York City: Eliot Markell was born in Boston, Massachusetts and studied fine arts at Empire State College, SUNY and Mark Hopkins College.