Mara Schasteen – ARTFOODHOME.COM

“Backyard Chickens” by Mara Schasteen

I saw a magnificent still life on Facebook that Mara had done. Whoa! I scooted right over to her site to check out her work. Nothing short of impressive. I love the “Backyard Chickens” painting. The dark chicken right next to the white chicken really makes them both pop out at you. What caught my eye that I really loved was the sunlight hitting the one dark chicken. The areas of sun form a nice little path that keeps your eye nicely in the painting. I guess it’s no surprise that this painting was one of the Top 50 finalist in the America China Oil Painting Artists League 2011 realist painting competition! Great job Mara! If you get a second, check out her site, her paintings are fantastic and she gives you a step by step on many of her paintings on her blog. So amazing!

Here’s a blip about Mara from her website:

Mara Schasteen is a Wyoming native and a lifetime artist. Her passion for art began as a small child, carving drawings into planks of wood with tools from her dad’s shed. Growing up in the beautiful Big Horn Mountains, Mara developed a passion for nature and a desire to express its beauty in unique and exciting ways. Today, Mara’s intense self-study of the arts has produced a fresh technical style that draws elements from many of her heroes in art, past and present.

Studying graphic design and advertising at Oklahoma Christian University provided Mara with a solid foundation in design, color theory and the effort required to become excellent at whatever the task may be. Mara began a family shortly after college and as she set about the important mission of raising four brilliant children, she discovered and slowly developed her true passion for fine art and portraiture.

Mara now considers herself an expressive naturalist painter, desiring to convey moods, emotions and energy with textures, colors and intimate subjects. Mara finds great joy in her gift of art and she boldly uses her talent to celebrate simple beauty.

Working most commonly as a direct painter, alla prima, Mara is most fulfilled when she expresses a subject in the simplest terms. Her ability to combine illusions of reality with expressive textures treats the viewer to a simple telling of poetic stories, inviting the eye to enjoy the nature of oil paint itself and experience the energy carefully placed into each stroke.

Mara currently lives and paints in Sheridan, Wyoming with her husband, four children and six chickens.

Catch you back here tomorrow!