by Susanna Turino

My life as a painter has progressed through many stages. At art school, there was always the paradoxical pursuit of perfection with the expressive letting go of perfection; that delicate balance the Japanese have codified into what they call wabi sabi. Wabi sabi lauds the beauty of imperfection, most readily seen in the rough ceramic raku bowls used in the tea ceremony.

My early work was devoted to portraying the intimate architecture of flowers. Having been a garden designer before coming to San Miguel in 2009, my garden was a voluptuous source of material for subject matter. The larger landscape has also been a fascination as my travels have taken me to Italy and plein air painting. As I moved into more abstract work, switching media from oil to acrylic and collage, I spent a number of years painting bright, intricate geometric abstracts with personal memorabilia often embedded in the images. I created a large series of collages on paper, some of which will be shown in the current exhibit at Manuk.

The current series of paintings, begun in 2022, turns away from obvious complexity in search of serenity. The colors are more muted, the forms more amorphous and simple. The surfaces are built up of layers of diverse materials: textural elements, inks, stains, fiber and paper, metallics, bark, powdered charcoal, watercolor and acrylic paints, so the ultimate work has a mysterious, atmospheric, often ethereal quality.

It is a contemporary approach to wabi sabi, in which the process takes its own course without excessive preoccupation about the outcome. Each piece begins a journey without a road map, starting out exuberantly, getting lost on side roads and taking wrong turns, making unexpected discoveries along the way, finding the way as I go. It is a delightful approach to art, as there is no right or wrong perspective, just the instinct of the artist in combination with the natural attributes of the materials.

I am an explorer in art and in life. The love of change in combination with the stability of core essence keeps me excited about finding new approaches to expression.

www.susannaturino.com

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