Rebecca McNeely

I paint to communicate the joy of color and to express my experience of living on this dynamic, fragile and beautiful earth. Through landscape, pure abstraction, and an amalgam of the two, my paintings represent a fusion of my love of color, of nature, and of fearless and free expression.

My first paintings were expressive landscapes rooted in the impressionist tradition of painting en plein air. The longer I painted, however, the more I came to appreciate good abstract paintings, which can take on a life of their own and elicit intuitive, visceral responses from the viewer. Inspired by such works, I turned to abstraction in order to better distill form, simplify the composition and exaggerate color.

Praised for their masterful use of color, these paintings tap into my lifetime of extensive world travel and residence in regions across the United States. In recent years, I have developed several series addressing the importance of natural phenomena such as trees, wetlands, and lush vegetation to planetary health, and one of abstractions that express some of the extreme weather events.

I feel that I have found my artistic voice through these explorations and that my abstract landscapes express the culmination of that journey.