Marliese Scheller

"Being asked what my art represents, why I paint a certain subject or draw a certain way are questions to which I don’t have a ready answer. The sources of inspiration are sometimes difficult to pinpoint. They arise from within, but are constantly evolving, influenced by the seasons, surroundings and current events. I am inspired by Russian literature, nature and birds which represent an inner freedom while the Middle Ages, a period rich in creativity, has also left its imprint on my art. 

Independent of the subject matter or medium, mastering a technique is at the heart of my works. I am fortunate to have had early on in my career two masters: Henri H. Gowa, the middle ages pigment specialist, who gave me an insight into the realm of true colours, and Frans Masereel who taught me graphic art and how to render luminosity through black and white surfaces. 

If my oil paintings are an explosion of colours; colours applied with a palette knife onto a hard gesso board, I have since experimented and adapted the technique of woodcut to ink drawings, enabling me to use larger surfaces to express myself. In the last five years, I have also taken up Chinese calligraphy which to me is a natural evolution from graphic arts. To resume, each of the media becomes a vehicle through which I express a spontaneity that combines traditionalism with realism.”