Born in Portugal, Maria’s family emigrated to New York where she graduated from Parson’s School of Design (NY) with a BFA in Illustration. Her career has spanned graphic design, print production, web design, computer graphics trainer, and technology research and strategy. Nevertheless, throughout Maria has pursued her primary passion of creating art.
After many years of working traditionally in a realistic style using oil on canvas and wood, Maria transitioned to abstract painting. Creating abstract work with a bit of some realism has allowed her more freedom and opportunity to showcase feelings, intuition, ideas, and individual expression. Transitioning to abstract work has been challenging and exciting and taken a lot of determination and hard work to reach the point of finally being happy with the work being created.
Some of the work is mixed media using acrylic, collage, and a variety of mark-making tools. The artwork is comprised of multiple layers of paint, marks, collage, drawing, and textures. Color, values, composition, and shapes are used to add interest to the artwork.
