Artist Focus:
Marilee Krause
Discover Marilee Krause’s continually evolving work in our online artist focus.
I have described Marilee Krause’s paintings as ethereal on several occasions, but I believe that word falls short of her intention. The layered washes, poetic line, and collage are not only about beauty in nature. They are evidence of Krause’s process and materials she uses in creating the image. They convey the glimmer between awareness of the fabrication and immersion into illusion on paper.
When I first saw Marilee’s paintings she was working with pastel over watercolor. The chalky pastel added depth to the watercolor while energetic but delicate lines on the surface added complexity and finesse.
Choosing to give up pastel for health reasons, Krause saw an opportunity to experiment with both media and substrates. Even prior to this change, Krause wasn’t averse to experimentation—incorporating thin pencil lines and using cropped close-up scenes, she had already been moving her work towards abstraction.
In her Inklings series, she reverses this, but in miniature, via ink on small slips of paper. By making the large small, Krause alludes to the monumental in tiny abstractions.
Dusk, an acrylic ink on canvas, allows the texture of cloth to collaborate with monochrome washes, and lets dramatic blank canvas convey light on water.
The most recent addition to her work is the subtle use of collage. A strip of red in the NM Dawn at the top of the page, and birds with outstretched wings in the series below, add deft elements to her watercolors on paper. Layered on top of wet and dry-brush watercolor, overlaying lines and blank paper, the birds soar above, becoming an ideal metaphor for Marilee’s creative freedom
—Cynthia
View more works by Marilee Krause
