MAGGIE WALKER NELSON: WEST (OF EDEN)
M. Walker Nelson is a working artist specializing in traditional oil painting with a modern temperament. She is highly adept, with over fifteen years of professional art and teaching experience. At the heart of her work, M. Walker Nelson is a master at transforming images and objects of ordinary life into reflections about our complex relationships between ourselves and the mundane. A lifelong explorer of the natural and creative worlds, M. Walker Nelson has lived in the Midwest, West Texas, and currently lives North of Houston. She draws inspiration from the stark beauty of Texas' open spaces and the sparseness of the landscape. She is known for semi-urban landscapes and botanicals of the West. She calls her style Modern Extinction because she is fervent to capture a rapidly changing world. She has always lived in small cities and towns that struggle with economic booms and busts, decade by decade, and is intrigued by the marks of time.
The surroundings that drive her to paint may not be extraordinary, but the work exhibits a shared collective subconscious with the viewer. People think they know the location of her paintings when many are pieced together and do not physically exist as painted. Her most recent series West (of Eden) 2021-2023, combines the heart of the West with the writings of author John Steinbeck. She explores the idea of feeling trapped in life and how that plays repeatedly in the mind. She is experimenting with analog and digital glitching to symbolize past and present in the image.
Artistic Process
Over the past two years, each image was sketched and composed from source photographs the artist found roaming lost highways. Lists were made of images and ideas. Then, sketches were created and the top twelve were selected. Two pilot pieces were created to test the "glitch" effect. The compositions were finalized, and canvases and materials were purchased. The artist was careful to select which had profound meaning rather than the easiest to paint.
The canvases were toned for the landscape dominate compositions, and burnt umber and sienna underpainting was loosely applied, while others were painted directly on the gesso. The images were drawn out with meticulous measuring. Dark areas were indicated, and then the paintings were painted with traditional oil paint with a wet-in-wet application. The artist uses large brushes and minimal strokes, careful not to "fix" the painting. She aims for a flatter style and a precise rendering of shadow to reveal the forms. She prefers to arrange her compositions like a still life or portrait to show love for the objects.
Learn more about Maggie Walker Nelson here.
Follow her on Instagram and Facebook.
Contact her at maggie@artsourcetx.com
