KP: What are you about?
ES: What am I about? I’m about my conscious contact with wild Maine. I connect with the powerful energy of the natural forces around me—water, wind, stone, light. I have a constant awareness of the changing weather; the dramatic extremes are magnetic for me.
Elizabeth Starr, Eve, oil painting on canvas, 24 x 36 in.
KP: What are some sources of inspiration?
ES: Textures, bright colors, textures like pine needles on the floor of the woods, snow falling, the surface of granite, bark on trees, and the ripples in the sand where the sea has been.
KP: Which artists’ work do you most like to look at?
ES: Klimt, Van Gogh, Matisse, Monet, Cezanne, Georgia O’Keefe, and Edvard Munch.
Elizabeth Starr, Autumn Time, watercolor on paper, 15 x 20 in.
KP: Who is your intended audience?
ES: Anyone who is awake or needs to wake up.
KP: Do you intend to surprise or shock people?
ES: I hope so!
KP: Does your work consciously reflect our time?
ES: No. I feel like my art has a life of its own, which seeks to go as far as it can. I love my subjects; I feel deeply for them. I want them to be free and fully themselves in their lives.
Elizabeth Starr, Coyote Face, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 30 in.
Each artwork is a new adventure. I rarely plan my art. I don’t often make preliminary sketches. Initially, I paint brusquely on my canvas, and then I see where paint and my imagination will take me. I enter into my studio with images swimming in my mind from my walks in Nature. I am full of the chaos of the trees and brush of the Maine woods, a slew of broken shells cradled in the pockets of the ledge stone by the sea. Rippling tides flow through me in their daily motions—the light beams through the fog and clouds. I am deeply in love with the landscape here, and its elements invade my soul and my art. I am touched by wild energy, and I let that energy guide me. There’s Spirit in Nature, and I take refuge in it.
Image at top: Elizabeth Starr, Crows Over Corn, acrylic on canvas, 22 x 28 in.