Wendy Orville

Trained as a painter, I have focused on making monotypes for the past fifteen years. I treat the monotype process like painting in many ways. I work to create an equivalent of light by building up translucent layers of color and marks, often scratching into the surface after pulling the print from the press.

My intent is to reduce the lanscape to essentials, evoking an emotional space that invites you inside while retaining a painterly flatness and tension. I want to capture a sense of the inner life and movement of the landscape; making the invisible visible in as stripped down and specific a form as possible.

I grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, in an academic, scientific family and moved to Taos, New Mexico at age 27. After spending most of my life in places full of corners, trees and people, the shift in space felt both disorienting and thrilling. My art became increasingly abstract in reaction to the severe, expansive beauty of the Southwest. In Taos, I began working with master printers and was introduced to the extraordinary possibilities of the monotype medium.

In 1996, I moved to the Pacific Northwest and found inspiration in the lush, veiled atmosphere of the region. I began making tonal monotypes exploring the subtle and evocative light of the Northwest. The challenge of making a visual and poetic equivalent of this landscape continues to provoke and inspire me.