Marie-Claire Dole

Color has been a source of joy and energy for me, and painting is fulfilling my desire to create and work with color.  Pastel is my main medium; it offers a delightful tactile experience when I blend colors on a slightly rough paper like Pastelmat. The tooth of the paper enables me to use many layers of pastel, and the result is rich with depths of pure color pigment.  I find inspiration in beautiful landscapes which I avidly photograph anytime I am on a walk or on a trip anywhere in the Pacific Northwest, where I live, on occasions in my native Switzerland or in Japan, also one of my favorite countries. 

I need to be deeply looking at my subject as I wish to understand all the nuances in color, light and shadows. I pay attention to and appreciate the intricacies of design in nature, whether it is on a large scale like clouds or as the minute details of an insect wing.  I use specific colors to convey emotion and the mood of my painted message.

Besides nature providing vast subjects, I am interested in exploring inner thoughts and dreams and have an ongoing series of paintings like “Dream Quest of the Pink Horse”.  I enjoy painting abstracts to express emotions and especially, I have painted emotions   extensively in my big series of Grief Paintings using water soluble wax pastel as a medium.