About Marilyn Fenn

I was born wanting to be a painter. I feel most alive when I am at my easel or drawing board. I graduated with a BFA in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1992, and I've been painting ever since. In 2010, the Weather Channel produced a wonderful segment about me and my paintings of tornados which was broadcast during tornado season. I have exhibited my paintings in juried and invitational local and national exhibitions, and my work is in private collections across the country and abroad. I am a member of several local art organizations, as well as the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Alumni Association. See my full resume on my website at http://marilynfenn.com .

Artist Statement

My work is about the joy of seeing the beauty of color and shapes in paint. It ranges from representational work to total abstraction.

My most recent work is focused on the physicality of paint and how it flows over, under, around and through the previous brushstrokes. I work abstractly when I want to to focus on the elements in painting without the distraction of recognizable subject matter, and I work representationally when I want to concentrate on how things look and how I can render them in paint.

I currently work in oil, acrylic, encaustic, watercolor media, ink and mixed media. The choice of media allows me to delve into different methods of working with the materials to explore a myriad of possibilities for creating beauty out of various shapes and patches of color.

I like my art to be fun and to transmit the joy I experience when I'm painting. The one thread that remains constant throughout all of my work is my desire to create beautiful arrangements of colors and shapes on the canvas.