DEBORAH GILLIS

Originally from Portland, Oregon, I am a painter who finds inspiration in the natural world around me. My work straddles a line between representation and abstraction and my primary medium is oil on canvas or cradled birch panels. I have shown my work in Northwest Galleries for over 30 years where I am included in a number of prominent collections. I now spend the majority of my time working in Tucson where I have a studio in the Steinfeld Gallery and Studios. In my recent body of work I explore the emotion associated with time and place. Rather than document specific locations, I attempt to capture the feeling a place, time of day or a natural weather event evokes. In this way, my work acts as a metaphor for an inner mental landscape recognizable to the viewer. My work is intuitive and expressive. I begin with no idea of where the painting will go, it is about control and loss of control. Through an additive and reductive process, laying down layer after layer of color until ultimately a harmonious resolution unfolds.

Medium: Painting

Style: Abstraction