Annamarie Griffeth

Biography

"One Life, One Story...Make it a Fairy Tale" I am a mostly self-taught artist, specializing in acrylic painting. I am to capture a feeling, emotion, or memory in a way that is beautiful, uplifting, and fantastical. MY PROCESS: I approach each painting first with quiet meditation, asking myself what feeling, thought, or emotion needs to be expressed. I search for what's bothering me, exciting me, etc. I try to visualize whatever speaks the loudest as vividly as possible until I feel it has washed over me completely. Sometimes I will sketch ideas, but most of the time the process of creation puts its hand deep into the well of my soul and takes me on a journey as spontaneous and unplanned as life itself. Colors start making their way to the canvas, a few at a time at first but I always find my eyes wanting more and more! I paint in random areas with whatever strokes fall from my brush and I wait for images to emerge from this. Little by little figures form and I begin the process of working to balance the technical aspect of painting with the visceral. This is a process I love very much. As everything starts coming together in a magical swirl of color and composition, I hide symbols and secrets inside the images creating a hidden map of my heart. Some are easy to find. Others you would never know were there. One of my favorite things to do is rework an old painting and make it new again. In this way, the painting itself has its own life story and its own secrets beneath the paint, just like you and me.