Monique received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in Apparel Design and an MFA in Web Design New Media from the Academy of Art University. In tandem with her design career, she continued to paint - portraits of people, animals, and homes in watercolor. In recent years Monique has studied under Meredith Rosier at the Woodstock School of Art, expanding her repertoire to include abstract drawing and paintings in oil, acrylics, and in mixed media and collage. Her abstract paintings can be viewed in galleries in lower NY state, in shows and fairs, and her work hangs in many homes in the northern and eastern United States. In addition, Monique paints landscapes, and commissioned artwork in both abstract and realist styles.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

The focus for my art is to create work that evokes light, depth, and energy using juxtapositions of color and contrast. I have an emotional feeling about color that becomes a physical sensation I process into the art I create. I seek to achieve luminosity by blending colors and placing them in contrasting ways to create illusions of light and buoyancy. My goal is to evoke a strong emotional response to the color and the light in the same way that these affect me.
My work is intuitive and visceral – it is organic, but sometimes with geometric references as well. Nature is always at the back of mind when I paint, regardless of how bright or unnatural in color a painting may seem. From grand vistas to granular observation, my sense of shape and form finds inspiration in clouds, water, plant life, and wildlife. Light informs color and I try to grasp those nuances in my work.