Arlene Reiss - Paintings: "Two Years, Two Coasts"

Arlene Reiss was raised in New York to parents who encouraged much exposure to the exciting art world of Manhattan.  After graduating college with a degree in Art she lived and worked in New York in advertising and publishing, until she moved to the Mendocino Coast in 1970.

Being much inspired by her new environment she became a plein-air pastel artist.  However, after exhibiting and sellng that work for many years, she took two years off from gallery exhibiting to delve into more personal work. She has worked as an intuitive and abstract artist since that time.  Reiss continues to explore a variety of mediums with much focus on Acrylic, Mixed Media and Collage.  Living on the Mendocino  Coast and spending part of the year on the Pacific Coast of Mexico she is very influenced by the colors and forms of the natural environment.

She states “I find it fascinating and mysterious that by making marks or brush stokes on paper or canvas, a reality is created that never existed before. As I paint I become engaged in a dialogue with the piece, surprises happen, moods change and colors demand to be used. A relationship is created that can be immensely frustrating and/or sublimely satisfying, and that  has a depth reached by perseverance.”