Georgeanne Gaffney

Artists Statement

My vision of completed works is sparked by flashes of visual images that occur within the complex layered stimuli of daily life. Through a combination of multi-media formats, I reassemble this vision by staging and manipulating subjects and compositions. My satisfaction and success lay in the interactive connection that viewers share with my work.

Fine Art Biography

Born and raised in Maryland, Georgeanne Gaffney initially centered her creative interests on fashion design. Influenced by her grandmother, a talented seamstress, Georgeanne found herself not only inspired by the texture, design and colors of clothing but also observed the satisfying accomplishment of creating something beautiful.

Georgeanne enjoyed the drawing and construction elements of fashion design but began to find herself attracted to the more organic world of studio art. She pursued this direction by attending Towson University, MD, focusing on drawing and painting, graduating with a Bachelor of Science Degree in 1993. Working in pastels, Georgeanne created large scale figurative drawings that had a painterly appearance, using magazine photos as a reference. In her senior year she received a first place award for her self portrait and had her first solo exhibition.

Moving to the central coast of California in 1995, she found her inspiration in the natural environment, focusing on detailed works of leaves and flowers. Wanting to experiment with texture, Georgeanne began working with carving and painting beeswax. These relief works possess illuminating stained glass effect.

In the year 2000, missing the four seasons, Georgeanne Gaffney relocated back east to Northern New York State. The dramatic landscape of the Adirondacks has had a profound impact on her subject matter and palette. Continuing to experiment with materials, she has developed a method of mixed media, painting on wood panels using saturated colors.

Her landscapes capture the feeling of the area by their sensitive application of local colors and textures. In addition to being inspired by the setting of her new home, Georgeanne began working with the figure again, using the more intimate approach of working with live models. The first series of women in interiors resulted in stylized, minimal paintings. After working with models in a controlled environment, she sought the challenge of working with the figures in the landscape. By way of this artistic journey, her paintings have evolved into a natural form of representational art.

Her future vision is to work with models within the landscape in each season, exploring the relationship between humans and nature
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