Growing up in Oklahoma, I found refuge in the magnificent sunsets and storms of the Great Plains. There I discovered my love of the purely aesthetic, wordless experience that I express through my artwork. I work with oils, acrylics, and occasionally watercolors, markers, oil crayons and mosaic. All of my work is non-objective, meaning it is not a depiction, even an abstract one, of any material object or subject matter. Instead, I am attempting to hold the viewer’s interest through the harmony of the color and compositional choices in the gentlest, most non-coercive way possible.

Representational work quite naturally and appropriately places emphasis on the subject matter being depicted. By contrast and by working with pure abstraction, I attempt to divide the emphasis between the physical object and the aesthetic experience. My hope is that the viewer might oscillate between distinct experiences of scale and perspective; one that is perhaps grounded in the viewer’s awareness of the immediate surroundings and another that is a more visceral desire to locate themselves within the atmosphere of the painting. If such a shift can be achieved and especially if there is an awareness of that shift, then perhaps it will encourage a ripple effect. Problems can feel diminished, hope and possibility can take root. Whether it’s a fleeting moment or a more long-lasting effect, such as the one I gained from the many evenings watching the sun go down from my Oklahoma rooftop, my intent is to provide an opportunity for a change in vantage point.

Laine Nixon is a visual artist based in Sarasota, FL. She earned a BFA in painting from the University of South Florida and a BS in mathematics from the University of Tennessee. She has participated in numerous exhibitions, including solo exhibitions at Gallery 221@HCC and Alfstad &Contemporary. Nixon’s work has been published in UPPERCASE magazine and Studio Visit Magazine, and is in the collections of RBC Wealth Management, SRQ Media, the Plymouth Harbor Foundation, and Hillsborough Community College. Development of her work has been supported by the 2016/17 John Ringling Towers Fund fellowship, the Hermitage Artists Retreat, and Halo Arts Project Fellowships in both 2021 and 2022. She maintains her studio at SPAACES and is an active member of this burgeoning community. Her work is represented by Softwater Gallery, St. Petersburg, FL.

www.lainenixon.com

laine@lainenixon.com

@lainenixonstudio