Crossroads Del Sol Photography
“Marrin Robinson’s paintings are neither limited by their sense of place, nor can they be called ‘landscapes’ in the traditional sense.…the impression is unforced and playful, and the images work on several levels; each individual element is subjected to a greater whole governed by stylistic and compositional principles, but on closer inspection it regains its individuality and evocative power, telling its own story and inviting the viewer to interact with the work of art. ”
“Marrin’s painting is a wonderful blend of serenity and sophistication.
She puts the viewer exactly in her line of vision in the landscape she is portraying.
I find her oils to be simply breathtaking.”
“One of the most wonderful things about Marrin Robinson’s painting Desert Calligraphy is that though it references a majestic, distant landscape, “landscape” is a concept too limited and too material to apply. In some ways it reminds me of the best pre-modern Chinese paintings in which the forms of mountain crags, distant plains, and mysterious suggestions of water and mist convey a vigorous spiritual reality rather than what the ancient critics disdainfully called “form likeness.” Like those old paintings, Desert Calligraphy has horizontal layers that subtly evoke both height and depth in space. Rock-like forms in the lower left corner that seem to invite the viewer to step in are also found in Chinese tradition. Beyond that first step, however, the path beyond in Desert Calligraphy is daunting and unclear. Instead of the pilgrimage-like path offered in a Ming dynasty painting, Marrin’s offers something less charted. The philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti famously said, “Truth is a pathless land.”
Artist Statement
While my work is based in landscape, it is not a replication of a particular place, but rather an experience of place. I start by working directly on site in watercolor, pastel, and ink on paper. Each media acts as an independent voice that combines with the others as different lines of music combine to create a harmony while maintaining their own distinct, individual identities. These works on paper inspire the larger more abstracted oil paintings created in the studio.
I hope that each brush stroke or line is expressive, and I strive to allow these abstract elements to remain visible to communicate that energy of spirit which transcends literal description or meaning. As Arthur Wesley Dow writes, “The artist doesn’t teach us to see facts, he teaches us to feel harmonies.”
BIO
Marrin Robinson is an artist whose paintings are inspired by landscape. A recipient of a Fulbright Grant, she spent a year painting in Portugal. Her Artist Residencies include The Colorado College, The American College of Greece, the University of Hawaii in Hilo, and the Ragdale Foundation in Chicago. She has also received grants to complete a series of work from Petra, Jordan and Siwa and Luxor in Egypt. In 2013 she went to Udaipur, India to paint and gave a lecture on her work at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in Gujarat, India.
Robinson received her B.A. from Dartmouth College, studied at The Leo Marchutz School in Aix and Provence, France and spent a summer at The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture before receiving her M.F.A. from Washington University in St. Louis.
She has been an Associate Professor of Art at The American University in Cairo where she was Art Unit Head when they started the major in Art. She has also taught at The Colorado College, Marlboro College in Vermont and at Smith College among other places.
Her work has been exhibited in Egypt, Greece, Portugal, and the United States including Boston, Chicago, Colorado Springs, Hilo, New York City, and in St. Louis. She has also been part of multiple exhibits in Arizona, Kansas, and Vermont. She now lives and paints full time in Santa Fe, New Mexico.