“What You See,” a solo exhibition by Teresa Mason. Located in the Maxwell Gallery
Reception is Wednesday, October 4, 2023, from 5 to 7 pm and coincides with the MSFF Art Exhibition Schedule
“The question is not what you look at, but what you see”  - Henry David Thoreau
Artists look at the world around them in different ways. To complicate this further, every artist can look at the same thing and see it differently. As a portrait artist, "I can look at a cat sunning herself on a porch. My mind begins to break the sunlight into patterns that define the shape of the cat’s head and the texture of her coat. Perhaps a whisker is lit by the sun against a shaded area. Little discoveries like these are treasures for me. It’s exciting to paint them! They make the cat come to life. I start to look for diagonal lines or repeated shapes that would give strength to the composition. If I like what I see I take a photo to use as a reference. The cat sunning herself is what I look at…but there is so much more to see! The paintings in my exhibit come from many different reference sources. Of course I would like to take all the photos myself but that’s not possible. My recent work is moving in a more creative direction as far as color and light. Painting people is a new adventure also. Art keeps challenging the artist much like Thoreau’s writing." - Teresa Mason