Maria Pierides
Contemporary abstract painter. Based in Wales with regular exhibitions in London, Vienna, Brighton and of course Wales.
MessageMaria Pierides trained as an artist and art psychotherapist and worked in the NHS for a number of years. She is now devoting herself full time to her art at her studio in the foothills of the Brecon Beacons. Living within earshot of a running stream, she explores in paint the texture and temporality of human experience. Building up and scraping back areas of paint to capture the atmosphere, mass, light and poetry of the landscapes she is aiming to represent, Maria's work seamlessly connects inner and outer worlds.
Maria’s painting has been shortlisted for the Society of Women Artists Open, Royal West of England Academy, Bentley Open Art Prize, The Maidstone Museum, The British Women Artists Competition and the East Meets West Art Award, as well as being Longlisted for the Threadneedle Prize and The Royal West Academy. She recently won a Scholarship and International Exhibition Prize with the Visual Artists Organisation and will have her prize winning painting taken to The Other Art Fair, London 2023.
Maria is also a member of the Free Painters and Sculptors and Flux Exhibitions in London and exhibits nationally and internationally with work in private collections in the UK, USA and Europe.
Statement
In my paintings, I render in colour the stories of the physical and emotional landscapes that formed my experience of being born in Greece and then growing up in England and Cyprus, and now living and working in Wales. The actual process of my painting relates to this theme, as I use mixed media, building up and scraping back areas of paint to capture the atmosphere, mass, and light of the landscapes I am trying to depict.
The actual process of my painting relates to this theme, as I use mixed media, building up and scraping back areas of paint to capture the atmosphere, mass, and light of the landscapes I am aiming to depict . In the series ‘The Gloaming,’ I explore ways of bringing these landscapes together and play with the similarities and contrasts: How being caught between two time perspectives – the Eastern Mediterranean is two hours ahead of England – two different kinds of light, two different cultures, results in both a feeling of richness and diversity of experience as well as a search for rootedness in the moment and in space.
Dusk and the changes in light between sunset and darkness capture this feeling of ‘homelessness’ and search for ‘home.’ On the other hand, in the plays of light, in exploring ways of translating experiences and representing them in paint on the canvas, there is a liberating beauty too. In the 'Ithaca’ series, inspired by the Greek Poet Konstantinos Kavafis’ poem ‘Ithaca,’ I follow the theme further, exploring different possibilities of rootedness/rootlessness and the riches of the search for home.
My later series, 'Time and Tide’ takes the theme further to a broader exploration of the temporal aspect of human experience and its relationship with nature, and the recent addition of gold leaf and metal in my work is inspired by time spent in Venice, visiting the Biennale, and Byzantine Iconography.
Work held in private collections in the U.K, USA, and Europe.
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