Cameron Schmitz

I use mark-making to express the constantly moving, changing, and morphing of life, leaving observers certain that they are witnessing merely a fleeting moment in time. As an artist, I’m deeply fascinated by imagery and color relationships that emerge when working intuitively, and from the physical act and emotive process of painting itself. Dashes of paint, gestural strokes, and rhythmic painterly marks orchestrated in harmony, become both representations and symbols of human touch, personal exchange, energy, and time.

My pathway into abstraction stems from my background in both landscape and figurative painting, both of which remain a steady influence and inspiration of mine. I remain fascinated by gesture and the figurative aspects visible in nature, such as the way tree branches appear to reach out to each other, as if yearning to touch and connect.

My painting is a metaphor for my perception of life, inspired by the tender relationships in my life, and rooted in notions of touch, love, and wonder that I experience as a woman, mother, artist, and humble observer of the world. I have found that being a parent has heightened my senses and my desire to move beyond literal forms and clarified my motivation to express joy, wonder, and a contented unknowing about life, which is messy and intense, but always potent with exceptional beauty. It is this very uncertainty that I embrace while painting intuitively and abstractly because it allows me to relinquish control and give way for my painting to become a deeper poetic dialogue between me, the material, and the viewer.

Floral Series 2024 Over the past 10 years I have primarily worked in the mode of intuitive abstract painting, where my motifs slowly emerge over time without any preconceived compositions or plans for what a painting would eventually become. My recent flower bouquet paintings take on a different approach.

This series has been driven by a direct response to my unfolding artistic inspiration from the inward and outward expressiveness of flower bouquets. I observe each bouquet as a visual delight of form, color, and texture, and I interpret each bouquet as a unique embodiment of attitude and sensitive existence in the world.

These paintings are in an inevitable conversation with a genre of painting that has historical significance. I nod the historical artistic fascination of flowers and the artists that have come before me, as well as the varied cultural and personal contexts in which we experience and relate to flower bouquets.

Mark-making as a language of human expression remains essential to my work. I’m fascinated by what emerges from the physical and emotive act of painting itself. Dashes of paint, gestural strokes, and lyrical, painterly marks tell a story— orchestrated by movement, intuition, and the shifting of time.

~Cameron Schmitz

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