Join the Santa Clarita Artists Association Monday, June 17, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., at Barnes and Noble Valencia for its monthly meeting, where it will feature Annette Power.

The event is free to the public.

Power sees her artwork as a love letter to living, her way of processing what it means to be here. Capturing life’s colorful moments and shining a light on the beauty that is found in the everyday experience helps Annette connect to our shared experience.

Power’s early creative pursuits started in Sweden on a picturesque island where nature and art, were her constant companions along with creating experiences and plays, but she longed for more, (needed to get away) and to see more of the world. So, at 17 Annette was on her way to the States to study. Her early passion for acting turned out to be helpful when she later started working in Animation as a background painter using color and light to set a mood to help tell the story.

Light has long fascinated her– the drama it creates in a painting, how it reminds her that there is hope even through darkness. It’s joyful, like her childhood memory of diving through seaweed in the Baltic Sea with rays of sun piercing through the water, and visually not possible without a dark counterpart. Light and dark, are our companions on life’s journey and elements that are important in my work.

Power works in oils and acrylics to create paintings in mixed media. Painting on location is an invitation to be fully alert and present in the moment. When in the studio, she experiments. Power’s current focus is on finding her sweet spot between realism and abstraction. How to combine the depth and accuracy of realism with the flatness and design of abstraction?

“I play with mark making, using acrylics and inks, pastels and pens moving paint freely or carefully using stencils on top of bits of collage papers and fabric to start,” Power said.

This becomes her base layer before working to find something, a recognizable subject through the shapes and colors. Or she starts with a layer of colors teasing out a subject as seen in her award winning piece Truxplorations, 16×16” oil.

The challenge of creating an interesting visual space drives Power. Leading a viewer through the image is like curating a visual experience that she hopes surprises both the viewer and herself.

For more information about SCAA and the SCAA Gallery, visit santaclaritaartists.org.

Funding partially provided by Solar Optimum via the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture Public Art in Private Development Program.

For more information about SCAA and the SCAA Gallery, visit santaclaritaartists.org.

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