About Mimi
Mimi painting at Artist Point with view of Mt. Shuksan.
STATEMENT
I love to paint landscapes in Plein Air when I can or in the studio on those cool and wet days. I am inspired by my walks in the forest, coast, or mountains of our beautiful state. The trees, the sun, the wind and water are primary sources of energy and inspiration for me. My medium is oil paint, and my tools are light, color, and movement. I do not want to recreate nature but to suggest an environment where the viewer has room to enter the painting through their own experience of time and place. Matisse, The Group of Seven, and Emily Carr are among the many artists who have inspired me to paint.
BIO
Mimi spent her early years in upstate New York where she developed a deep and abiding love for the out-of-doors. She spent free time climbing apple trees in the nearby orchard and exploring the marshy woods at the end of the street. Her early study of painting and drawing took place at University of Missouri in Columbia. The heartlands’ rural landscapes and the works of Regionalist Painters like Thomas Hart Benton and John Stuart Curry deepened her feeling for the landscape as subject. As an Art Educator for the Los Angeles Unified School District, Mimi was inspired by the colorful urban landscapes and seascapes of Los Angeles and the uninhibited joy of students’ creative expression. The many Art institutions of Los Angeles such as the LA County Museum of Art and The Getty Center were a great resource for her continuing arts education. Mimi currently lives in Bellingham Washington with her husband Victor who is an internationally published haiku poet. She enjoys exploring the landscapes of the Northwest and studying the paintings of the regional painters including Canadian Post-Impressionist painter Emily Carr. She paints with the Salish Sea Plein Air Painters, and the Plein Air Washington Artists. Her work has been shown locally at Allied Arts of Whatcom County, the Fourth Corner Frames and Gallery, the Harris Avenue Cafe and Tony’s Coffee House in Bellingham, Jansen Art Center in Lynden, River Gallery, Mt. Vernon, and the Scott Milo Gallery in Anacortes.
CONTACT
Follow me on Instagram: mimiortiz7
email: mimimortiz@gmail.com
or use the form below.