mixed media artist, art, fine art, original art, whimsical art, animal art, imaginative art, unique art, primitive art, art prints, abstract expressionism, abstract expressionist landscapes, abstract art, colorist, colorful art, colorful paintings, Erika Stern art, Massachusetts artist, Massachusetts painter, Massachusetts south shore artist, Massachusetts south shore painter, colorful abstract art, colorful abstract landscape, abstract landscape painting, 

This is the work I'm currently most interested in making. Most of these pieces are loose landscapes; which probably interest me because Nature stands resolutely in the present moment, and She never fails to take me out of my pattern of overthinking things. Botanical shapes and earthforms consistently appear even in my most abstract pieces, whether I like it or not. My hand and brain seem particularly seduced by their unpredictability and untamed energy. The spatial layers in a natural landscape give me the opportunity in each painting to build up my own layers of paint, collage, and marks. Lately I've begun to use photographs from my own walks as inspiration, but many of the earlier landscapes are completely imagined.