Ana Elisa Benavent

I paint emotions, and I paint them in colors.

Joy, love, sorrow, frustration, excitement... A warm orange red cheers up a gloomy midnight blue. . . A big, bold, jealous deep purple takes over. . . Let’s invite a bit of white to make peace.

And so these large fields of color start talking to and playing with each other, layer over layer, foundation colors under translucent colors under contrasting colors, it’s all a moving target of shapes, lines, and textures. Rolling, brushing, dripping, spattering, slathering.

They all add up to tell the story. My story, your story.

Ana Elisa grew up in Mexico City and has lived in Alexandria, Virginia since 1999.

She spent 20 years as a marketing professional in Mexico and the US, working mostly for nonprofit organizations. During this time, she explored and studied different forms of art, including oil, mixed media, and silk painting.

She formally took up abstract art with Marsha Staiger at The Art League in Alexandria. She describes herself as a “color expressionist,” and is deeply influenced by the color field abstract masters.

Ana Elisa will have a solo exhibit at Foundry Gallery May 1-June 2, 2013.