Biography
Courtney is an artist living and working in Downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. Her artwork is inspired by everyday life, mixed with deeper more meaningful themes. “Meditation and mindfulness are reoccurring practices I use to stimulate my inner creativity. Living in our current electronically fueled cultural climate, my intentions with this body of work are to redirect our awareness, and reconnect us with the natural world.”
“While learning oil painting techniques in art school, I found myself becoming strongly influenced by artists such as Chuck Close and Kehinde Wiley, and how they paint portraiture so hyperrealistically. Their subjects look and feel alive. I greatly admires the talent and technical aspects that these artists employ, painting with a naturalistic attention to detail. After graduating with my BFA, I began teaching art, as well as exploring her own artistic practice. Through a series of realistic oil paintings, I began to develop a personal language to better express my feelings and ideas. I characterize my artistic style as Contemporary Photorealism.”
“My current collection includes a series of paintings and drawings; photorealistic studies of reflective surfaces and scenes observed in nature. I have always felt inspired by the imagery of a reflective surface. Subjects like chrome, water, glass, foil balloons, and marbles are all subjects I’m naturally drawn to as an artist. My interpretation of imagery is realistic, but conveys emotion through composition and use of color. One of my goals; to create an emotional response, by showing something familiar, in a new way.”