Anita McComas

A focus on the artwork of the artist Anita McComas

Anita McComas views her work as an extension of her emotions, which give her work a power that speaks on her behalf. “It took me a long time to accept the idea that my artistic voice would only sing when I embraced who I really was as a painter,” says the artist. “I am an emotional painter; I feel my way around a painting, seeking to share my connection to the piece rather than seek perfection. My work is a compilation of seemingly random strokes, a story woven out of paint. It is a gestural creation, made with layers and layers of color and marks on canvas.”

Watching Water, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24"

She continues, “I have a lifelong connection to the land and its creatures, an extension from a childhood spent on the family farm in Maryland. This explains why subjects shift between wild animals and landscapes. I use the angles and assertions of larger brushes to define spaces and break up the image. This ‘breaking’ is represented by disappearing elements or marks of light, as if we are drifting in an out of a storm, or a ‘splash’ that may or may not have happened. Water or the suggestion of water is pervasive in most of my work. In any space that becomes abstracted, I seem to drift back to this element and its woven reflective qualities.”

I am Too Tired to Bother, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24"