Marilyn Banner “Still at the Edge”

Ceres Gallery

[Image: Marilyn Banner “Red” encaustic on wood, 12 x12 in.]

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Marilyn Banner ‘s work with water and the water’s edge began in 2011. She was moved to capture the tones and mysterious strips of color that moved from the sand at her feet across the water to the other shore and to the horizon.

She finds ways to be at the water’s edge for a time each year. Her experience there is so profound that she takes in many layers of inspiration and nourishment from the air, the sound of the wind and the waves, the feel of sand underfoot, and the bits of “stuff” glimpsed as she walks along the edge.

“The paintings in Still at the Edge reference nature in its abundance, especially in its myriad forms, variations, textures, proliferations, and directions of growth. I draw on the sunlight dotting the water, the barnacles on shells, seaweed scattered here and there, spiraling shell forms, watermarks, the bubbles in sea foam, and most compelling recently, the infinite grains of sand.

I trust a way of working that relies on an inner knowing, a body/psyche knowledge of the connections of everything in nature. Here in this work sea foam begins to look like blood cells, water paths remind one of neurons, sand grains become mitochondria, and spiral shells begin to suggest nebulae. Sandscapes have become inner body-scapes and outer space-scapes. Everything is connected in form.”

Marilyn Banner lives and works in Takoma Park, Maryland. She exhibits her work frequently, most recently at Delaplaine Center for the Arts and Adkins Arboretum Gallery, both in Maryland, and at McLean Project for the Arts in Virginia. Her work is in many public and well over 100 private collections.