Creative online platform Fleur and Arbor regularly share their space with selected photographers and female artists. I was approached by them a month ago to see if I’d be interested in featuring on their website. I was and this week I am delighted to be their guest artist.
Completing their questionnaire about my work, influences and how I came to paint abstracts was interesting and useful. I’m convinced that it’s beneficial for artists to occasionally take stock and consider how and why they do what they do. You can read my own responses to these considerations at the Fleur and Arbor website on the link below:
Mari French RI : contemporary artworks 
Joan Eardley’s raw expression of wild elements, and traces of people who live and work amongst them, were essential to finding my own direction too. I think I was drawn to your work because of that recognition, and others who also are concerned with evoking a visceral experience, beyond flat aesthetics. Textures, natural forces and energy that shape these places. Really interesting to read Mari, thanks for sharing.
Thanks very much for your considered and interesting response to my post Phil. I love the way you’ve summed up my way of painting. Would you mind if I quote part of your comment on my website? Best wishes, Mari
You’re very welcome, I’m glad that I read your work with similar meaning to your own. It’s hard sometimes to know why some audiences seem to miss what we think we’re saying, and it’s probably about context of where it’s shown, and having a clear identity in a substantial body of work. Afraid my words read a bit jumbled, think I must have skipped some inadvertently. Think it was “Textures here speak for the natural forces and energy that shape these places. ” Looking forward to your next Mari, and feel prodded to get doing of my own stuff.