Artist Statement
New Brunswick Panorama is an installation of seascape and landscape paintings of New Brunswick from St. Andrews to Hopewell Rocks painted on location and from my photos. I started painting with the Plein Air Painters of the Bay of Fundy in 2010 and fell in love with New Brunswick and her incredible coastline. I have made several trips to discover and to paint and photograph along the coast of New Brunswick during the last two and a half years, and I am in awe of the drama and changing weather and tides. The quiet and color draw me back time and time again.
My panorama installation projects began when I was preparing my work for a show one day and I noticed that the similar horizon lines of my landscape paintings made a new landscape when placed side by side. This new landscape happened regardless of the different subject in each painting. I then imagined a long line of landscapes in a large space and how that line would draw the viewer in and out of each piece and back to the whole leading one as a journey. The individual works vary from beach to cliff to countryside. My focus in each painting is on color, light, the relation of shapes and sense of place. The subjects for my paintings come from having traveled in New Brunswick since 2010 and discovering the dramatic and beautiful coastline. I bring my vision and experience of the place to the viewer and I hope these works make you experience New Brunswick as I have.
Biography
Caren-Marie Michel’s work explores the urban, industrial, and pastoral images of Maine and documents the ever-changing landscape in paint. Michel is a devoted plein air painter and lifelong Maine resident. She received her B.F.A. in painting from Portland School of Art (now Maine College of Art) and has exhibited in juried and group shows in Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, and the Salmagundi Club in New York City. In 2008, Michel was commissioned to paint three large landscape paintings for the new Mercy Hospital Fore River building’s main lobby in Portland, Maine.