Biography

Maia grew up in the Yaak River Valley in northwestern Montana and didn’t have electricity until she was in high school. She was always creative, so was in no way bothered by this. By the age of 8, she had concluded that her hair would never grow long enough for her to become a mermaid, so she decided to become an artist.

In high school and college, Maia had the opportunity to single handedly paint several large murals. This helped her to get comfortable doing large work. She also designed and made the majority of her clothing, sometimes knitting through classes.

Maia majored in Art at UC Santa Cruz, doing a semester abroad in the South of France, where she was offered an art scholarship to the Marchutz School of Painting and Drawing in Aix-en-Provence. She loved the structured instruction, life drawing, and cultural experience. She also relished being immersed in the land of the impressionists. Seeing inspiration on every corner, she also made lifelong friendships.

Upon returning to the states, Maia began doing juried art festivals. From her early twenties she was able to fully support herself (and later her family) as an artist. She continued to travel extensively, living in places as varied as the California foothills, England, Italy, and the Bay Area.

Maia purchased her first home in Montana, with the proceeds of her hand painted silks. However, upon marrying, she found she needed to up the ante and switched back to oils. She currently resides just outside of Sandpoint, Idaho, where she built a home, studio, and massive garden.

Maia has participated in nearly all of the top-rated art festivals in the country. Her artwork resides in many private collections, some celebrity homes, and a few corporate headquarters. Maia feels extremely privileged to be able to bring joy and beauty to people’s lives. She also feels a sense of awe that she is able to create work that will continue to exist and be treasured long after she is gone.

Maia feels that art is essentially a language, a way of expressing her view of the world to others.  As with learning a language, it takes a great deal of time and effort to become truly fluent, and there’s always more to learn. However, once fluent, she need only think about what she wants to say, not how to say it… and there’s always so much beauty in the world to talk about!–

Process statement

My work is done in oil, which I execute on a burnt sienna ground using small brushes and fat, full bodied paint and an impasto technique. This creates an underlying warmth to the painting while also “underlining’’ each brushstroke, causing it to pop. I also work with a limited palette, mixing the primaries (warm and cool) to create complex color.

I tend to break a composition into simple shapes. My goal is basically to capture the poetry rather than the prose…the feeling of place rather than every mundane detail. I use vibrant, complex color to capture the peaceful yet energizing effect of nature.

I am frequently asked to define the style I paint in, and the simple answer is that it is just “me.” However, every artist is influenced by what came before them and what resonates with them personally (even on a subconscious level). My work is often compared to the Canadian Group of Seven. I also frequently hear references to Maxfield Parrish, Van Gogh, and Birger Sandzen, along with Monet, Cezanne, and the French impressionists in general, all of whom I love. I studied in the South of France, after all!

If I was asked to coin a phrase for my artistic style, I would probably call it “Linear Impressionism.” I have a linear element to my work from years of silk painting with lines of resist. I appreciate the Impressionists’ use of complex color, and the grasping for feeling rather than extreme detail. I have sought to emulate these elements in my own work, while at the same time staying true to my own voice and saying something new.