Olena McMurtrey Artist Interview!
One of my passions (besides curating Secession Art & Design) is interviewing creative people. I feel that hearing from our artists and diving deeper into their artistic practice gives me so much more insight into their work. I was thankful when Olena McMurtrey said yes to an interview. She really is living the best of two worlds between city life and a more rural setting. All art is available in our virtual gallery.
Happy Collecting, Eden
Ukrainian-American artist Olena McMurtrey says, "My mom said I started to try drawing at the age of 3, and by age 6, she had enrolled me in children's watercolor art school. Both my parents are trained in drawing and encourage me to keep practicing art.
I continued studying in the art school of a famous artist in Ukraine, Grigory Cherneta. One of my fond memories was the class when we painted "music." The music would play during the lesson, and we had to capture the feeling and mood in an abstract painting. I had my easel by the windows, and beyond music, I could hear a buzzing city. The city would create its own music with rushing cars, trains, and crowds. Many of my cityscapes are the journey of chasing the city's music and heartbeat.
My three favorite spots in the city for painting the San Francisco vista are Bernal Heights, Corona Heights, and Twin Peaks. The challenge is picking the time right after the rain and before sunset - the sky would be full of clouds to reflect the crimson of sunset, and the city would glow in the evening colors of golden sunlight.
In 2008 I moved from LA to San Francisco to continue my art education in an MFA program at the Academy of Art University. Shortly after I moved to SF I began to surf. I felt at home in the ocean. I can still remember the connection, power, and dynamic of the waves I rode and the ones I missed. Adding a touch of sand to my wave paintings reminds me of each beach I surfed. With tides, I can get a surprising variety of shades and colors of sand.
It took years to find the right materials to paint waves. I knew I wanted to use palette knives because they had more power and pressure than brushes. Art resin became popular as a non-toxic material, and once I tried it, my heart knew that I had found the depth for my waves. Learning the painting technique with capricious resin took time, building up layers by layers to achieve my design. I love tinting the resin myself to create the colors of the ocean from memory.
I am picky about my materials. I buy handmade Rosemary brushes from England. I used oil-based primer (I think it pulls shadows better). I get the handcrafted pigment pastes for resin from a woman in Australia.
My lifestyle for over a decade became split between the mountains of Tahoe and the city. I could not imagine my life without mountains, the ocean, and the city. I love spending the snowboarding season in Tahoe and the rest of the year in San Francisco. Riding snow feels a lot like surfing, and I adore the gentle colors of winter.
When the pandemic happened, for the first time, it was no longer safe to create in my shared art studio space in SF. My husband is also an artist and woodworker. Our goal was to find a place we could convert into our dream workspace and dive into our passion for the outdoors. Over a year ago, on the side of a mountain between Truckee and Reno, we found a home we could turn into our maker's paradise. It's on the same elevation as Truckee, about 5600 ft, a few miles from the end of the Tahoe National Forest border. It's an incredible sight where the forest meets the high desert, and the sky is big with a dramatic view of clouds rolling over the mountain's ridges. I have one room that is my dedicated studio, a living room rotating gallery, and a garage where I work on big cityscapes and waves.
Our apartment in SF is tiny, around 500 sq ft, but allows for me to keep one foot in the city. I continue to rent an art studio at Art Explosion. This is where I create my cityscapes in oils and acrylics. I share the floor space with many artists, inspired and connected to the local art community. I ride my bike in the city, and lots of inspiration came from these moments blended with traffic in the middle of the downtown streets. My art and personal life are the best of two worlds."
