Colleen Herman

b. Baltimore, MD, 1982

Colleen Herman is an artist whose richly colored, blooming abstractions reflect seasonal changes and natural growth. Pouring, scribbling, and dabbing paint with her fingers, Herman embraces a process that is highly intuitive and playful. In her canvases, she layers soft washes of paint with sharp calligraphic whirls of oil pastel. These energetic textural interventions contrast with spans of wood, canvas, or linen, where the substrate is intentionally left bare. Herman has spent time in Oaxaca and Mexico City, and now lives and works between New York City and the Hudson Valley. The artist takes inspiration from the landscapes of all four places, alternatively tranquil, vibrant, and frenetic.

Herman says that exploring the world with her hands has always felt natural and has stated that “The media I’m drawn to using has a directness and a vitality. Touching and moving color around, allowing relationships to form, is a very sensual experience.” Herman’s compositions reflect this bodily intimacy while also exploring the passage of time and nature’s seasonal personalities. She conjures gardens, thickets, wilderness, and cloudy skies.