Return to Reason is an exhibition by Pam Quataert, featuring her floral and botanical inspired paintings.

“In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, — no disgrace, no calamity (leaving me my eyes), which nature cannot repair.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Emerson described it so well.  Nature refreshes, restores, inspires, reassures.  I retired early after 26 rewarding years working as a mental health therapist.  Why?  To live full-time on a 30-acre nature preserve and to make paintings.  This exhibit is about nature: the feel, sounds, vitality, sensuous forms.

Sometimes when painting a subject (a native flower or landscape), triptychs or diptychs evolved to capture stages, rhythms and connections. Each painting developed as multiple layers of lush colors were added and subtracted using various tools.  The challenge was to capture in two dimensions the energy and depth of a 3-dimensional experience.

The “push-pull” influence of Abstract Expressionism is evident.  My work is influenced by many artists:  Willem deKooning, Joan Mitchell, Gerhard Richter, Paul Cezanne, Georges Braque, Gerhard Richter, Wolf Kahn . . .

ABOUT THE ARTIST