Michele Montalbano

Background

Michele Montalbano is a painter whose work is inspired by nature and everyday objects. She has an MFA from George Washington University. Her work has been exhibited in the Washington D.C. area including solo shows at The Arlington Arts Center in Virginia and Hillyer Art Space in Washington, D.C. Montalbano was a 2019 Trawick Semi-Finalist.

Philosophy

Michele is a California native, who grew up outdoors, inherently drawn to nature. She feels the need to depict a world that honors nature’s beauty, and provides hope and a momentary escape from a chaotic ever-changing world — for her as the artist, as well as for the viewer.

She strives to bring some of the sensual beauty of nature to the surface of the canvas with the rich colors and layered textures that oil paint allows.

Her current series of oil paintings, is the marriage of the traditional landscape narrative expressing the beauty, power, and vulnerability within nature, and an imaginative memory inducing subject. The paintings are made in a slow, contemplative process, beginning with an invented digital image, building up marks, removing and adding layers resulting in a credible space that elicits her relationship with nature.