About the artist
Shelley Moskowitz Lowenstein (aka Mosklow) is a keen observer of people and places. She has a passion for capturing moments in time, scenes of people engaged in the casual interactions that course through everyday life. She focuses on gesture and body language, and delights in exploring the relationships between her figures, how they look at one another, how they stand or sit in relation to one another, incorporating all these impressions onto the canvas. Using the interplay of light and shadow, she paints scenes that hit the pause button on the hustle of a typical day.
Color is essential in Lowenstein’s paintings. Her work escapes from dullness and celebrates the simple pleasures of life with color, energy, and intensity. And she delights in creating some mystery. By rarely rendering the full features of a figure’s face, Lowenstein depicts what she observes, even what she thinks people are thinking and feeling, but leaving it to the onlooker to fill in the blanks.
In short, she paints stories.
Lowenstein started working in oils about a decade ago, after years away from art. She studied with nationally recognized narrative painter, Katherine Freeman, and has subsequently studied with California impressionists Peggy Kroll Roberts and Camille Prezwodak, Washington, DC area realists like Diane Tesler and Ed Ahlstrom, and colorist Walt Bartman. All of these gifted teachers have helped Lowenstein build technical skills and learn to “see.”
Other important influencers of her work are the narratives, family scenes and colors of Fairfield Porter, the edginess and craftsmanship of Larry Rivers, the harsh realism of Alice Neel, and the subtle abstractions of the brilliant SC Yuan.
Lowenstein has exhibited her paintings in juried, group and solo shows. Her paintings are held in private collections here and abroad and she has completed several commissions. |
