Day 33/100: Marianne Nielsen and Valerie Butters
Encouraging Two Artists Who Make Gestures Matter
Today, I am celebrating Marianne Nielsen and Valerie Butters, two artists who produce deeply soulful works with their gestural painting styles.
I’m thrilled that they will be joining me in the online show, Square Foot Show: In Bloom with Debbie Miller & Friends, that starts on March 30, 2022.
Marianne Nielsen
Canadian-born artist Marianne Nielson currently lives and creates in a small community west of Ottawa.
As a child, Marianne didn’t think she was good at art, so she wasn’t that interested. Her creativity expressed itself through needlework, knitting, crocheting, and playing the piano.
But, in 2016, after a difficult time in her life, Marianne began painting as part of a healing process. Since then, she’s taken many courses to develop her skills, but the impulse to paint is deeply connected to her inner journey.
She feels the most connected to her authentic self when she’s in her home studio, creating expressively abstract art in acrylics.
While seemingly non-representational, Marianne’s work explores the patterns, colors and movement found in the natural realm around her. Clouds, rain, stars and more make an appearance, carrying with them the emotions associated with each. Music plays a large role in her daily practice, influencing the fluidity and movement of her art.
Marianne is especially inspired by night skies, which fill her with wonder. During the summer months, she sits outside, staring up and imagining all the color and beauty that lies beyond our perception.
She creates in acrylics, sometimes using markers and inks as well. She says that she would love to paint in oils, but she’s not patient enough. The fast-drying nature of acrylics suits her process well.
Marianne’s artwork comes from deep within her heart and soul. It is her inner world and the energetic connection to all that she feels and sees that comes forth in her paintings. She hopes that viewers will connect with her artwork at a deep level and find peace within.
Valerie Butters
Canadian artist, Valerie Butters is the daughter of Lise Butters, another artist in the floral Square Foot Show. Isn’t it fun that this will be the first art show that these mother and daughter artists will be participating in together??
Valerie’s dad was a fighter pilot in the Canadian Air Force as she was growing up. They moved regularly for his assignments, mostly in Canada, but also a stint in Germany. As an only child, adjusting to new environments regularly, watercolors were one of her most reliable companions. Starting in her pre-teen years, she would often paint, generally trying to copy a scene or reference image.
After high school, she spent 3 years in the military. It wasn’t a great fit for her, and when she left, she traveled, eventually living in Greece. As she thought about her future, she decided that she wanted to offer more to the world and be successful at something. And she thought her best bet to achieve this goal might be art.
She flew back to Canada and enrolled in the Ottawa School of Art before completing a three-year Comprehensive Arts Program at the Saidye Bronfman Centre, in Montreal. Upon graduation, she had initial success in the galleries of Montreal and elsewhere. But the gallery scene at that time felt complicated and controlling.
Needing a change, craving the solitude to un-learn some lessons and discover new ones, she relocated with her husband to Pemberton, BC, which is north of Vancouver in the coastal mountains. She’s been there for 10 years — the longest she’s ever lived anywhere.
Now she paints predominantly with acrylics with drawing media, oil bars, and collage elements thrown in from time to time.
Valerie’s paintings were described by British Vogue magazine as “fearlessly feminine” — a description that fits her well. Her creative superpower is her fearlessness in her artmaking. She is a bold, gestural painter, who loves to make decisive marks that dance in conversation with one another. She’s not afraid to make mistakes in a painting — and equally liberating, she’s not afraid to make a good painting, either.
Her style is deeply influenced by the automatist artists. She tries not to be controlled by pre-conceived notions or a desired end-game when she works. Instead, she holds an idea that connects her to her subject and motivates her gestures.
For example, if she’s painting a tulip, she might be thinking about the violence required for the tulip to burst out of it’s bulb and push its way through a wintery surface. That journey, that determination, that beauty that comes in such an unlikely way — these ideas guide her more than the physical representation of a tulip.
Valerie is currently taking University poetry classes online. She finds that there is a beautiful symbiosis between poetry and her approach to painting.
I totally get that, because I’m crazy about her paint poems. I find her to be an inspiring figure in the contemporary art community, and I can’t wait to see what she creates next!
How You Can Be an Encouragement
Please check out Marianne and Valerie’s work on social media, follow them, and send them notes of encouragement today.
Also, you can purchase some of their floral work at great prices at the Square Foot Show: In Bloom with Debbie Miller and Friends, starting March 30, 2022 through April 1, 2022.
Marianne Nielsen
Instagram: @marianne.h.nielsen.art
Website: www.mariannehnielsen.com
Valerie Butters
Instagram: @valeriebutters
Website: www.valeriebutters.com