Marie Cole

Artist Statement

Born in Southern New Jersey, Marie moved to New York City after high school, and then to the Hudson Valley in 1963. Cole earned a BA at Vassar College where she studied art and taught at Dutchess Community College for several years before becoming a full time painter. Classes at the Woodstock School of Art continue to inspire her creativity, especially printmaking with Kate McGloughlin. Eric Aho influenced her work through workshops in Italy, Canada and Vermont. Travels through the United States, Europe, Mexico, Scotland and South Africa also impacted her work. The artist paintings build on her experiences of the sea, rivers, mountains, marshes and farmland. Water and weather are two constant and significant themes.

“The windows of my studio face the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains. Storms that come down the river are incredibly intense – rain comes down in sheets, and thunder and lightning roll across the mountains. In winter, ice forms and cracks and shifts on the river and snow blankets everything in white. The chilly weather of fall and winter are especially exciting times of year to paint and a challenge to see how much color can be found in the landscape. Summer and fall months provide brilliant, intense color. The process of painting is important to me, I love the paint, thick or thin, the viscosity, piled up in layers or scraped down to the canvas, creating texture or smoothness. Paint creates light and shadow, yet if you look closely, it is still just paint.”

Marie exhibits at galleries throughout the East coast and participates in the Art Studio Views open studio tour. Her paintings are in private collections from coast to coast. Her home and studio are in a renovated warehouse in Germantown on the Hudson River.