Greta Van Campen

Greta Van Campen is an artist based in Maine and is known for a hard-edged graphic approach to representation. She has spent a great deal of time traveling across the United States sourcing inspiration from the landscapes, small towns, and cities throughout America. She starts each painting working from her own photographs and sketches, first deciding on large compositional elements and dynamic lines, then painting in layers and masking off areas and adding smaller details as she continues. This distilled and stylized approach imbues her traditional subject matter with a freshness and modernity. As Van Campen explains, she “figure(s) out how to recreate a version of the natural, atmospheric place by turning it into a more geometric, color and balance-driven scene that is hopefully appealing, interesting, and authentic.”

Submitted by Octavia Art Gallery