Earline Alson
Mosaic, 2015
chalk, pastel and watercolor on paper
26 x 28"
An alternative title for this painting is “Fallen Nature”, which brings to mind the urgent and radical changes that need to happen in human relationships to natural environments. Earline Alson’s paintings often begin with observations of the specific colors, shapes, patterns and textures of the natural world. Then, in a meditative process of experimentation, she allows the forms to flow and transform. She writes that her landscape paintings allow her “to connect with nature’s healing qualities, and my inner creative spirit, by visually expressing otherwise hidden emotions and thoughts.” Alson taught herself how to paint later in life. She had a long career (first in the US Army Medical Crop, and then as a hospital administrator), and then, in 2014, she suffered a hemorrhagic stroke and brain surgery, and began painting as part of her recovery.