abstract paintings Norma Alonzo
Norma Alonzo is an extraordinarily accomplished artist. She has been painting for over 25 years.
Initially, Alonzo was torn between professions - art or architecture.
She chose art, graduating from San Jose State University in San Jose California with a degree in Interior Design. After heading her own
design firm, her focus turned to the creation of fine art.
Under the mentorship of Richard Lees ( artist, and art historian of Pasadena, California), Alonzo was encouraged toward honesty in her painting - without judgement and without expectation. Lees stressed the importance of continuity of line and movement. Shapes must have meaning, color must move around the canvas, but more importantly, Lees taught Alonzo that it was up to her to work from her gut, or the subconscious, and to respect what unfolds.
“Painting for me is an exploration
and expression of the feeling, and
perhaps the understanding to our
state of being.”
Painting for me is an exploration and expression of the feeling, and perhaps the understanding to our state of being. It is a deeply personal intuitive expression of living in these times. Painting allows me to enter and explore my inner world of feelings, consciousness, and reason. My paintings reflect this push and pull, back and forth between opposites. Tension and energy accompanies hope, balance and peace through structure, space and color. Color is often a voice of possibility and joy. The lines are often a way to express the ebb and flow of life, the struggles and movement of living. Dark marks corral color and light and weave into the painting in a conversation of our life here in this moment.
It is not always the goal but as in life, we can find moments of balance and connection to our true selves.
I hope my paintings continue to evolve from a deeper place, communicating our shared experience of living.
Alonzo continues to study mid-century modern art with a focus on Matisse, Richard Diebenkorn, and Helen Frankenthaler. It is here that we find the link between the past and the present in Alonzo’s continued exploration of abstract modernism, and how it applies to our living in these times.