Meet artist Mandy Budan from Pickering, Ontario, Canada. She paints abstracts of the landscape, emphasizing and rearranging the elements to show the beauty of the landscape in unexpected ways. Inspired by nature, she uses strong colour, discrete shapes and rhythmic patterns to create paintings which can be enjoyed for both their abstract and realistic qualities.

ompany Name: budanArt

Preferred Medium: Acrylic on wood

Favorite Tools?: My tiny little brushes and my stay-wet palette

What would you call your ‘style’? Abstracted realism may be the best way to describe it.

What are you currently working on? I’m working on a 30 x 40 tree in the forest with lost of dappled light and bits of sky amongst the greenery

What is a favorite piece of art you created and why? I really tend to like the painting I’m working on a the moment the best because I’m sure this time I will eliminate all the flaws that are in my previous paintings! If I have to pick a favorite, I’ll say my latest sunflower painting – Summer in the Garden.

Who are your art heroes? Emily Carr for sheer audacity in tackling the huge and imposing British Columbia forests and who was successful at conveying the immense-ness of them. Chuck Close for seeing the human head as a landscape and then deconstructing it further into abstract lozenges. Lawren Harris for stylizing the Canadian landscape and imposing a delightful sense of colour onto it.

What qualities make your art distinctively you? I think my hard-eged shapes and flat colour are important aspects of my painting.

Where do you create?  Currently, a small corner of my basement – one day, a real studio.

When do you create? I do the lion’s share of my painting during business hours when the rest of my family is at work and school.

Do you sketch or keep an idea journal? Sort of. I have a lot of photos I go through for inspiration and then I create small painted sketches before embarking on a larger painting, but I don’t spend time sketching for sketchings sake. I do like to fool around on my ipad a bit but mostly I just want to be making actual paintings.

What do you do when you hit a creative block? If I don’t feel like working I find that if I just push through and start painting the feeling goes away. I think that’s the closest I’ve come to a creative block.

Standing Room Only

What other things do you like to do creatively? I used to work full time as a graphic designer and I still like to design occasionally but painting takes up most of my creative fire.

Tell us about any commercial art endeavors: I’m very happy that people want to use my work for their products so I’ve licensed book covers, note cards, puzzles and canvas prints. I think it’s a great way to advertise and I think it’s helped get my name out a bit.

See more of Mandy’s work on her

Tags:acrylic painting, Mandy Budan, meet the artist, Nature Art