ABOUT
Forrest Elliott is a contemporary painter exploring color relationships and how they are translated through the experience of seeing onto a two-dimensional surface.
He received his B.F.A. from the University of New Hampshire with a minor in History. His work has been featured in Clover + Bee, DesignSponge*, and Studio Visit, among other publications.
In addition to his painting practice, Forrest is the co-curator at Blue Door Gallery in York, Maine and also serves as a creative consultant and interior designer to number of private clients . His multidisciplinary approach allows him to bring a refined sense of color, composition, and atmosphere to both visual art and interior spaces.
Forrest is represented by Blue Door Gallery in York, Maine, Kennedy Gallery and Nahcotta in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. His work is held in private collections across the United States and internationally, including in Balmain, NSW, Australia, and Hong Kong, China.
He currently works full-time from his home studio in York, Maine.
STATEMENT
Painting challenges me to transcend the boundaries of my location and identity. Vibrant colors, subtle neutrals, design, movement and memory form the foundation of my approach as a colorist. Nuances of color and light are distilled to create essential forms within my work, sometimes allowing the viewer to see just enough.
Observation, invention, and memory coalesce in my process. Each helps inform decisions I make when creating sensitive palettes, the quality of a shape’s edge, or the compositional language of a painting. I revel in the notion that the electricity of a color or the sudden shift of the palette knife or brush across the canvas has the ability to alter our perception of reality. Painting, for me, is the act of translating the human experience of seeing onto a two dimensional surface.
Portrait & Studio Shot by Amy Caramihalis