Andrea Pramuk's mixed-media paintings captivate the imagination. The bold, saturated hues, the freeform yet deliberate compositions, the notion that anything can happen as you picture her standing over a canvas, pouring acrylics and inks to her heart’s content. Light and ephemeral in appearance, Andrea’s abstract mixed-media paintings are actually quite meaningful and reflect clear muses: her life experiences, nature, even world affairs - all in abstract form. But the most wonderful part about them if you ask me are her striking color combinations—deep indigos, rich magentas and juicy greens just to name a few. She's fearless with color (something I strive to be) - no color too rich, too vibrant, or too bold. When others would water it down, she goes further, brighter, bolder.
I also love all the movement in her work. It reminds me of flowing silk scarves draped in the wind & droplets of food coloring dissolving into a glass of water. Her exact materials and techniques are always evolving, but she's currently using drawing and painting inks of all sorts along with fluid acrylics to get those intensely fabulous colorways and textural effects. And all of these mixed-media are likely mingling on her favorite material, Ampersand Claybord. The result is an explosion of color—contemporary, abstract and filled with tons of emotion.
What’s especially fascinating about the Austin-based artist is that she came to her medium out of necessity. Always an artist, she lost much of the fine motor skills in her hands after having a serious surgery years ago and spent a long time exploring ways to paint with limited use of a brush. She was relentless in her pursuits, and I admire her for it. Though she was formally trained at Kansas City Art Institute and the University of Texas at Austin, she lives by the notion that once you learn the rules, you can learn how to break them. I think the same is true of interior design - oftentimes I may have a 'rule' that I bend or break to create a specific look or feel. Without any rules, there's chaos, but when there are guides, you can break some rules to create an emotional & visceral response.
Andrea left her corporate career working with art materials when she could no longer tame her creative spirit, and we’re so glad she took that leap of faith. On her website, she describes her art studio as a chemistry lab and admits: “I would like to think my process is about chance and letting that happen, but I know better. I do things with paint you generally should not do and I exert quite an amount of control over it.” In other words, she’s my kind of gal - breaking the rules and subduing it for aesthetic pleasure.
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