Florida Artist Alexis Baranek has spent over thirty-five years learning and growing as an artist. She was born and raised in St. Augustine, Florida - the Nation's oldest city and very inspirational from an artistic standpoint. A basically shy nature, a tendency to be emotional and a love for other people as well as animals, the beauty all around us, gardens, mountains, seashores, art, and music - all contribute in some way to her art. She now lives in Lake City, Florida, with her husband, on five acres in the country. She is self-taught and has studied the works and techniques of many other artists over the years while developing her own styles and techniques.
Alexis has found success and satisfaction in the increasing interest in her work from other artists as well as non-artists. She is a member of a number of online art groups where her work has been very well received, achieving top rankings. She was a featured artist for January on Art Epiphany and her work was chosen for the cover of the newsletter. She has currently been working on a series of realistic and impressionistic landscapes based on things she can see from her own home as well as landscapes of other places she has visited over the years.
Although landscapes are her first love and she is experiencing success with these, she has branched out into mixed-media collage pieces which incorporate such elements as hand-made oriental papers, sand, powdered pigments, tiny glass beads and bits of tinsel and wire, combined with acrylic mediums, paints and metallic accents. These rich textures with transparent layering create an amazing sculptured surface that is more appreciated in person than in a photograph.
These mixed media pieces are sometimes totally abstract, sometimes semi-representational and sometimes in the form of what could be described as "fantasy landscapes", with such elements as copper metallic tree trunks and branches and golden highlights in foliage. Alexis is looking forward to trying many new ideas she has floating around in her head and to growing even more as an artist.
Her work can now be found in collections of people in many parts of the United States as well as Canada. She sells her work from her website at http://www.baraneks.com as well as through various other online art sites, by word of mouth and through local exhibits.
"Flower Fantasy" 18 x 24 Acrylic and mixed media on canvas
"Beach Living" 18 x 24 Oil on wrapped canvas - inspired by Long Island Sound
in the summer. Size 600x451 pixels
"Morning Surprise" Acrylic/collage on Pintura Archival Panel 14 x 18. Size 600x466 pixels
"Farm and Home" 22 x 28 Acrylic on Canvas
"Looking Glass Falls" - 12 x 16 Acrylic on canvas. Size 600x449 pixels
I'm always inspired by the relaxing yet invigorating energy of waterfalls. This one in Pisga National Forest in North Carolina is well known and we visited on a very cold day in October. I was very inspired by the wonderful textures in the "wall" of rock.
"Autumn Panorama." 18 x 24, oil. Inspired once again by the colors of fall in the vast mountain landscape of beautiful views and open spaces. Size 600x454 pixels
"Cottage on the Creek" 20 x 24 Acrylic on Canvas
"Anna Maria Island Sunset" 18 x 24 Oil on Pintura Panel
"Late Day Glow" 18 x 24 Oil on Pintura Panel
"View From Home" 11 x 14 Acrylic on Pintura Panel
"Long Island Shores" - 24 x 30 acrylic on wrapped canvas
"Windblown" - 24 x 30 on canvas acrylic and mixed media collage
"Sunny Forest" - 12 x 16 metallic trees and some oriental paper collage for texture. The paper is not very apparent but it does add dimension
"Floral Explosion" - 18 x 24 Acrylic, oriental paper, glitter and metallics on wrapped canvas.
