The Livingston Public Library opens the New Year with a display of the quirky and vibrant paintings of award-winning Roseland-based artist Evan Stuart Marshall.
Evan is best known for his whimsical, vividly colored mixed-media abstract paintings. Largely self-taught, his work has been featured in many exhibitions, both solo and group, and is held in many private collections around the world. Evan has received numerous awards for his work, including the Mary Koether Merit Award from the West Essex (New Jersey) Art Association. His art is carried by major national online retailers including Homesquare, Houzz, Kmart, Overstock, Pier 1, Sears, Walmart and Wayfair. Evan teaches classes in mixed-media abstracts for the Livingston Arts Association.
The works in this exhibit are examples of Evan’s experiments with nontraditional color combinations and unexpected media mixtures. He works mostly in acrylics but often incorporates a great variety of media—whatever will give him the effect he’s after: acrylic paint, oil paint, cold wax, markers, ink, collage, graphite, gouache, pastels, found objects, and mark-making tools from nails to plastic wrap to coffee-cup sleeves. His paintings consist of many layers, so that various shapes and colors shine through the surface for added detail and interest.
For example, in his painting Oil and Water, he used a foundation of acrylic and gouache paint, then hand-blended numerous shades of water-soluble wax crayons into one another to evoke the “rainbow” found in an oil puddle.
In his assemblage piece Life Is a Game, he combined game pieces, playing cards, money, found objects, and even a photograph of himself as a baby to express his views about fate and destiny.
Evan has been making things with his hands his entire life. As a young child, he created comic books and marble-roll “machines” for his cousins. In junior high school, he painted “psychedelic” posters for his friends. As an adult, he experimented with landscape, still life and nature art before discovering his true passion: abstract art.
Evan’s collectors call his art “happy art,” which is true: it reflects his optimism about life and our ability to find joy anywhere. He expresses these feelings using colors that are vividly bright—sometimes even fluorescent—and combine in unexpected ways.
“I live in rural New Jersey not far from New York City, so I draw my inspiration from the energy of the city and the tranquility of the country,”says Evan.
The exhibit can be viewed during library hours until the end of January.
If you have questions about these pieces or about Evan’s classes, please email him at evan@evanstuartmarshall.com.
-Archana, Adult Services & Acquisitions Librarian