Merrilee Drakulich
Contemporary landscape paintings of France, Japan, and the U.S.A.
Barrington, New Jersey

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Merrilee Drakulich was born and raised in northeast Pennsylvania. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, and her Master of Arts in painting from California State University in Long Beach. An artist for over twenty-five years, her paintings have been made available through exhibitions and art galleries throughout North America, the West Indies, and Europe.

Her involvement with the landscape began during the sixteen years she lived in Jamaica, West Indies. Intense Caribbean sunlight afforded her an opportunity to develop interplay of light and shadows that became central to her work. Themes such as water, objects within the landscape and views framed by windows dominated her work throughout the 1980's. Large areas of colors that reflect a minimal and abstract approach to the subject matter became dominant in her work.

In the early l990's, she left Jamaica and accepted the invitation of Atkins Fine Art where she lived and painted the landscape of the Auvergne in south central France, noted for its vast areas of open spaces, golden sunlight and skies pressing down on the land. She eventually developed a personal vocabulary through her painting to express the complexities of the landscape. In 2001, she had the opportunity to live in Tokyo for four months. This experience gave her the inspirations to paint a series based on her experiences in Japan.

Still retaining a minimal and abstract approach, there is an almost obsessive fascination with the land and objects within the landscape. Since coming home to reside and paint again in the U.S., the combination of living in Jamaica, France, and Japan has led her to a very personal form of expression.