Marsh Hammel | Painting
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Q&A with Marsha
1. What is your chosen medium?
Oil painting on canvas or panel
2. How did you start your career in art?
My career started when I dropped out of art school in 1971 and began selling paintings and drawings out of my studio.
3. What informs your art?
As a figurative artist I try to distill gesture, line, color and form, attributes of the figure, to create an emotional impression.
4. What jobs you have worked other than as a professional artist?
In the 70s I worked in restaurant kitchens beginning as dishwasher, later as assistant to chefs. In the 80s I learned picture framing and operated a frame and art service, working with interior decorators as well as private collectors. In the 90s I had a gallery-studio showing my work along with 5 other artists in Sarasota, Florida. Since the 2000s I have worked solely in my studio.
5. What questions do you ask yourself when starting to work?
What the hell do I do now?!
6. Do you have a quote that’s important to you displayed in your studio? If so, what is it?
“Inspiration is the Recognition of Possibilities”. I said that.
7. Which artist (living or not) would you most like to invite for dinner? What would you serve?
Amedeo Modigliani. I would serve a seafood pasta with a plate of olives and cheeses, a brioche with plenty of butter, a fruit tart for dessert, a Côtes du Rhône and espresso lastly.
8. What has been your most unusual request for your art?
A British family living in Abu Dhabi commissioned a family portrait. I asked them to email photos and I interviewed the parents and the two young boys by email to learn their personalities and interests. They were so pleased with the resulting painting that they commissioned a second painting of just the two parents.
9. What music are you listening to these days?
In the morning, Classical, during the work day, World or Americana, in the evening, Jazz, particularly from the late 50s and early 60s.
10. What is on your nightstand?
John Steinbeck’s novel The Log From the Sea of Cortez published in 1951.
“There are fundamental elements in my work that have been there from the beginning. The gesture of line, the rhythm of form and color, the wholeness of unified surface. Life and living are my inspiration- music, dance, people, places, even plants and animals. Subjects that provide a mirror to ourselves and a narrative to describe the best attributes of humanity.”
About Marsha
A native of Miami, FL, Marshal Hammel grew up in Central America and Europe returning to the states in 1961. Completing her education in North Carolina and VA, then traveling throughout the US she settled in Hendersonvillle, NC in 2000
“I am home here, finally”, she explains. “A quiet life allows me to create a cacophony of color and form on canvas. “
A prolific artist, Marsha Hammel enjoys a wide audience for original paintings and published works in the UK, having been represented by Felix Rosenstiel’s in London since the early 90’s. During a 4 decade studio practice at least 1500 paintings have become part of private, corporate and institutional collections throughout the US and Europe.