Elizabeth Iamba Mullens, Michigan: Elizabeth Mullens is a graduate of Kendall College of Art and Design, Growing up in Harbor Springs inspired her to create scenes from her surroundings. A devoted Christian, she views hew work as an expression of her faith and a celebration of her beliefs. Her loose brush strokes give her work an expressive quality while the use of arbitrary color adds to the richness of the paintings.
Iamba, a studio name in honor of Elizabeth's grandmother, was born in Harbor Springs and raised on a farm there. She later attended Kendall School of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, majoring in studio painting for her B.F.A. She lives in Grand Rapids with her husband Jeremy and 2 children.
She says of art "it is an expression of personal feeling towards the subject matter". It is her appreciation of the mid to northern Michigan landscape, including water, farm fields, woodlands, and our beautiful skies that are present in most paintings. Reminiscent of the Hudson River School of painters, she wants her paintings to both be seen as beautiful and characterized by an illusion of space, extreme distance and depth upon depth.
She does not "paint" the landscape; she expresses it, often using color to achieve her illusory goal. She does not name her paintings, but rather numbers them. It is not surprising to find color not there in life to appear in her art; for example she uses red as a base coat in many paintings to add richness and a sense of movement in the landscape.
 Landscape 02-2015
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