In 1996 Marcia Soanes attended some day time classes at ArtStation Ponsonby which included life drawing and painting, as well as beginner painting and drawing with Matthew Browne. Having been diagnosed with fibromyalgia at age 37, she left work and began to paint. She started with hardboard, which she undercoated and started using oil paints – copying pictures, or just painting what she saw out of the window. She wanted to learn more and began reading, learning and trying new styles and ideas. For Marcia, painting has turned out to be very good for her mind, her well-being and as a form of meditation.
Taking a break from painting during the early 2000s, due to studying and moving around a lot, she returned to Eden Terrace in 2011 and has been painting ever since. In 2018, she returned to ArtStation where she did two terms of portrait painting in oils with Alvin Xiong, who specialises in old masters painting techniques. “In this class have learnt new skills as I found it difficult in the past to learn portrait painting from books. Also I enjoy the social aspect of a class situation and meeting other fellow artists.”
Marcia’s inspiration comes from the old buildings which remain in Auckland, the way they have managed to survive the modernisation of the inner city. “I like to put people into most of my streetscapes, behind windows or caught at that particular moment in time. I love to put my personality into my work, making them slightly quirky rather than just photographic copies of a scene.” Vincent Van Gogh inspires her to try to express her emotions as he did by the use of colour, complementary and contrasting colours and his use of pure colour straight from the tube to canvas. “I love his bold brush strokes, and how his paintings disturb the viewer and make you think this is not just a ‘pretty picture’. This I like.”
See more about Marcia here.
