esther moorehead
I am an obsessive creative. An explorer. A wanderer.
I was born and raised in Toronto, Canada, but I’ve also lived in the UK and the USA. Being exposed to different lifestyles in each place had a significant impact on my formative years. From early childhood, I have always been curious and independent and thrive on exploration and observation.
In my grade school years, I studied music, drama, and visual art. A teacher from the Czech Republic instilled in me a passion for European art, culture, and history. I began to travel extensively and explore different cultures, peoples, and geography. I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Art Education in South Carolina in 2005 and taught high school art for 10 years in Toronto.
After the birth of my second daughter, I decided to take time away from the classroom. With a more flexible schedule, I began taking painting commissions and have been a freelance studio artist since 2015. Currently, I work from my studio in a suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina, and I love engaging in the creative community. I'm still an avid traveler, soaking up inspiration from every place I experience.
I have exhibited my watercolor and acrylic paintings in galleries in Canada and the USA. My paintings reside in private collections worldwide.
artist statement
I am fascinated with the convergence of the mundane and the spectacular and how each is relative to the human perspective. I mingle those two ideas in my work, drawing inspiration from both the familiar and the distant. Using original reference images from photos I have captured in my explorations, I focus on reconstructing scenes of transience, fleeting glimpses of special moments in time.
I draw creative influence from artists like Piet Mondrian with his use of repetitive rhythm in colors and shapes, Mark Rothko’s minimalist color fields, Picasso’s abstract forms and figures, and Lawren Harris’s radiant, hyper-stylized Canadian landscapes.
You may observe hints of printmaking processes in my work, from years ago watching my dad operating offset lithography presses in the family-owned business. I have an innate desire to work in distinct layers, echoing CMYK color registrations. I systematically place bold, contrasting colors over textured background layers. Repetition of arbitrary colors over a strong Nōtan design reinforces for me a sense of harmony and stability amid life’s evanescence.