Marjorie Perrin
ARTIST INTERVIEW:
“As a child I was always drawn to color and first thought I wanted to be a writer. Eventually, I realized I could actually communicate better through painting.”
Now an experienced and prolific artist, Marjorie Perrin draws inspiration from her natural surroundings to produce peaceful yet powerful artworks filled with expressive brushwork. When starting a new painting, she will study her subject repeatedly and often create several preliminary sketches to arrive at the most effective composition. “For me, composition is of like poetry. I like to experiment with arrangements and rhythms that evoke a mood and capture a moment.” Marjorie’s creative practice even follows the seasons, as she prefers to paint en plein air in the summer and retreats to her studio during the winter months. Regardless of where she is, she says “I am always looking for compositions.”
Since moving to the Rappahannock River 4 years ago, Marjorie has shifted her artistic focus to the native environment. “I am very inspired by nature. The water here has become a huge focus for me – I just finished a painting of a heron I see every day. I have started to get more into painting wildlife because I can study them more closely here.” Marjorie has even begun hosting a plein air week at her house with fellow Crossroads Artists-in-Residence, to share her newfound love.
Not afraid to branch out, Marjorie created and illustrated her first childrens book, My Most Marvelous Zoo. “It was a challenge because the artwork was more flat and focused on line work. I actually wrote some of the book when I was a kid but finished it last year during a back injury.”
A true visual artist, Marjorie does not believe in lofty artist statements or odes to painting. Rather, she believes that shapes and lines evoke feelings to which words cannot compare. She believes, “the whole point of being a visual artist is creating a feeling with visual elements rather than words.” A feeling which resonates from all of Marjorie’s artistic work.
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ARTIST BIO:
Marjorie Perrin paints traditional subject matter with a fresh eye. She captures the timeless beauty of a moment with her colors and textures. Painting from life, she uses the richness of oil paint to convey a mood and sense of place. Her style is influenced by Impressionism and Classical Realism. She shares her enthusiasm for creating art with her students at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts where she has taught studio art since the 1980s.
Marjorie graduated with honors from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; she also studied at Art Students League of New York and Virginia Commonwealth University and has studied privately with Cedric and Joanette Egeli. She has received several awards, most recently, First Place at Gloucester Arts Festival Community Artist 2.5 Plein Air Competition 2019 and Third Place in Plein Air Westhampton 2019. She has also received two fellowships to the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
Her work is included in numerous private and corporate collections in Richmond, Virginia, including the Governor's Mansion, the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, CSX Corporation, E.R. Carpenter Corp., Medical College of Virginia, Henrico Doctor’s Hospital, and Mutual Assurance.
She is an active member in the Portrait Society of America, Oil Painters of America, the Virginia Plein Air Painters Association, the Maryland Society of Portrait Painters, and the Mid-Atlantic Plein Air Painters Association.
