
Rhona LK Schonwald
Schonwald began experimenting with abstraction after years of creating realistic works. Her first viewers were her children, who became excited and exclaimed, "they look like clouds, only in color!" Creating imaginary worlds became Schonwald's passion. The process of stimulating and illuminating minds with ideas permeates and enriches every other facet of the artist's life.
Working with oil paint because of its luminosity, the artist starts by adding special media that allows the paint to flow, then begins her dance of color. Her goal is to take both the painting and the viewer to another emotional level by using bold gestures and the inherent nature of the paint to create an organic flow. Each composition is a brilliant ballet of colors leaping across the canvas.
College professors at University of Maryland and beyond taught Schonwald the foundations of art, but her current technique came from realizing that she considered the backgrounds of paintings to be more interesting than the foregrounds. Enamored by Helen Frankenthaler and Paul Jenkins, she felt the impetus to explore, experiment, and embark on unique visual affirmations of life.