About Maria Paknezhad
Her Background
Maria loved to draw since she was a child. She remembers her happy times were mid-summer days when everyone was napping and she was free to write and draw on the walls !
Maria attended Espahbodi Art Institute in Mashhad for four years in her leisure and had a comprehensive classical training in fine arts. Since she had several interests to chase, she put a pause on her passion for painting and pursued a career in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering in Iran, Canada and UK. Consequently, she was veered away from art by life circumstances.
A couple of years ago, inadvertently, she opened her paint box. . The more she painted and the more she revived her artistic nature, the more she "connected to her true self", she says. She has been keeping her paint box open ever since.
She also furthered her skills and knowledge with multiple art courses and programs at York University, Stratford Institute and a few more. She is a member of Art Gala Forum and displays her paintings several times a year in galleries in the city of Toronto.
Her Medium
Maria is versatile and switches between different techniques and mediums with ease. "Somehow it says about my personality that I like experiencing different ways of expression" she says.
She does enjoys working with all mediums. As an artist, she uses any medium that she can put her hands on to create fine arts; such as oil , acrylics, watercolor, pastels , pen, ink, charcoal and so on.
Being flexible working in different styles of painting, She has mastered working on different subjects from nature and still life to portrait or figures.
She is also fond of mixed media for it has allowed her to break traditional artistic restrictions. Mariapolis is her platform to exhibit all.
Her Inspiration
Maria's paintings are renditions of her dreams, love, light, calmness and positive excitement. Her thought process, feelings and the state of being in the "now" reflects what she paints.
She says that as she gets older and wiser, in an attempt to stay away from negative thoughts, she chooses to portray hope, positivity and love. That's why she focuses on beauty, nature, innocence of animals or color field that subliminally is pleasant to the senses.
While she mostly does long studies, her preference is to capture the essence of the subject in a short study of gesture and motion. She describ r favorite word to be "obsession", because it leads to creativity.