MAURA CARTA

BIO

After a career as a pension actuary, Maura had the opportunity to study art in Dresden, Germany at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste under Siegfried Klotz, and lived and painted in Germany for 15 years.  She returned to the Bay Area in 2012 and has been spending her time painting plein air landscapes, cityscapes, still lifes, interiors and portraits. 

“Turning a blank canvas into my interpretation of the world around me continues to hold my attention.  I redesign the cityscapes into purple, green and sunlit orange.  I love the texture of oil paint, the feel of applying it to canvas, and the exercise of seeing the world around me in terms of shapes, values and colors. I usually work from life, and that is both rewarding and challenging - the light is always shifting, the model is never in the exact spot as the previous sitting, and someone always drives off in the car I just started painting.  On occasion, it all comes together, and I have created another world our eyes can enter into, and have documented another day in my life.”

Maura’s works can be found in public and private collection in Europe and the US.  She has taught at the Pacific Art League in Palo Alto and is an Artist member of the California Art Club.  Among her many awards, Maura won the Director’s Choice award at the Triton Statewide Salon exhibition, third place in the California Art Club and First Place at the Pacific Art League Grand Opening exhibit.  She has exhibited in California Art Club’s Gold Medal Show and multiple shows at their Old Mill Gallery.