About
Marlene Walters spent her first dozen years in a small and unique Southern California foothill community that was originally settled by nature-loving utopians. She was aware of her visual orientation from an early age and loved art in its many forms. Drawing at the family table with the doors open to the garden and the smell of freshly baked bread from the kitchen, she developed and has retained a deep appreciation for sensory connections in her art.
The San Francisco Bay Area was another good match for her and she earned a B.A. in Art from Mills College. Following a career in corporate graphic design, Marlene returned to her roots in fine art, studying with many notable oil painters.
The work covers a wide range of subject matter, often focusing on specimens from her garden or beautiful farmers' market finds such as the tomatillos she painted and exhibited in the juried California Art Club Gold Medal Show in 2024 at The Hilbert Museum of California Art.
Her landscapes are her most abstract works, capturing memorable impressions of experiences from travels near and far.
Many of Marlene's small paintings are studies of commonplace objects that pay tribute to the role of simple beauty in our lives, wherever it comes from--the natural world or the world of good, functional design.
Marlene has explored intricate collage made of archival prints of her paintings assembled on wood substrates. This process relates to her lifelong interest in “things made of smaller things” including antique mosaics, rock walls, ethnic quilts and Australian aboriginal art. The collage works have a unique vibrancy through pattern and color. They range in size from intimate to monumental and each has an environmental connection that harkens back to her early years in a place that honored and utilized gifts of the earth.
Marlene is a juried member of the Salamagundi Club, a center for American art since 1871; a juried Artist member of the California Art Club; a member of Berkeley Artisans; a member of Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club; a member of the Association of Women Artists; a member of the Oil Painters of America; and a member of the American Artists Professional League.
Her work has been shown at Desta Gallery in San Anselmo and Mill Valley, Shoh Gallery in Berkeley, Mythos Gallery in Berkeley, Studio Gallery in San Francisco, Epperson Gallery in Crockett, The Old Mill Gallery in San Marino, the Hilbert Museum, Randy Higbee Gallery in Costa Mesa, the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club in New York City and the Salmagundi Club Art Galleries in New York City.
Special recognition includes multiple awards for excellence from the California Art Club (est.1909), inclusion in national and international juried exhibitions and inclusion in the juried California Art Club Annual Gold Medal Show. Marlene's work has been published in the juried fine art compendium American Artwork since 2013.
Some paintings are available as archival cotton giclee prints.