Featured Artist Valerie Timmons

Artist Valerie Timmons presents a striking collection of female portraits painted in a distinctive signature style. Learn more about her by visiting her website.

 

 

My work explores the power, intelligence and complexity of women through bold geometric portraits and vivid color relationships. Portraiture was something I never thought I’d pursue when I started painting. It has always been one of the most compelling ways to explore identity, emotion, and presence.

 

 

When a face is rendered through abstraction, something even more interesting happens: the viewer is invited to participate.

 

 

Instead of receiving a complete and literal interpretation, they are asked to slow down, look closer, meet the subject’s gaze, and bring their own experience into the work.

 

 

Having experienced several careers that came with glass ceilings, my paintings are rooted in a determination to present women as powerful, capable, and intelligent figures.

 

 

Working primarily in oil on canvas, I build abstract, geometric (recently described to me as Cubist Pop, a classification I embrace) portraits. They balance structure with emotion, using bold color, fractured forms, and Cubist-inspired composition to reimagine the face as a focus of strength and presence. My women are feminine, but certainly not soft.

 

 

I concentrate on distilling expressions into shape, color, and design. The fragmentation in my work is intentional. It reflects the layered nature of identity and the way people are often seen in pieces before they are fully understood. I want each portrait to feel immediate and compelling, while inviting a closer look.

 

 

I’m also influenced by Modern Art, Pop Art, and the color mastery of artists like Henri Matisse and Georgia O’Keeffe. I approach each piece as both image and statement. I love using saturated color, but sometimes the portraits in muted colors command the most attention, like they’re simmering beneath the surface.

 

 

My goal is to create work that is visually engaging, sophisticated, and memorable—art that honors women not as symbols, but as fully realized forces.

 

Valerie Timmons invites you to follow on Instagram.

 

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