Maura Keeney

Maura Koehler Keeney

Magnificent botanicals on large canvases are the signature style of Maura Koehler Keeney. Her lifelike images are "abstracted" by the size of her paintings and the cropping of her subject matter. These images are best experienced in person. Come to Main Exhibit Gallery for a look! Click on images below to enlarge.

"For Everything There Is A Season
Oil on canvas, overall 108" x 48" (each canvas is 36" x 48")
$9,000

My paintings reflect dramatic moments in the life of plants and natural subjects of the earth. In order to understand the whole we can study a minute part. In fact, the wondrous complexities of one chestnut of a tree or one tree of the forest can help us to form an understanding of the whole world. Their singular characteristics are revealed through color, texture, and form in the light and space in which they exist. These details of nature are often overlooked but through magnifying the forms, their intricacies are revealed. Examining nature on these dual micro and macro levels parallels the introspective way in which we contemplate our own lives. Many of my images ponder a will to survive in harmony with or in spite of forces of nature; the same sorts of struggles we face daily in life. I am instinctively drawn to these subjects because they echo themes of maternity, motherhood, aging and sibling rivalry that occur in my own life. Like every part of nature we too are in a constant cycle of change: from birth, through survival, to maturation, and ultimately death.

From conception through process, my work is a personal search for truth, understanding, and peace regarding my existence within nature. We have both an emotional and physical relationship with the earth and these natural forms are symbols of our shared connection to life. Today, as climate change becomes a reality, nature's survival in all of its forms and cycles is threatened. I hope to affect viewers with my celebration of nature's awe-inspiring influence upon my life.