Artist Terri Burris Intertwines her love of nature, abstraction and design in each of her atmospheric pieces. She paints intuitively, creating her transitional abstracts, landscapes, florals and urban works from focused perspectives of the natural world. Her palettes emerge directly from her intimate observations of life’s minute details.
What do you first do when you get to the studio in the morning? The first thing I do when I go into my studio is put on music. Music is such a big part of my process. It depends what mood I’m in, but I love to listen to either jazz, classical, or alternative. Once my music is set, I enter into the zone and start painting for as long as I can.
What do you like most about your work? What I like most about my work is that I don’t plan anything before I start, I work very intuitively. I love the idea that something is working through me when I paint, surrendering to the process.
Do you ever get “stuck” on a piece? If so, what do you do? When I get stuck on a painting, I find I need to leave it alone for a while, detach from it physically and emotionally. At that point I usually start on a new canvas, painting fast and loose for a few minutes …then maybe clean my studio or pull weeds from my garden.
If you could paint with anyone, who would it be? If I could paint with anyone, it would be one of the master painters from the Abstract Expressionist era. I am especially inspired by the work of Richard Diebenkorn, Helen Frankenthraler and Lee Krasner.
How many paintings do you work on at a time? I generally work on 3 paintings at a time in various stages of progress.
What’s your favorite way of generating ideas and inspiration? I generate a lot of inspiration and ideas from the many museums and galleries I’m fortunate enough to have in my Los Angeles neighborhood. Another major source of inspiration for me is just being in nature.
What is your favorite time of day to paint? My favorite time of day to paint is early in the morning with a gigantic cup of steaming hot coffee.
Do you have a dream project that you would like to work on? My dream project is any time I get to paint for a show or collaborate with a client one on one.
What is up next on your easel? Right now I’m exploring pouring paint and working with watercolor washes.
Terri’s images can be viewed in the Posters, Print-On-Demand and Originals sections of our website. Some areas of our website are password-protected. If you are a member of the trade but don’t have full access to our website, www.thirdandwall.com, please contact us at customerservice@thirdandwall.com.