Courtney Miller Bellairs
Courtney Miller Bellairs Artist
Exhibiting at Studio TBD – Host
Original oil, watercolor and mixed media works inspired by fashion, interiors and architecture
Courtney Miller Bellairs
2470 Bridle Creek Trail
Chanhassen, MN 55317
301.785.8655
cmbellairs@verizon.net
courtneymillerbellairs.com
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Inspired by my background in architecture, my work explores the emotive aspects and sensory experiences produced by the built environment. Architectural space imbues color, line, texture, shape, light, and, if done well, meaning.
For the last 22 years, I have been working through these concepts in drawing, painting, collage, and model-making. I make images of everyday places to highlight the beauty in the ordinary. Our encounters with our surroundings can be very simple and “everyday” but hold elements of humor, drama, or surprise. I make works about moments. I want my works to show a point of view and my figures to inspire curiosity.
During my first year in Minnesota, 2015, I used my photography of places that inspired me, my life drawings, and Photoshop, to make photocollages. When I started to paint them in watercolor, I had to invent both color and light on the figures because they were black and white. This was a great exercise in inserting figures into images and making them look like they belong. After painting fifty-six nude watercolors, I received feedback that I could not exhibit nude works in Carver County. I thought about putting the paintings aside. Instead, I went further. I started to paint Figures in Space in oil and invent clothing.
The oil works, All Things are Visible, Be Content, and No Rush, explore how the female figure encounters the world. The first and third depict movement through space. I paint figures in action. Each oil painting explores light, depth, and space in different ways. I can feel the space in the image, and this is an important tool to know when the painting is complete.
In 2018, I revisit the Figures in Space watercolors. I dress nude female figures in beautiful Chiyogami handmade papers. Outside the painting, the paper expands the original watercolor beyond its borders. The inside informs the outside. The Spirit of God Moves, Porch with Two Figures, Country House, and Heaven’s Eyes playfully layer pigments and paper over one another until the desired sense of space, materiality, or transparency is reached.
In 2019, I go back to my roots in technical drawing and focus on color and more collages. Using a collection of my favorite Chiyogami papers, I explore color relationships through experimental collage. Fireworks and Goldfish Pond on Green layer pigments to create the desired hue and intensity of the paper collages. A trip to Santorini Island in the Aegean Sea inspires a series of small collages exploring the fusion of sky, sea, and sun. I am continuing to process my response to this overwhelming visual experience through my art. The circle becomes a dominant shape again. The painting # 709 Sun is one of a series of 12 watercolors inspired by collages. Still immersed in this series, I am currently painting the Sun series in oil.
BIO
Courtney Miller Bellairs was born in Texarkana, Texas, and raised in Silver Spring, MD. After graduate school, she lived and worked in London, United Kingdom for 10 years. Moving back to Maryland in 2006, she migrated again in 2014, to the Midwest. She lives with her husband and two children in Chanhassen, MN. Courtney holds a Bachelor of Science in Architecture degree from the University of Maryland, School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, and a Master of Architecture degree from the Yale University, School of Architecture.
A practicing artist/designer since 1997, Courtney has enjoyed a multi-faceted career as an artist, architectural educator, designer, and academic leader.
Courtney’s conceptual works and paintings explore the relationships between art and architecture and the feelings produced by architectural space. She uses plan, section and elevation views to play with abstraction. Perspective views offer a different viewpoint. Courtney is passionate about visual communication, art, music, dance, and design. This is apparent in the structure, movement, and rhythm found in her works. Her most notable commission, an architectural oil painting for the Crown Estate in London, Courtney has exhibited widely in the UK and her pieces are included in private and corporate collections on all continents.