Stephanie Spay

Bare Don't Bury, 2021

Oil on aluminum

20 × 16 in | 50.8 × 40.6 cm

Stephanie Spay is a representational oil painter with a focus on portraiture and the figure. She uses the image of the figure to process her own personal life experiences and that of her models’ life experiences. She is a constant observer and sees potential in the figures and spaces she comes into contact with each day: her family, children, friends, and neighbors. The moments she seeks in paint are intimate, personal, and relatable. She draws her inspiration from women, children, motherhood, and nature. She finds she is at her best when experimenting with narrative themes, both in her figurative and still life works. As a painter, her color use is dramatic. As an artist, her work is emotive. Through the use of these qualities, her ultimate goal as an artist is make a connection with the viewer. “If art can accomplish anything, it should be to interrupt the mundane and create engagement. It should leave a mark.”