Peter Agrafiotis “Riverbank in Spring”

24 x 32 inches, acrylic on panel

Peter Agrafiotis is a Maine-based artist who is largely self-taught. Prior to deciding to paint full-time in the late 1980s, Agrafiotis spent his early years first as a reporter and then publishing the popular magazine, Clue, which he has since sold. His satiric short stories in Clue won the praise of many writers; Agrafiotis is also the author of a recent satire, This Is Not My Bathing Suit, a novel about the arts, painting, and selling. Peter Agrafiotis has been nominated four times for awards in painting at the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Artist Statement:
I intend a landscape painting to balance on an edge between naturalistic depiction and abstracted painterly expression. I want my paintings to convey the emotion I feel when confronted by the beauty and intensity of nature. However – witnessing my need for balance and wholeness independent of nature – I want my picture plane not to be just a window into nature, but also a pulsing atmosphere of color and light; a surface that can emerge and can alternate ly be looked at or looked into. In working to portray beauty this way I hope to tap both the enigmatic power of abstraction and the boundless power inherent in natural forces.