Previous Artists on the Bayleaf walls
ERIKA PETERSEN
WORDS FROM ERIKA
“I’m inspired by nature, and personal memories. I had a lot of time in my youthful rock collecting days in the Arizona desert to be in silence and use my imagination. Now, after having children, and watching them paint so fluidly without much contemplation or consciousness, influenced me to paint more freely. A lot of people think that kids will hold you back, but I think they are the key to making our lives and our imagination more vivid and openminded. While I still enjoy painting in a realistic technique, I love embracing creativity expressively, and with thick oil paint, spread on like butter. I use a lot of intuition and some spontaneous decisions. This process is enjoyable in a unique way, where my imagination helps me a lot. I paint a lot of western paintings, not because it’s in trend at the moment, but because I strongly feel it needs to be preserved. I’ve always enjoyed western art.”