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Bio and Statement

Roberta Soderberg Alexander.
Born as a second generation Californian in 1942, Roberta was raised in the southern part of the state with the hazy sunshine of its foothills and the clear bright skies of its mountain lakes.

A Bachelor of Arts from San Diego State University and Master of Fine Arts degree from Claremont Graduate School formalized her training into adulthood.

Living concurrently in Sonoma, California and London, England since 1975 influenced some rather unique abstract, mixed media painting, emphasizing encaustic, and oil based collages.

Roberta's works have been exhibited from San Diego to London; from Sonoma to New York. Her paintings are held in private collections throughout the United States and Europe.



Roberta and one of her paintings.
Roberta and one of her paintings.


"By painting in the non-objective style, I force my viewer to shift psychologically to accommodate the immediate encounter with the painting. Using encaustic, oil and embedded found materials I layer texture and meaning building a surface of complex symbolic lexicon. Encaustic is deeply dimensional, and by definition means "to burn in". Its beauty is its translucency. Melting and mixing the wax on a hot palette, I apply it with a brush to a wood or canvas surface. It is then alternately burned with a heat gun or torch to fuse the materials together. Oil paint can also be fused with the work to add another dimension. I experiment with my process and let my intuition direct me until it reveals a composition that balances visual and emotional elements. The paintings take on the proportion of becoming a kind of window before which the viewer may stand and take light in physical reverie."

- Roberta S. Alexander



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