Be : Longing

My paintings come from a longing to belong. A yearning for, and a nostalgia for the past, a place in which I question what it means to belong.

Born in Greece and having grown up in both the UK and Cyprus my paintings are an artistic odyssey through the physical and emotional landscapes that have shaped my identity. Using oils and pastels, mixed with sand, sawdust, slate and wax, I build up and scrape back textural layers to capture the sense of atmosphere, mass, light and the poetry of the landscapes I aim to depict.

Now living in Wales, a third space, I once again try to find my home. Living near the waterfalls, I walk the Elidir Trail, over and over, trying to find myself in the familiarity. The process of repetition, I hope, will mean something becomes ingrained, and with it a sense of belonging as I root myself in the landscape, the whoosh and gurgle of the water. The smell of pine and acid green moss.

Maria Pierides trained as an artist and art psychotherapist and worked in the NHS for a number of years. She is now devoting herself full time to her art and private practice at her studio in the foothills of the Brecon Beacons. Living within earshot of a running stream, she explores in paint the texture and temporality of human experience. Building up and scraping back areas of paint to capture the atmosphere, mass, light and poetry of the landscapes she is aiming to represent, Maria's work seamlessly connects inner and outer worlds.

Maria’s painting has been shortlisted for the Society of Women Artists Open, Royal West of England Academy, ING Discerning Eye, Bentley Open Art Prize, The Maidstone Museum, The British Women Artists Competition and the East Meets West Art Award, as well as being Longlisted for the Threadneedle Prize and she recently won a Scholarship and International Exhibition Prize with the Visual Artists Organisation.

Maria is also a member of the Free Painters and Sculptors and Flux Exhibitions in London and exhibits nationally and internationally with work in private collections in the UK, USA and Europe.