“In all my work I attempt to go beyond boundaries and limitations—my own and those imposed by convention.”
-Cynthia Maurice
"La Boheme", charcoal and paint on gessoed paper, 34 x 27 in. Courtesy of the Danforth Art Museum at Framingham State University. Gift of the Artist.
Cynthia Maurice’s life-long process: drawing from observation—puts her in a state of possibility and discovery.
Work created over a career that spans 60+ years includes oil painting, mixed media, lithography, and sketchbooks, all created from direct observation.
“I have always kept a sketchbook by my side as they are invaluable to my process. Like diaries, they are very personal and not meant to be shared. They offer me the freedom to explore unexpected colors and scribbles. Magically, it enables me to be free enough to abandon rules. This freedom yields surprising visual discoveries that evolve into finished work.”
Maurice’s exploration of subject matter began as a student, where she learned to consider the shadows and highlights of the skeletal structure. Observing what lays beneath the surface is a practice that became useful in landscape painting, leading her to the Southwest Rockies—a terrain exposed by natural forces: erosion, wind and water shaping the cliffs over time.
Her attraction to nature progressed to everyday taken-for-granted objects, exploring ideas of transition, metamorphosis, rebirth and growth. As seen in her drawings of buds and vegetables these so-called “mundane objects” quietly existing in light and space were re-imagined, rendered in bold and expressive mark-making.
Born and educated in Boston and NYC, Cynthia received a three-year scholarship while in high school to study at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Her arts education continued at Pratt Institute and at Boston University, where she received her BFA and MFA, studying with Walter Murch and David Aronson.
Cynthia proceeded to earn an MFA in Illustration as Visual Essay from the School of Visual Arts in New York City and embarked on an illustration career, with publication in The New York Times, The National Law Journal, The Boston Globe, Tikkun magazine and Boston University’s Bostonia magazine.
Ms. Maurice has maintained a steady exhibition schedule of her paintings, prints and drawings, including major solo exhibitions at the Danforth Museum at Framingham State University and the Freedman Gallery at Albright College in Reading, PA. Her work has been seen in solo and group exhibits in galleries and museums, as well as being acquired by corporate collections. Maurice won numerous awards including a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship Award in Drawing (Printmaking) in 2002 among others.
Work created over a career that spans 60+ years includes oil painting, mixed media, lithography, and sketchbooks, all created from direct observation.
“I have always kept a sketchbook by my side as they are invaluable to my process. Like diaries, they are very personal and not meant to be shared. They offer me the freedom to explore unexpected colors and scribbles. Magically, it enables me to be free enough to abandon rules. This freedom yields surprising visual discoveries that evolve into finished work.”
Maurice’s exploration of subject matter began as a student, where she learned to consider the shadows and highlights of the skeletal structure. Observing what lays beneath the surface is a practice that became useful in landscape painting, leading her to the Southwest Rockies—a terrain exposed by natural forces: erosion, wind and water shaping the cliffs over time.
Her attraction to nature progressed to everyday taken-for-granted objects, exploring ideas of transition, metamorphosis, rebirth and growth. As seen in her drawings of buds and vegetables these so-called “mundane objects” quietly existing in light and space were re-imagined, rendered in bold and expressive mark-making.
Born and educated in Boston and NYC, Cynthia received a three-year scholarship while in high school to study at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Her arts education continued at Pratt Institute and at Boston University, where she received her BFA and MFA, studying with Walter Murch and David Aronson.
Cynthia proceeded to earn an MFA in Illustration as Visual Essay from the School of Visual Arts in New York City and embarked on an illustration career, with publication in The New York Times, The National Law Journal, The Boston Globe, Tikkun magazine and Boston University’s Bostonia magazine.
Ms. Maurice has maintained a steady exhibition schedule of her paintings, prints and drawings, including major solo exhibitions at the Danforth Museum at Framingham State University and the Freedman Gallery at Albright College in Reading, PA. Her work has been seen in solo and group exhibits in galleries and museums, as well as being acquired by corporate collections. Maurice won numerous awards including a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship Award in Drawing (Printmaking) in 2002 among others.