CUTV News Radio spotlights artist Marian Flahavin

Spokane, WA – Marian Flahavin is a fine artist specializing primarily in portraiture in pastel, oil and bronze.

Marian describes herself as a “people painter.” The life in them that's what I'm after, the life that makes them who they are.

“I find that I really don't enjoy paintings without figures included,” says Marian. “I like things that do something, not just stand there. I paint life. That basically what I've always been after, a sense of motion, like they were going to move at any point and say something to me. I kind of talk to them, and when they start to talk back that’s when I know I’m done.”

Marian is especially adept at portraiture of children. Many of Marian’s clients are parents and grandparents who share a desire to capture their child at a certain age with all the hope and wonder still in their eyes and preserve how they looked at that time.

“I know I’m not supposed to, but I always start with the eyes. The eyes establish their presence, their personhood, and I work around that,” says Marian. “I'm reaching for the life inside them and what makes them who they are, rather than just a kid.”

“It's seeing if I can do it. That's kind of what drives me to start it. Literally my fingers itch to get going, to start something,” says Marian. “There are times when you feel like you're working in the dark and you don't know whether it's working and you don't have anyone to ask to find out. And you just have to keep fiddling away with it and then hope that it meets what they're expecting.”

For more information on Marian Flahavin, visit www.marianflahavin.com