Marlene Lowden grew up in an ocean-side town on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, just outside of Vancouver, Canada. After several years in television broadcasting, she resumed her lifelong interest in painting, drawing, and photography. She draws from her experience in television and video production, applying to canvas similar principles of composition and storytelling. While working and raising her two daughters, she studied with a range of instructors learning watercolour, acrylic, and oil painting techniques. She primarily works in oil and creates large expressive paintings on canvas. In 2021 she was named one of “28 contemporary Canadian artists to know” by Create! Magazine . She is honoured to be included in the All She Makes curated artist directory, the 4th Edition of their magazine and in Art Seen Magazine based in the U.K. She lives and works in her hometown of Gibsons, BC.
abstract expressionism
She has an enduring fascination for women’s history, especially in art and literature. Her study of history and geography at the University of British Columbia continues to develop her awareness of the profound but often unacknowledged impact women have had on Canada’s cultural, economic, and political past. She is particularly drawn to the women of the Abstract Expressionist movement that developed in the 1940s and 1950s. Their pushback against the macho world of mid-20th century abstract painting and the subsequent rise of the Feminist Art Movement in the 1970s has been influential on her signature mark-making style. For over 2 years, she exhibited an homage series of 32 works to Canadian female artists called “Blind Contour Homage.” Marlene is a proud alumni of Thrive Art Studios, an international collective of female artists.
Facilitator & teacher
Marlene is also a facilitator and yoga teacher. Along with painter Marleen Vermeulen, she co-hosted an annual art and yoga retreat called Open Your Art in Spain. She published an adult colouring book called Outside Your Lines. Marlene enjoys sharing her philosophy of art making and reaches out to her community by offering demos and as an instructor in schools and at festivals. She partnered with Place des Arts in British Columbia and Art Girl Rising to produce videos to encourage people to create art at home during the early months of the pandemic. She offers online courses, and in-person workshops and international retreats.
Follow her process on Instagram.
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