Artist Michelle Arnold Paine
Michelle Arnold Paine is a contemporary painter with a unique freshness in her approach to representational painting. Her subjects of figure, landscape, and architecture draw on medieval texts, art historical images and observation of the nature and the built environment.
While living and working for a study abroad program in Orvieto, Italy for three years, she became fascinated by the shapes and forms of medieval architecture and art which are the context of daily life there. It was in Italy that she found her vocation as an artist and also a connection to history and tradition through the Catholic Church. Much of her work centers on themes related to the Virgin Mary and the encounter of the human and divine in the narrative of the Annunciation.
After completing a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and a M.F.A. from University of New Hampshire she taught Drawing, Painting and Design for seven years at various colleges in New England.
She has exhibited extensively across New England in group shows and juried shows in commercial, community, non-profit and university spaces. Since moving to Ohio she has exhibited at Hudson Gallery in Sylvania, the International Marian Research Institute at the University of Dayton and 20North Gallery in Toledo.
Her work has been published in many publications which seek to explore elements of the divine: Evangelism and Culture, Christianity Today, Ruminate Magazine, Edge of Faith, CIVA’s SEENJournal, Dappled Things, Worship Leader, Imaginatio et Ratio and Intruding Upon the Timeless, a collection of essays by Greg Wolfe. She has participated in podcasts, panels and artist lectures focusing on the convergence of art and faith as well as being an artist in residence at the Valparaiso University Chapel at Valparaiso University Indiana, North Shore Chapel and at the Center for Faith and Inquiry at Gordon College.
In addition to numerous private collections across the U.S., her paintings can be found in the collection of the Valparaiso University Chapel, Indiana, Rivier College, New Hampshire and Gordon College, Massachusetts.
In 2018 Michelle was awarded an Accelerator Grant from the Toledo Arts Commission, made possible through support from ProMedica and the Ohio Arts Council. She is a member of the Athena Art Society of Toledo and Christians in Visual Arts.
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