Dena Adams

Joined Artfinder: Nov. 2021

Artworks for sale: 24

United States

Updates from Dena Adams's studio

  • New Works on Paper

    New Works on Paper

    Of all the different surfaces that can accept paint, I truly love the feeling of working on paper. It's a surface that offers friction, forgiveness, portability, rigidity when you fix it to a board, and so much personality. I chose paper for my abstracts of late because it's the easy, spontaneous, space that signals the most freedom and the least worry to my creativity. Just grab the brush and go. (Legion oil/acrylic is ideal for this, a paper that I don't need to prep, and that is made with all archival cotton fiber.) I also love exploration, cutting and pasting, and reconfiguration in my sketch practices, and paper lets me do this so well. So all of my latest is tied together this way - not just by color but by surface. Here's a roundup of this papery joy.

    13 October 2025
    Everyday Beautiful

    Everyday Beautiful

    I've been thinking a lot about the power of cliche. Is there a painter alive who hasn't painted something fresh, appealing, and ingestible? If you're lucky you can get something you love at the grocery or market or deli downstairs. If you're very lucky you get a shaft of clean afternoon light, and the paint to paint it with. When you paint this, it's been done, and that's the beauty. You're stepping into a continuum, you're joining a stream in history. I loved the return to the plain and unmitigated painting from experience here. Should I add more of this to this shop? I'm curious to know what you'd like. Whether it's yes or, nah, not so much, I'll keep doing more of this kind of painting. It's such a good stretching out - visual yoga. It's such a good container for gratitude. Small parts of the world are always filled with light and amazement, no matter what.

    17 June 2022
    A Shape with Potential

    A Shape with Potential

    I'm so excited about these odd format triangular panels - and you can see where this one wound up in the shop - my latest additions use these lovely panels as their start point. This shape is so filled with potential - as well as potential problems for a painter! I hope you love where they wound up going!

    07 December 2021

    Timelapse Creation of "Passers By"

    Spend a couple of cozy gray days in the studio with me, all in the course of a few minutes, and watch as my painting "Passers By" comes into being.

    12 November 2021
    Decisions, Decisions

    Decisions, Decisions

    A lot of my process is editing and paring down. It's the wild, generative, flow state in art that I love and love to spend time in, and I find that it's best to cast a wide net before becoming meditative and selective. I love this facet of working with watermedia - it really encourages us to do wise things and tap into our wiser minds, being in and of the moment.

    12 November 2021