Chandler, Marsha

Marsha Chandler is a watercolor painter who, as a child, dreamed of being an artist. She is now realizing that childhood dream. After rearing her children and pursuing a successful career in real estate appraisal, she moved into the world of professional painting. In her studio in Douglasville, Georgia, she creates paintings of interiors, objects and still lifes which reflect her love of history and antiquities, like a battered tin bowl, a weathered iron gate, a 12th-century hilltown in Italy or an old barn in the Georgia Mountains.
She says “Objects and architecture with age and history speak to me, and I try to capture their essence in my paintings.” Rather than careful realism, she prefers a looser style that leaves something to the viewers’ imagination and draws them into the picture. They can respond with their own interpretations of the scene or subject and imagine its history.
For years Marsha carried a camera around to photograph scenes and objects as potential painting subjects, knowing without a doubt that one day she would use them. She took photos of anything that caught her eye, letting her instincts guide her. It was usually something about the colors, the light or the texture of a boat, wall or door. She captures her subjects in luminous watercolor, her medium of choice. "It is the translucency that appeals to me. I love the way watercolor glows, and I enjoy its surprises," she says. Watercolor lends itself beautifully to her subjects and style. Her painting as a whole is a work in progress as she explores and experiments with the medium and different ways to suggest the story in everything she paints.
Since becoming a full-time artist, she has studied extensively with Kathy Rennell Forbes and has taken workshops with regionally and nationally known watercolor artists, Pat Fiorello, Jack Shields, Mel Stabin, Judy Morris and Don Andrews. Marsha paints in her studio, on location and travels abroad and around the United States both to paint and find subjects for her art.
Marsha is a member of Atlanta Artists Center, South Cobb Arts Alliance, Douglas County Art Guild, ART Station, Watercolor Society of Alabama and Georgia Watercolor Society and Southern Watercolor Society.


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