Portland Art Gallery Introduces Artist Page O’Rourke

Page is often asked about her unique style of art. While visiting the Philadelphia Museum of Art as a teenager, Page walked into a Pop Art exhibit and was instantly mesmerized by the bright colors and bold imagery. Growing up on a farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, her creativity was fed by her parents ever expanding collection of folk art from Haiti and Mexico, local primitive landscapes and early American portraits. Page keeps sketchbooks full of inspiring Maine places and uses them along with her imagination to create. She takes a complex landscape and simplifies the scene to an essence of color, form and shape. Influenced by color theorist Josef Albers, Page works with the visual effects of color relationships to achieve space and depth. She paints in acrylics on birch panels and just recently started adding 3D form by designing, cutting and judiciously incorporating those elements into her paintings. Page Eastburn O’Rourke graduated from George School, a Quaker School in Newtown, Pa.,and majored in Fine Arts at Trinity College, Hartford, Ct. She also studied illustration at Parson’s School of Design. Page lives in Yarmouth, Maine with her husband Kevin in a home filled with colorful, local art. It’s said that art carries the energy of the artist who painted it and Page feels especially grateful to know the many artists in their collection.