Fitz Maurice
I am an Artist, Not a Painter
By Tom Larimore

The long-time Laguna Beach-based artist has returned from a three-year painting adventure at her New Mexico ranch, where she explored and expanded her highly creative approach to art.

On June 23rd, she was welcomed back in grand style with a special showing of her current series, "Nature's Abstractions", at the Prince Gallery in Irvine. Gallery owner George Prince titled the showing, "An Evening with Artist Fitz Maurice".

Fitz, whose works are often influenced by European masters, has paintings hanging in such collections as the German Parliament, International Society for Human Rights in Germany, and Kamchatka Museum in Russia. She was greeted at the Prince Gallery by an appreciative, invited audience of 100, which included several established collectors of her works. Twenty-five of her paintings were on exhibit in the gallery, several of which were sold.

This current series of oil paintings reflects Fitz's unique combination of vision and philosophy present in her work. She explained to her patrons, "By letting nature's living movement guide my technique, I capture the essence of nature, rather than its portrait." Many paintings in this series were created during her immersion in the peace and inspiration that comes from the monumental landscape of New Mexico, the land of enchantment.

Fitz said, "I'm an artist, not a painter. I don't visualize the finished piece when I start a painting. Rather, I let the painting itself tell me what it's going to become. During this process, I search, grow, and discover its individual meaning."

Fitz creates only original paintings: "My collectors are reassured to know that their paintings are individual and one of a kind. My goal is that the paintings give the viewers a spiritual lift and that they make art an essential component of their lives."

Each painting by Fitz can take months of disciplined work. She explains, "I paint in the impasto technique, which results in a unique vision, built over time by applying orchestrated veils of vibrant color." Archivally conscious, Fitz works in high-quality oils, applied by palette knife and brush, and always on linen canvases, to create a textured, three-dimensional impression of a living landscape.

Her paintings range in size from small, 9x12 inches to one that is 6-feet long and about 3 1/2-feet high. This larger painting, which took her six months to complete, is covered in many layers of thick oil paint and is called simply, "Wave". It abstractly depicts a large ocean wave, already crashing along the left side of the work, and still curling up along the right side. Fitz created a translucent quality inside the curling portion of the wave, as her impasto technique reflects a shimmering translucence in tones of aqua, dark blue and burgundy.

Her philosophy behind this spectacular painting, "Wave", is analogous to options in life, she told her gallery audience. "We are not in control of the set of waves that we face, only God is. But like a swimmer, we have the option to accept each impact as an opportunity, rather than an obstacle. We can choose to go under the wave, through the wave, or over it, depending on the best approach for that time." Fitz asked her gallery audience, "Isn't that just like choices we have in our life situations?"

Several of Fitz Maurice's private collectors at her welcome-back showing at Prince Gallery spoke one after the other, giving testimonials to the crowd about how much they loved living with the paintings that stay alive because of the passionate vibration they exude. San Juan Capistrano home designer Kristina Koerper, who earlier had acquired one of the works featured in the show, praised Fitz for her "highly creative and compelling works, which become major focal points of room designs for some of my clients."

One of those speaking at the gallery art reception turned out to be Fitz's son, Dylan Fitz Maurice Metzler, who announced, "I have been collecting her art all my life." Dylan graduated in June from the University of California, Riverside, with a degree in political science and was recently recruited by the Costa Mesa Police Department. After Dylan spoke of growing up in his mother's world of art, Fitz quipped to the gallery gathering, "He's my masterpiece!!"

Fitz first came to Laguna Beach in 1989, and as much as she has traveled, living in Europe for years, and her recent three-year stay in New Mexico, she ultimately feels the magnetic lure of Laguna.

Born in Westchester, New York, Fitz earned a bachelor of fine arts degree and graduated cum laude from Rochester Institute of Technology. She has also studied at the Museum of Modern Art, Printmakers Workshop and Art Students League, all in New York; and at the International School of Art in Umbria, Italy.

Fitz Maurice is a winner of the Jackson Pollock-Lee Krasner Foundation Award in New York City, and the John Anson Kittredge Foundation Award in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Other special honors include having works accepted into exhibits at the 2002 Paris Triennale, 2001 Florence Biennale, 1992. The German Parliament, and the 1993 United Nations World Conference in Vienna where her painting was chosen as the symbol of human rights by the International Society for Human Rights. This painting entitled "The War of Human Rights" was also featured in color on the front page of the Los Angeles Times.

Her work has been exhibited internationally in Switzerland, Germany and Italy, as well as New York City, La Jolla, Los Angeles, Santa Fe, Beverly Hills, Las Vegas, Miami Beach, and Orange County. She has traveled extensively, studying independently works of the masters at museums and studios in France, England, Holland, Ireland, Switzerland, Mexico, Japan, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Spain and Greece.

Paintings by Fitz Maurice are available in two galleries:

• Prince Gallery in Irvine, located at Marquee Park Place, 3141 Michelson Drive, 12trh floor, phone (714) 865-3600, call for viewing appointments
• Manitou Galleries, Santa Fe, New Mexico, phone (800) 283-0440, always on exhibition.

Her work also is shown on her Web site, www.fitzmauriceart.com. Welcome back, Fitz.

Fitz Maurice
949-436-2231
www.fitzmauriceart.com