Analee Fuentes

Analee Fuentes lives and works in Coburg, Oregon. Her large, immersive paintings of Pacific Northwest fish blur the line between representation and abstraction. From close-up her paintings look like abstract colorfield or pattern-paintings, but when the viewer steps back it becomes clear that they are in fact detailed and realistic studies of the scales and color patterns on the sides of fish. This reversal in scale is both surprising and engaging. We could read the disproportionately large size of the paintings as being symbolic of the importance of fish in the river and lake ecosystems where they are found. The paintings are executed with a near-meditative focus that shows the artist’s respect for her subject. Fuentes’ fish paintings are a testament to the beauty of nature.