Marz Doerflinger
Marz Doerflinger was born in Southern California, and she developed her love of art as a child. Her mother was a pastel painter who studied under early California Impressionists. “I thought she was the best artist to ever live,” Doerflinger says. “I was always asking her to get her paintings out for me. I would take out my box of crayons and try to create the same feeling I saw
in her work. I continued with my practice throughout my youth, graduating with a BFA from Washington State University.”
After college, Doerflinger worked in creative media for 34 years before recently leaving the business to focus exclusively on painting. Doerflinger says she is a painter of essence and is drawn to capturing “the elusive qualities that lead to an understanding of the subject.” She pushes for simplification in her paintings to let the viewer fill in the details of the work and create their own stories.
“I typically paint small using large palette knives to layer and scrape oil paint or acrylic,” she explains. “By painting small I make my work more approachable. There is an intimacy to them; it’s just the painting and the viewer in the moment. I believe original art should be in every home and small paintings make that obtainable, even for new collectors. In the last year I have been painting some larger pieces to express ideas that cannot be contained in a smaller format.”
Doerflinger splits her time between her studios in Olympia, Washington, and Fountain Hills, Arizona.