Meet Mara Dučkens
Artist. Dreamer. Lover of imperfect beauty.
My formal art education came when I apprenticed artist Jim Prohl at his atelier in Milwaukee. There, I studied figure and still life drawing in the style of classical realism. After that, I earned my master’s degree in art history, traveled to Italy and other parts of Europe studying art and culture, all the while continuing to explore my own creativity. Today, my art focuses on portraiture and figurative work.
My Portraits
The thing I love most about the human face is that it tells the story of a life.
While a photograph captures a face at a moment in time with perfect accuracy, my artworks aims to weave together the thoughts, questions, and experiences that each subject holds inside of them. As I work on each piece, I’m constantly looking at my subject and asking, “What’s on your mind?”
My current body of work focuses on portraits drawn in pen & ink or painted using acrylics; I enjoy using media that are accessible, affordable, and can travel with me anywhere. In my pen & ink works, I carefully lay tiny marks on paper to create layers of shadow and dimension. From a distance, the portraits may look like charcoal or paint, but when you take a closer look, you see each fine point that was put down with precision. These drawings come in all sizes.
The portraits I paint in acrylic aim to capture quiet, intimate moments. I use layers of color to create the mood, and I place my subjects in a way that brings the viewer into the same space. My hope is that each work of art makes you curious about the person in the frame.
