Illumination At the Meadow Crossing

At this precious moment of global transformation, traumatic changes engulf us. I feel compelled to share the New Efflorescene Pathway of a world that flourishes both hearts and nature.

The Efflorescence Pathway is revealed in the evolution of oil paintings, from a 2020 visionary painting called "The Crossing." This multi-canvas expressionist artwork confronted me with the challenge of stepping across ~ out of the 'woulds' ~ to create a new world where we express our feelings from the heart ~ before we draw the line. 

Join me from the 'would-if' choice, across the visionary bridge. See the exhibition at the link below.

"Dorothy Fagan articulates the question, between authentic expression and silence, between drawing new lines or remaining within existing structures, bringing a strong conceptual and emotional thread that ties the paintings together in a very compelling way."

Ainhoa Fernández, curator Madrid, Spain

Embodying Earth's Garden

Embodying earth's garden with large scale abstract paintings, many of my works are created as multi-canvases designed to wrap the space with soothing colors and energizing radiance. 

Fagan's paintings "wrap us in the colors of the light." The light of which the artist speaks is visible in all of her creations; a light that generates a most mystical glow, perceptible by only the most sensitive soul."

Georgia Massari, curator Milan, Italy

Dorothy Fagan

Collected in the United States and internationally by the Musée de La Grande Vigne, City University of New York, Camp Lejeune Mental Health Center, and Vir Biotechnology. 

Fagan works from her pond landscape, creating life-size paintings that function as mirrors of an energetic, physical connection to the earth. Using a palette knife and willow branches alongside dense impasto and charcoal drawing, her process allows gesture and material to register movement, rhythm, and flow without interruption. Drawing and painting converge as equal forces, producing surfaces that retain the trace of pressure, erosion, and renewal.

Dorothy Fagan's work emerges from a sustained, decades-long engagement with the landscapes of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Since graduating from college in 1974, she has painted continuously across this territory, allowing geography, water systems, and lived experience to shape an evolving visual language rooted in presence, movement, and material sensitivity.

Fagan holds a BFA in Printmaking and Painting from East Carolina University. Her training in printmaking sharpened an early attentiveness to drawing, texture, and layered surfaces, which expanded organically throughout the late 1970s and 1980s as she produced pastel landscapes across Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and New York. During this time, Fagan mentored with art historian Robert B. Mayo, who encouraged her along the path of American Masters to look within herself to express her heart. Many of these early works focused on woodland streams near their Appalachian sources, establishing water as a central structural and emotional element in her practice.

Attiendre, collection Musee de La Grande Vigne, Dinan, France

A significant shift occurred in 2013 during a residency at the Musée de La Grande Vigne in Dinan, France, where Fagan began exploring the tension between organic and man-made structures within the landscape. This investigation continued through subsequent residencies in Italy, notably in Loro Ciuffenna, where she developed a heightened awareness of underground waterways and their unseen influence on surface forms. Returning to the United States in 2018, these experiences coalesced into a more embodied mode of painting.

Embodying earth's garden with large scale abstract paintings, many of my works are created as multi-canvases designed to wrap the space with soothing colors and energizing radiance.

Meet the artist at exclusive virtual & live events. 

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