Glow - 24" x 20"

24” x 20” Acrylic on canvas

Portia Mortensen was born in Zimbabwe,  Africa in 1970 and lived most of her adult life there. The core experience of her life is African. Tertiary education was done in London, United Kingdom. After meeting her husband she moved to California and lived there for 5 years. They recently moved to a small farm in Pennsylvania where Portia paints and trains her horses.

I would describe my paintings as “notations of balance”. This series of paintings is inspired by three major influences: the canopy of color suspended through the change of season in my adopted home of Pennsylvania; my relationship to the horses I train and learn from everyday; and the concept of visual pattern that is found in written language. These influences all converge to determine the feel, movement and content of each piece.