Maria Maneos, 39, of North Wales
An abstract colorist whose multifaceted oils are about light and flow rather than specific scenes. http://mariamaneos.blogspot.com
Maria Maneos can spend 12 hours painting alone in her basement, brush in hand, Michael Bublé on the radio. She appreciates every moment because it took her more than 20 years to get there.
After starting a family young and skipping the usual college track, she went back to school in her late 20s and now, after more than a decade of study, she will graduate next month with a master's degree from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts - all while holding down a job cleaning offices to help pay the bills.
"I think painting is my love affair," said Maneos, 39, who lives in North Wales. "I get into this other world and there's no other way to describe it. It's frustrating and I get mad and I rip up canvases and then I love it."
The art of color and blending has been with her since she was a child growing up in Chester. Unable to play outside in an unsafe neighborhood, she spent hours with her crayons.
"It's really all I ever did - color," she said. "When people bring up TV shows [from that time], I'm just clueless."
Maneos got married at 20, had her first child at 21, and was divorced at 26. It was a hard road, she said, but it also gave her a new start.
At 27, Maneos entered Arcadia University. She had never really picked up a brush until college, but once she took an oils class, she was hooked and became a painting major.
"Because it doesn't dry too fast, it's flexible for me to change something or remove something," she said. "You can blend one color into another without it seeming forced."
She describes herself as an "abstract colorist," and her work is sort of a moving color wall, without a specific focus or goal. It's a minimal approach, drawing inspiration from light coming through clouds or a pattern on a plate.
In 2007, an interior designer saw her work through a friend and started commissioning pieces on behalf of clients. But a majority of Maneos' sales come from student shows or through her online blog. Her works sell for $150 to $3,500.
And while her longtime partner helps with living costs, Maneos still cleans offices 20 hours a week. It was something she started when she first came to Arcadia and needed a job that would accommodate student hours without stress.
As graduation approaches, Maneos isn't sure what comes next.
There's the academy's annual student exhibition May 14 and a show on Long Beach Island. She is certain of one thing: At the end of the day, there's always her basement.
"I've had people tell me 'The surface of the paintings are so luscious - I just want to lick them,' " she said. "I hope they didn't, but if they did, well, I'll never know!"
