SEASONS OF LIFE AND NATURE

MaiYap is an award-winning Chinese Panamanian artist and art instructor. She produces high-quality innovative paintings that bring happiness, social and environmental awareness. In her 30 years of experience, nature has always been an inspiration. She paints in a variety of techniques, ranging from realistic flowers utilizing traditional brushes, landscapes, seascapes, and abstracts done exclusively with palette knives to assemblages utilizing a variety of found objects. MaiYap’s unique ancestral combination, Chinese and Panamanian, shows in all her work. Her paintings are very delicate and intricate but are done in strong and vibrant tropical colors. From the beginning, her unusual close-up flowers helped her to establish herself as one of the best floral painters in South Florida, which landed her a position as an art teacher at the prestigious Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens. MaiYap is also a master colorist and palette knife instructor. Using only palette knives, she is the first to depict South Florida’s landscape in an impressionistic pointillism style. Her latest environmental abstracts question our beliefs and propel us to take action for the preservation of our planet. She has shown in over 100 selected galleries, museums, and art fairs nationally and internationally. MaiYap has organized and curated many of them to help raise funds for institutions like Sunshine Kids, Greater Miami Youth Symphony, Susan G. Komen, and South Florida Park Trust. She is the founder and director of Palette Knife Artists of Miami, the first group of its kind in South Florida, and Vice-President of the National League of American Pen Women Coral Gables branch. Her expertise has helped expand art programs at Fairchild Tropical Gardens, Village of Palmetto Bay, the Consulate General of Panamá in Miami, Coconut Grove Art Festival as a juror, among many others. Her work is on the permanent collection at the Village of Palmetto Bay, Florida International University, Saint Thomas University, University of Miami, Haegeumgang Museum in South Korea, and Panama’s Ministry of Culture. She received her education from the University of Georgia, where she earned a degree in Advertising and Graphic Design. She resides with her family in Miami, Florida. 

www.maiyap.com

Instagram: @maiyapfineart

Facebook: @maiyap.art

ARTIST’S STATEMENT 

Petals and Pistils – The Secret Language of Flowers Born in the Republic of Panama of Chinese parents, MaiYap has been able to magically blend East and West on canvas. Within the walls of her parent’s home, she was immersed in the beauty, balance, and perfection of millennial traditions passed on from one generation to another. Once outside these walls, her senses were overcome by the amazing colors, sounds, and energy of the Tropics. Panama provided a bustling backdrop of exciting people, places, and music. Most importantly, its natural surroundings provided the perfect artistic inspiration. With the Petals and Pistils series, she wishes to forever change the way people look at flowers. From being common and ordinary products of nature to unique miracles of this Earth. Her exquisite technique utilizes “extreme close-ups”. Through them, she compels the viewer to observe every detail, their powerful colors, and exuberant shapes which elicit wonder peacefully and joyfully. She intends to shock the senses and stir deep emotions. Viewers feel drawn to “let go” and immerse themselves in their amazing presence. In many, they evoke happiness, exhilaration, and even ecstasy…yet never indifference. As MaiYap’s art continues to address her key issues about the environment and humanity’s interactive role and responsibility, she hopes her flowers are reminders of how much there still needs to be done and the urgency to take action.