Fairhope painter Faye Earnest’s ecological subject matter is tried and true, but her constantly evolving use of texture and color makes her work anything but ordinary. When she first started painting (thirty years ago) she drew inspiration from the earth and environment. At that time, Earnest filled her canvases with romantic Southern landscapes. But after visiting the Southwest, she altered her aesthetic viewpoint to explore the abstraction of nature in all its forms and luminosities. Her everchanging abstractions are conceptual and effortlessly curious. “Shapes of life intrigue me,” says Earnest. Using vivid acrylic and mixed media, she creates the inner compositions of life itself. She searches for the minute details: the geological strata, the materiality of the terrain, the minerals and metals beyond the earth’s surface. With three art degrees under her belt and work showing in Europe, New York, the American South, and beyond, Earnest’s unique confrontation with the ineffable mystery of nature speaks to many who are similarly intrigued by the unknown. “The Earth is a continuous, evolving subject matter,” she remarks. “The work is unending.”