Felicia Ray The Artist

She is the creator of a new art concept, born out of curiosity and it is called “Mat Board Art by Felicia.” What is it?

Creativity Plus! Don’t miss the opportunity to view “Mat Art by Felicia” at the Hallandale Cultural Community Center, located at 410 Southeast 3rd Street, Hallandale Beach, Florida, 33009, behind City Hall.

January 4th, 2022 – February 25th, 2022
Monday – Thursday from 7:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

You are invited to the artists Meet and Greet on January 11th, 2022 from 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. This would provide you the opportunity to come face to face with the artist and discuss any questions you might have. A free raffle will be available which will provide at least three guests with a small gift from the artist. If any sales of artwork are produced by this event, the artist will be donating 10% to a humanitarian charity and a 10% donation to ArtServe, who provide classes and workshops for budding artists and a 10% discount on the artwork. If you are not available for January 11th, 2022, there will be another Meet and Greet date on February 9th, 2022. Due to COVID-19 Regulations, masks will be required and no food can be served.

You may ask, what’s so special about this artwork? How did it come into existence? Felicia has created a new technique for textured artwork by scraping, layering and digging into mat boards on canvas. As you may know, mat boards are usually used to frame art. In this case, the mat board is the artwork! Although she was told this would not work due to mat boards being so unpredictable, she conquered this material through endless experimenting until the process was perfected. The paper scrapings are not discarded. At times they are added to the painting to add additional interest and textures to the artwork.

The artist’s recent works and future pieces can also be seen on her website at: FeliciaRayArt.com and she is on Facebook and Instagram. On the web-site, you will find glimpses of her work which can be clicked on to view the full image and then zoomed in so as to see the intricacies and textures of the pieces. Felicia invites you to visit her on her Facebook and Instagram pages for new projects and exhibits.

The artist’s work is suitable for home décor, commercial office spaces and restaurants, because the pieces are abstract and of various sizes and shapes. If someone likes the style, but can’t find the right size, shape or color, the artist accepts commissioned work. She also welcomes contact from art galleries or other venues that may desire to exhibit her work in the future, and join with her on her artistic journey.

Felicia Ray is originally from New York, but has been a long time resident of Hollywood, Florida. She started painting exclusively with watercolor, however has expanded her medium to include acrylics. In addition to English, she also speaks Spanish, which she learned while living in Venezuela over several years. The artist has played tennis at the Golden Isles Tennis Center for many years and has various friends and acquaintances in Hallandale.

Her journey in art started when she first attended a high school art class as an elective. To her surprise she realized she had a love for art. Initially her interest was in fashion design, but her inability to attend the Art Institute of New York at that time, cut that dream short. After a stint in Corporate America she finally found the time to dedicate to her first love of art. Eventually her creative juices started to flow again when a store owner of a business on Las Olas asked her to paint palm trees, she thought, I can do that! Every depiction of palm trees sold quickly. Afterwards she was consumed with her own version of the Japanese art form of Sumi-E. Almost everything had a bamboo tree in it or something similar. Previously her paintings were of a small, to medium size, to be attractive to tourists wanting to take home a souvenir. Soon afterwards, with the guidance of an art gallery owner in Fort Lauderdale, she was encouraged to go outside her comfort zone and she started producing larger pieces of watercolor paintings, in addition to the smaller ones, with a flair toward the abstract.

The next phase of her journey, which is “Mat Board Art by Felicia” happened accidentally when she found her artistic niche while experimenting with layering, scraping and digging into a mat board to see what effect it would produce and the possibilities it had to offer.

She didn’t start small. A 30” x 40” mat board was used initially to discover and evaluate the results. Would it be trash or a masterpiece? Voila! To her surprise it came out so unique and interesting that it had to be pursued further. It was admired among friends and acquaintances and she was immediately commissioned to do a piece. The interest was encouraging.

A new art technique was born and the artist has coined the name “Mat Board Art by Felicia” which describes the textured mat board finished artwork. Her minimalistic abstract collections range in color from soft seafoam, beige and browns to bright and colorful pieces. The process of establishing the textures on the mat boards is quite time consuming and requires many hours of effort. She has determined that there are over 23 steps involved in completing a piece, whether it be large or small. It is a labor of love and extremely rewarding for her.

The artist’s goal is looking forward to wherever this new and unique art form is taking her. What is important to the artist is to have her pieces displayed and enjoyed by admirers of her work.