Impromtu

The Impromptu Collection conveys the energy of musicians and dancers expressing themselves through Jazz, latin beats, and quiet classical pieces. A prolific painter for many years, these paintings embody Marsha Hammel's mature Modernist vision centered around some of her favorite themes of the last 20 years.

The choreographer Eddie Toussaint once told me that the dancers in his ballet company are colors and he composed performances with their individual color and tones as creative elements, the dance becoming a living painting.

It is this sense of movement, sound and atmosphere that I strive to create with drawings and paintings of figures with musical instruments. The subject is the music with the musicians being iconic and stylized representing all those who devote their creative lives to the music, not just the few who are famous.

Since I began the motif in New Orleans in the 70's this collection is my Monument to Musicians.