Surreal and captivating, Shara Hughes' paintings have an otherworldly quality. She paints entirely from imagination, dreaming up vibrant colors and abstract forms that refuse to abide by earthly rules and regulations. "They're made-up landscapes. It's not about the picture, it's about the act of painting" says the Brooklyn-based artist. 

Walking into her studio, the first thing you notice are paint tubes. There are hundreds of them, piled high in no apparent order atop a large wooden table. "I don't plan anything" she explains, "no palettes, no sketches…” And why would she? Hughes—who keeps a punching bag nearby for “stress-relief”—is not interested in the easy option. She’s fascinated with the pain of painting. The in-the-moment agony of deciding between a line here or there; this color or that: “It starts with an ink stain and then I make decisions as I go.” Her work is the product of a mind in search of answers through the act of intuitively applying color to canvas. As she says, “I never really know how it's going to turn out."