Maureen Chatfield (b. 1948) is a contemporary American artist whose work fuses the energy of New York Abstract Expressionism with the lyricism of Bay Area Figurative painting. Her process is intuitive and spontaneous, allowing shapes, lines, and color harmonies to emerge organically rather than from preplanned compositions. Each painting is a direct response to the emotional and experiential forces shaping her life, translating memories, feelings, and lived experiences into color and form.

Her work evolves through layered experimentation, with traces of previous layers, pentimento, revealing depth and complexity. Chatfield’s non-objective works arise from introspection, while her abstracted landscapes draw inspiration from nature, filtered through her singular internal lens. Influences such as Arshile Gorky, Philip Guston, Richard Diebenkorn, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, and Nicolas de Staël guided her evolution into abstraction.

Chatfield studied at the Art Students League, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Fashion Institute of Technology, and Hunter College. Painting since childhood, she began with oils and now primarily works in acrylics on large canvases, enabling rapid layering and vibrant color effects. For Chatfield, painting is a dynamic process of discovery, unplanned, invigorating, and continually transforming. Her work demonstrates a dialogue between emotional resonance, formal experimentation, and the ongoing evolution of color and composition, positioning her within a lineage of American abstract and figurative innovation.