Maria Trimbell’s evocative decorative work reimagines traditional themes with a timeless, poetic vision and a lyrical lightness of touch.
Over 25 years working with celebrated designers and creative clients locally, nationally, and internationally, Maria is known as a trusted and versatile collaborator, hand painting ethereal scenics and bespoke architectural finishes that feel resonant and transportive. Subtlety, authenticity, and reverence for nature’s ephemeral beauty deeply inform her inventive yet time-honored approach.
Working from her remote California coastal atelier, Maria now offers a line of made-to-measure fine art canvas printings of her original murals while continuing to travel for select commissions.
A love of nature, art and architecture (and an encounter with a Titian painting in a book) captured decorative artist Maria Trimbell's creative imagination from an early age. Born and raised in California to a family that revered wild spaces and encouraged her artistic gifts, Maria spent her youth drawing, exploring outdoors, and honing her skills through private art lessons.
An influential summer "grand tour" of Europe in a VW van with her family at seventeen included a visit to the Louvre that brought Maria closer to the paintings that touched her from childhood, and further fueled her passion for art.
After earning a BFA (summa cum laude), Maria continued to travel to Europe frequently to absorb the art and ambience, from Palladian Villas to the Alhambra. Several years working as art director for a high-end decorative painting company gave her hands-on site experience and the desire to specialize in the more artistic aspects of the trade, and she soon started her own business, fortuitously earning a dream commission in Venice, Italy – to paint a whole room scenic mural in a building where Titian himself once lived and worked. From that moment, Maria's career found a fertile path.
With frequent commissions from talented designers (mainly the renowned Michael S. Smith) and creative clients in the U.S. and abroad - and now creating her own line of original mural wallcoverings - Maria continues to be informed and inspired by her travels, with an innate drive to create distinctive work, broaden her scope, and always welcome serendipity.
Master Printer and photographer (and Maria's husband) Steven Ouimet was born in the San Francisco Bay Area to an artist/designer mother and engineer/photographer father who met and married in Yosemite, and from the start was intimately steeped in photography, art, and cutting edge technology.
After studying architecture at USC on a sports scholarship, Steve quickly pivoted when he discovered the enticing new field of desktop publishing in his early 20’s. With his fine art and tech-fertile background and innate creativity, Steve’s focus gradually shifted toward fine art reproduction, and over decades of work he has earned a reputation for his highly specialized skills, delivering impeccable results with a discerning eye. His impressive client list includes the Getty Museum, the Smithsonian, the Norton Simon Museum, Disney, a roster of classic rock and roll photographers, and many others (including being the official reproduction artist for the Shroud of Turin).
Steve’s lifelong passion for photography has led to numerous professional portrait commissions as well as inclusion in fine art photo exhibitions nationwide. His current partnership with Maria, capturing and fine-art printing her original murals, is a fulfilling culmination of his diverse interests and seasoned skills.