subject: Nature Inspires An Artist [print this page] As much as she loved riding them, one female artist loved drawing horses as a child. A career painting horses and other subjects of the natural world became possible for the artist thanks to her early training plus her many years of experience. A number of dogs, hens, horses, and reindeer can be seen in her pastel and watercolor paintings.
Her age was 11 when her family from Philadelphia moved to the present county. Aside from her father who was a commercial artist, also painting as a hobby were her mother and sister. When it comes to drawing, her father says that this is real important to an artist. Such details are evident in the structure of the animals she paints.
What she loves to paint are animals and she expanded this to painting dogs and cats. Not only do they have a cat but she and husband have two dogs in their present home too. What she also does is paint pets for private commissions.
You can say that distinctly standing out in her paintings is light from the bright white of daylight to the darker amber hues of evening. What she considers important in her paintings is a sense of light. It is because of this that she uses watercolor. When it comes to watercolor, what she has is a series of transparent washes going over paper. A white piece of paper glows through the paint. Light created in a different manner happens with oil paint.
It is necessary for artists to paint around the white when using watercolor. Adding the light when artists make use of oil follows the painting in the dark shadows. The challenge of luminosity in oil paintings is what the artist would like to deal with at some point in her career. Having some time painting in oil is what she would like considering how she loves the impressionists.
Her move to the present location at the countryside from the former town is what inspires her nowadays. As she explores the back roads, she takes photographs of the old farmhouses and landscapes in the foothills. Oftentimes, she is concerned when the old farmhouses get torn down. When it comes to acknowledging and protecting the old houses, she feels the urgent need to paint them. It is the historic architecture which she loves.
Still life paintings are another favorite of this passionate artist. She suggests texture and detail with subtlety instead of painting with a photographic style or with realism. When it comes to her paintings of pets, these focus a lot on the detail and the animal's facial expressions. Where she went to other than a known school of art is the Maryland institute college of art in Baltimore. Her line of work for much of her career was as a nurse although her professional painting stint began at age 25. What she did was establish her credentials as a painter through the years mostly in areas involving portraits, florals, pets, and architectural subjects. She still works one day a week as a nurse though.
