cowgirlatart
cowgirlatart
| Forum role | Member since | Last activity | Topics created | Replies created |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Member | Sep 5, 2011 (14 years) |
- | 2 | 0 |
- Forum role
- Member
- Member since
Sep 5, 2011 (14 years)
- Last activity
- -
- Topics created
- 2
- Replies created
- 0
Bio
My body of artwork focuses on everyday rural life of cowgirls, farms and country households. The impetus for my content is the close ties I have with rural Colorado. My parents were farmers who struggled all their life to raise their four children and two siblings. We lived a bucolic life, moving often between the country and town. They worked hard at many types of jobs in farming, trucking and bakeries. My work helps me piece together that pastoral past and connect with the parts I miss so much. My artwork gives me an excuse to be around these people and places I’m most comfortable with and allows me to re-enter that world for a few rare moments. I try to capture that atmosphere in my paintings.
I largely work from my own photographs; planning out the canvas paintings, investigating the detail and breaking apart the scenes by manipulating them using computer techniques to reposition the elements or to transform the image through filters. I experiment with the layout and color and technique by constructing small practice drawings and paintings, which sometimes become the finished piece. When I work in watercolor and ink, I try to capture surprising details in a common subject. When working in oil, I build layers of texture and paint expressionistic images with exaggerated color. The challenge and encompassing feeling of working with a large surface is where I'm most comfortable.
I started doing a bit of commissioned portraiture recently. It began with a few portraits commemorating important life events when family and friends united for births, graduations, weddings and funerals. The contemporary portraits are done in watercolor, painting only the flesh and mounting on foam board giving the finished piece a 3-dimensional or sculpture appeal.
I produced art all my life, but made a living working in computer technology. After a life-changing event in 2000 and a couple of years returning to study at Berkeley, I committed myself to my artwork. I am currently working on a body of work featuring working cowgirls.
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