About

janimg

I began drawing and painting as a child growing up in rural Oregon and credit an elementary teacher for her support during those years.  She was supportive of my artistic inspiration and she opened up the world beyond crayons and pencils….including soap scultures!

I won an award in Jr. High School for a landscape watercolor and that sealed my fate, it seems.  In high school, my college prep schedule only left me with one elective and just having started playing the viola, the school orchestra became my choice (after all, I was an artist already wasn’t I?)

Although I was not able to take regular art classes throughout high school, I brazenly declared Fine Art as my major in college and learned the hard way how much I didn’t know.

After college, I worked in Eureka, San Francisco and Los Angeles in the commercial art field for many years for ad agencies, art studios, and newspapers doing mostly illustration and page design. I continued my art education through extension classes at UCLA and various workshops.

My life in art took a turn in the late sixties when I discovered quilts.  For many years, designing and selling original quilts (including some with appliqued landscapes as centers of interest) took the place of paint and brush for my outlet. I never gave up drawing and painting entirely, but those wonderful fabrics kept me enthralled for many years.  It was also during this time that I moved from the less dependable commercial art field to the corporate world for a better salary and benefits. So, with not that much spare time, choosing between quilting and painting was difficult.

The painting allure was always there, however and for a couple of years before retiring in 2007, I began getting back into painting through the the use of many art books, as well as workshops in watercolor with Brenda Madson and Tony Lynch as well as pastels with Maggie Price.

Today, with the wonderful array of materials to choose from, I spend most of my time creating works in pastel and watercolor or drawings in graphite or ink and wash, but some days I hear the oil paints calling and expect I’ll be back to them soon.  (Isn’t retirement wonderful?).

Associations:

Lakewood Artist Guild
Associate Member California Art Club Associate Member
National Watercolor Society

Theme by RoseCityGardens.com