Member Artists Profiles

 

I was born in Eastern Canada and immigrated to the U.S. with my family when I was twelve.

 

From an early age I loved to draw. I took lessons in oil painting from my mother, who taught classes for several years in Southern California. I later studied painting in oils with Rosemary Calder, a well known artist and teacher in the San Fernando Valley, CA.

 

In 1978, my husband and I and our two sons moved to Washington State and I went back to working full time, so my artwork got put on the back burner.

 

After retiring, I began painting again, this time in watercolor. My artwork is inspired by the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest. I love to travel, both in the U.S. and abroad, painting the beautiful people and places I see along the way.

I am a member of Art League North and the Cultured Pallet artists in Anacortes.  I sell my art through commissions and local art shows.

 

I really love the process of dropping wet color on paper.  If I produce something that successfully expresses my feelings about the subject matter, so much the better.   I can become totally immersed in my art but I also feel that artists are the best group of people to be with – fun, motivating and supportive.  Had I only known all this earlier....

 

I was born in Madison, WI, and grew up in the locked city of Los Alamos, NM, where the scientific community did not think art-related subjects were necessary in our local schools.  I graduated from the Univ. of New Mexico and from Chapman University with degrees in accounting and computer science.  I retired from a career in public accounting as a CPA and, in private accounting, in financial management and computer information systems.

After retiring and settling in Anacortes, I finally began to use the other side of my brain to learn about watercolor painting.  I quickly saw what I had been missing.  I have also pursued a long-time interest in photography, finding it to be a good adjunct to painting.

I have attended local classes and workshops with various artists including Jennifer Bowman, Caroline Buchanan, Dotti Burton, Dee Doyle, Nancy Fulton, Roxanne Grinstad, Ruby Martin, Larry Mason, Esther McLatchy, Glen Oberg, Ann Olwin, Marty Rogers, Teresa Saia and Donna Watson.

Involvement in art has led me to great adventures. I attended a Sedona, Arizona and Grand Canyon workshop in the fall of 2001.  I took a workshop in Burlington, Washington, with Karlyn Holman from Wisconsin, which led to trips to the south of France, Italy and San Diego with Karlyn leading and teaching small groups of artists.  In 2009 I attended a workshop given in Oregon by Paul Jackson.  I have also taken trips with local artist friends to Hawaii and Cannon Beach, Oregon.

 

In addition to Art League North, I am a member of Artists Northwest, the River Gallery group, the Painted Ladies, and the Cultured Palette. 

 

 

Art has been a lifelong passion and love, however intentions to become an artist in earlier years got derailed by life events.  Although I started in art and fashion in school, I graduated with a Political Science degree.

After raising a family and working as a single parent for many years, I returned to my first love, art, and attended a local community college for art courses and matriculation toward an Associate Degree in art.   

In 2005, I relocated to the Pacific Northwest to be closer to family.  I continued to take art classes at area Senior Centers, and now teach in several Centers in Skagit County.

 

I have also attended numerous workshops with nationally known artists, including Janet Rogers, Ted Nuttall, Nicholas Simmons and Myrna Wacknov.  Whenever I can, I attend demonstrations by other artists in various parts of the country.

I belong to Art League North , and show and sell watercolors and acrylic paintings at regional art shows.   

 

Born in Holland, Pien received her art education in Amsterdam athe Rijks Academie van Beeldende Kunsten (Academy of Fine Art).  She was a sculptor in her early years, her largest work being a twenty foot bronze which stands at the entrance to the Singer Museum in the Netherlands.

Pien works in watercolors and oils, and also did etchings.  She has received many awards and is a multiple winner of the Foss Maritime calendar competition.

Her art is in private and corporate collections and is presented in local galleries and throughout the NOrthwest.

She and her husband reside in La Conner where she enjoyes the outdoors, gardening and her first love, painting.

I graduated in 1968 with a degree in Fine Arts from Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. Since then I have worked as both a full-time staff artist and as a freelance professional. In 1976, I dropped my commercial work to devote full time and energy to painting. My work is in many collections here and abroad, corporate and private.  The majority of my work consists of large, colorful acrylic paintings and smaller, more intimate watercolors which are often painted on location. Currently I’m working on several commissions, portraits, Northwest landscapes, and of course paintings just for the fun of it.

Julie Yao was born in China and moved toTaiwan at an early age with her parents who were sent there by the Chinese government to establish a daily newspaper. Taiwan had been returned to China following the defeat of Japan in 1945, but in 1949 mainland China fell to the Communist forces led by Mao Zedong and Julie and her family remained in Taiwan.

Julie is a graduate of the Natonal Taiwan Academy of Arts where she was a drama major. She began her acting careeer at age 18, and worked on stage, in movies and television. Among her most famous roles was that of Mao Zedong’s wife, Jiang-Qin, for which she was nominated best supporting actress for the “Golden Horse Award”, Taiwan’s equivalent of the Oscar.

 

When she left Taiwan in 1981 and moved to Seattle with her American husband, Julie took up painting. She has taken lessons from many prominent artists in the Northwest and her paintings have been exhibited in a number of shows including the folllowing:

Juried Shows

Eastside Association of Fine Arts (EAFA)                  -1988, 89, 90, 91

Mercer Island Visual Arts League (MIVAL)                  - 1989

Lake Washington VOCTECH Harvest of the Arts      - 1989

Pacific Resources in the Major Arts (PRIMA) - 1990, 1991  

Northwest Watercolor Society Association                -1990

Winner of “People’s Choice” award, 1991 EAFA show

Non-juried shows

Puget Sound Art League Member’s Show                 -1990, 1991

Youth Eastside Services One Woman Show                        -1991

Youth eastside Services Art Exhibition                       - 1991, 1992

PACCAR  “Artist of the Month” Show                         -1992

 

In 1992, Julie and her husband moved to Santa Fe, NM where she continued her studies with well known Southwest artists, learned portrait painting and participated in a number of shows. Her paintings have been auctioned for many years at the “Women in the Arts” auction benefiting the Sangre de Cristo Girl Scout Council where they have received among the highest bids. Julie was represented in Santa Fe by Pipe Dreams Gallery on Canyon Road.

In 2005 Julie and her husband returned to Washington State where they now live in Anacortes.

 

Julie has experimented with all the major media, but prefers to work in oils. She particularly likes portrait painting and pointillist oil and watercolor painting.

 

 

Belle is a native of Minnesota.  She and her husband moved to Washington in 1960 when he accepted a teaching/coaching position in the Shoreline School District.

Belle does not have a formal education in art, but she has always had an avid interest in the arts.  She has taken many workshops and classes locally as she has pursued her interest in ceramics, decorative painting, and oil painting during the years she was employed and raising a family.

Belle began working with the watercolor medium after she retired and has taken a number of local workshops from other watercolorists.

Recently, she became interested in mural painting and collages and has completed five murals with with acrylics -- three in Palm Springs, California, and two locally.  One of her collages is featured in the advertisement for the Art League North February Art Show at the Depot Gallery in Anacortes, Washington.

Belle currently lives in Mount Vernon, Washington.  She is a member of the local art group,Art League North.

 

I have been interested in outdoor/nature photography for the last 15 + years, and am basically self-taught.  I first started photgraphing the flowers in my garden.  When I found one to be actually in focus, I framed it!  It gave me a good feeling of accomplishment, so I continued beyond my garden.

I find now that I am particularly interested in photgraphing "The Barns of Skagit County," and have recorded about 260 -- so far.  I thoroughly enjoyed composing photographs of these amazing structures.  The American barn is disappearing from our landscape alarmingly fast.  It may not evoke the nostalgia of the one-room schoolhouse or a covered bridge, but for more than two centuries it has stood as a symbol of hard work and a rural way of life.  No one knows how many old barns still exist.  The Midwest once had 10,000 barns painted with Mail Pouch Tobacco advertisements -- a free paint job in exchange for ad space.  Now only a few hundred remain.  I wonder how many are left in Skagit County?  Hopefully, my efforts will help preserve -- by recording -- these vanishing examples of American history.

I also enjoy photographing wildflowers (actually all flowers), waterfowl, scenery, and of course, the tulips of Skagit Valley.

I belong to Art League North, and exhibit my work at various galleries, art shows, craft fairs, and, on occasion, at the Mount Vernon Farmers Market.  I do free-lance photography for brochures and local businesses and have been published nationally.

                                                                               

Certificate in Botanical Illustration

NY Botanical Gardens  New York, NY

Parsons School of Design-Design Classes, New York, NY

Tis Huberth

Alex Powers

Dianna Shyne

Barbara Fugate

Joe McKechnie

Dan Riley

 

Renton Annual Art Show

Western Washington Fair Art Show

Kenmore Art Show

Seahurst Art Gallery

NW Collage Society Show

Canterbury Fair Art Show

Arts Alive Annual Show in LaConnor, Washington

Western Washington Fair Art Show – Honorable Mention

I have been rendering art for as long as I can remember, first with oils and drawing materials. Later, family responsibilities and work competed with my time leaving me only random opportunities to pursue this life-long passion. Since moving to the Pacific Northwest, I have intensely investigated acrylics enjoying their quick drying time and less toxic chemicals. Through my abstract paintings with acrylics I have discovered the many facets of utilizing acrylics to apply texture with just the paint alone.  I love the way you can build texture with these paints…almost like sculpting. I also love to experiment with using the many acrylic products, mediums and gels, that are available to explore texture even further. Always interested in drawing and painting the human figure, I am now trying to combine my knowledge of acrylics and texture with figure drawing and painting.

 

 

Ever since I was a child I have enjoyed drawing and painting.  I grew up in Sweden, and in school my favorite subject was art.  Later on, when I was studying business, art was not offered so I signed up for correspondence classes in art.

Many years later, while living in California, I used to take night classes in oil painting when my two children were small and my husband could babysit. Then I got too busy with child rearing and work to find time for art, but I always intended to get back to it some day. One day I signed up for some classes in Japanese sumi painting offered by the local community college where I lived. It was something completely new to me, and I really enjoyed doing something creative again.

After I retired and moved to Anacortes, WA in 1995, I was looking for some art classes and found out that a class was offered in pen and ink drawing by a local artist, Mike Stark.  Then I got acquainted with Roxanne Grinstad through the Anacortes International Folkdancers and started to take lessons in acrylic tole painting from her at the Burlington Senior Center.  Later on I signed up for a class in watercolor painting taught by Esther McLatchy where I met some of the people I still paint with on a regular basis.  After Esther retired we, her students, formed the River Gallery Group, and since the spring of 2003 we have had two shows per year at the River Gallery in LaConner.

I continued to take classes in watercolor, acrylic and Chinese brush painting from Roxanne Grinstad for several years. I have also taken several watercolor workshops offered by some of our local artists like Carol Orr, Teresa Smith, Bart Rulon and Marty Rogers.  In addition I have attended a couple of workshops taught by Carolyn Holman, a fine artist from Wisconsin.  In 2001 I went on a week-long watercolor workshop in Sedona and Grand Canayon, AZ.

I have studied Sumi-E brush painting from Barbara Nickerson through the LaConner Art Workshops and also how to paint impressionistic landscapes in acrylics from Dianna Shyne, a Seattle artist. Patty Weber of LaConner is another artist who taught me how to paint with acrylics.

In 2006 I got introduced to pastels in workshops taught by Faye Kazdal Castle, Sheila Rieman and Dawn Emersen. Dawn specializes in painting animals in pastel. Birds and animals are some of my favorite subjects.

During the last two years I have taken three classes from local artist Caroline Buchanan, who is a watercolor artist.  She taught me how to put people in my landscapes and about composition, which is such an important part of a painting, and also the role of color.

I have for some time had on-going lessons in watercolor painting from Ruby Martin, a LaConner artist and also from Dee Doyle, also from LaConner, who taught me how to paint "Faces and Figures". I have learnt something new from each of these artists, but there's always so much more to learn, and I love the challenge to try something new and different.  I'm happy to be at a point in my life when I can devote a lot of time to the things I love, one of which is to create art, but I also love a lot of other things like gardening, hiking, dancing and skiing. 

I belong to Art League North, a group of artists who puts on the Art Bash show during the Tulip Festival and also organizes a show during Arts Alive in LaConner in November.  Every week I get together with a group of artists in Anacortes to paint. We call ourselves the Cultured Palette, and we all love what we do.  

Art opened up a whole new world when I enrolled at Skagit Valley College at age 70, after retirement.  Art League North was the organization under Bob Williams and his wife, Virginia, where the artists encouraged me to improve by continuing at seminars with fine teachers such as Carol Orr, Marty Rogers, Jennifer Bowman, Carol Merrick, Ruby Martin and many others.

I have shown paintings at he Shelter Bay clubhouse and the Annual Tulip Festival Art Bash.  Each year, I have donated a painting at Arts Alive and MONA in La Conner.

 

My love of drawing and painting simmered on the back burner until my husband Jim and I moved to Anacortes in 2000.  As many do, I took a workshop every five years or so, only to put my newly purchased supplies in the closet until another five years passed by.

 

Exiting the Anacortes Library one day I spotted several women painting with watercolors in the conference room.  When I peeked in the window to get a better look they motioned me in and said I was welcome to join them.  This group, known as the Cultured Palette, is an eclectic group of watercolor and pastel artists who meet each Friday afternoon to paint.   I went home that day feeling like the prospector who discovered gold.   

My watercolors are not done with great detail.  I try to represent the “gist of it” (the subject) and share my emotion.  I feel very fortunate to have the support of my family and friends, and an opportunity to pursue my love of art.

 

Attended workshops by:  Kathryn Kaye, Stan Miller, Stella Canfield,   Caroline Buchanan, Dee Doyle,Virginia Dusenbury

Member of:  Art League North, Artists Northwest, and Cultured Palette

My paintings are currently at the Whidbey Island Visitor Center and Gallery and Art Bash at the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.  I also participate in many other Art shows throughout the Northwest.

 

 

I have been drawing and painting and taking art lessons since the age of 8 years. Having a family and a job did interfere until 1998 when I started painting more.

 

In 2002, I decided to concentrate on watercolor and really love this media. I like to experiement with different art boards and aqua board canvas as well as watercolor paper. I also like to combine watercolor and ink pencil.

 

Color is everything to me and I love bright ones for my paintings.

My paintings have been displayed with the San Juan island marine conservation group and San Juan Gallery-new artists show-Friday Harbor, WA. I participated in Art on the Green in Coeur d' Alene, Idaho.

 

Previously, I was a member of the Coeur d' Alene  Art Association in Idaho.

 I loved taking lessons from Caroline  Buchanen and Kristy Gjesme of the San Juan Islands when I moved to Washington.

 

Everyone at Art League North is helpful and the demos are great. What a wonderful group of artists.

 

My name is Susan Wilkins Perrault and I grew up in Skagit Valley, Washington.  I majored in Art at College of the Holy Names in Oakland, CA and then at Western in Bellingham.  After being told by my Beginning Drawing teacher that it would be a good idea to think about branching out and  to specialize in something other than painting I concentrated on fabric design.  After college I made signs for businesses in Bellingham and Mount Vernon until I realized I needed to make money. 

 

I put aside the art for awhile until I discovered stained glass and worked on that until I had my first child and gave that up to concentrate on raising a family.  I took one oil painting class while my kids were in high school and loved it but lost my teacher to the inevitable ... she had to go back to work.  I floundered around for awhile but then after my husband retired we moved back to La Conner.

 

I found Art League North not long after I had raided Michaels, bought one of everything they had, and began painting again.  I've taken classes from both Dottie Burton and Dee Doyle.  What I paint comes from my head so my cats don't necessarily look like your cats, my people bend where I want them to bend and my rabbits all wear vests or hats.

Pat Sayre has been a resident of Anacortes for six years.  Basically self taught, she has been painting for over thirty years using watercolors, acrylics and collage.  Painting is one of her two passions -- the other is gardening, which explains why flowers are so strongly featured in her work.  Her inspiration comes from life experiences and her main interest is in color and its interplay with contrasts and light.

She is best known for her outdoor paintings.  They are simple vignettes of color, usually flowers.  Painted on sign board with exterior paint sealers and acrylics, these paintings are able to withstand the weather elements all year long, and can be shown on patios, fences, decks, porches and many other exterior surfaces.

Her latest work is abstract and mixed media, experimenting with textures and symbols which are framed canvas on canvas.  She also works on canvas wrapped in rice paper and painted with acrylics.  The results are uniquely organic.  These paintings range from impressionistic landscapes to abstracts and still life.

Sue uses photography as references in much of her work.  Some photgraphy is also availble for purchase. Extended visits to the Queen Charlotte Islands and British Columbia, Japan and  the Bird Sanctuary of Midway Island have added variety to her reference library.  Ongoing travels throughout the US, especially hiking in the Cascade Mountains, kayaking on the many area lakes and bays continually enlarge Sue's resource library.

Formal training began with the Art Instruction School of Minneapolis.  She has studied under numerous artists in a variety of mediums.  Sue takes ongoing workshops with the Coupeville Arts Center, and many individual workshops.  These continue to increase Sue's knowledge and ability to better portray the personalities of life or spectacular vistas of nature.

Sue paints in oil, pastel and watercolor in a style using fine detail, often giving a highly realistic representation.  Her work is in private collections throughout the US, Canada and Europe.

Sue's work is available as originals, various types and sizes of prints, and cards at numerous venue displays in the area.

Merchant Awards:  Numerous Skagit Art Association's Tulip Festival Award, Whatcom Art Guild Sea to Ski Art Festival Awards, and others.

Special Awards:  Award of Excellence by Museum of History and Art, Heritage Gallery Award, Private Trust Award, Skagit Art Association "Best Tulip Representation."

Juried Show Participation:  Edmonds Art Festival, Art By the Bay in Stanwood, Puyallup Fair's Fine Art Show, Coupeville Summer Festival, La Conner's Elements Festival, Allied Arts Holiday Show, and Seattle Co-Arts juried shows.

 

Publications:  Sue is one of the selected artist in the second edition book, Artists of the West."

Sue has many art group affiliations and and has participated in numerous group shows in the region. 

 

Betty Wilson trained as a physical therapist.  She moved to Shelter Bay in 1991 from Ketchikan, Alaska, her home for thirty years.

She had never touched a paintbrush before her mid-sixties, when she started taking watercolor classes.  She greatly enjoys the experience of combining form and color.

She has studied first, with Elder Hostel classes, then with Judi Betts, Teresa Saia, Caroline Buchanan, Esther McClatchy, Roxanne Grinstad, and Jennifer Bowman.

She has also painted and traveled in Ireland, Bulgaria, Italy and Switzerland with Karlyn Holman, a watercolor artist from Wisconsin.

This year she will have paintings hanging in the River Gallery on Dodge Valley Road as well as in the Art Bash.

I was always interested in painting but found that my surgical practice in Ketchikan left little time to explore the world of art.

Betty and I retired to Shelter Bay in 1991, and I soon started painting, initially in oils, and then in watercolor.  We have both taken many classes, including some Elder Hostel classes, and then discovered the joys of traveling with an Art Instuctor.  Karlyn Holman became our personal friend, and we traveled and painted in Ireland, Bulgaria, Alsace Lorraine, Italy and Switzerland.  In addition, we have taken workshops at the Coupeville Art Center and La Conner Art Workshops.

My interests are in watercolor primarily, but I like to try new techniques:  collage, mixed with pastel and watercolor, charcoal, and acrylics.  I like landscapes, but am intrigued with figurative art.  My latest exciting discovery is yupo, the synthetic plastic "paper."  Watercolor and acrylics flow and mingle on yupo.

I enjoy painting and feel most fortunate to have found great teachers and fellow artists in both the River Gallery group and in Art League North.

I hope to continue painting for years and enjoy it for as long as I can hold a paintbrush.