Spotlight on Karen Offutt, Texas Top Ten 2016

Lena (Head Study), 10"x10", oil on panel

Name: Karen Offutt 

Current City: Austin, Texas

Website/Blog:  www.karenoffutt.com

1) When and how did you first become seriously interested in Art?

     I've been drawing and painting all my life.  Every job along the way, has always been art related one way or another.  Such as painting custom tile work, designing for a needlepoint company, and painting fantasy furniture.  But I had a strong pull towards fine art painting.

2) What is your training, and what medium(s) / subject matter do you work in?   

     While knowing how to draw and also paint with acrylics, I wanted to learn oil painting.  I took classes through Austin Fine Arts Classes, over 15 years ago, to learn that medium and to fine tune my drawing skills.  From there I took various workshops from well know national artists. 

3) What do you try to express in your work? 

     I am a realism painter.  I love to explore different ways in creating an emotion and a sense of place.  But I'm especially drawn to painting people.  Whether it's a portrait, a figurative piece or a landscape, for me, that's my personal connection. 

4) What artists/professionals have been your biggest influences?  

     It's almost too difficult to narrow down my influences.  I love Anders Zorn for example.  He's in the same circle, to me as Sargent and Sorolla, but because I have a lot of family in Sweden, I get to see that work in person more often than not.  But I love their approach to the beautiful paint application and how deliberate and calculating they are. But then I also love Lucien Freud's work in that it digs deeper into a personal psychology.  There are many more who I admire and also my contemporaries.

5) What do you do to gain new inspiration for your work?  

       I love to travel and get out of my cave so that I can open myself up to new ideas.  Getting out and seeing new gallery or museum shows help tremendously.  Sometimes when I get in a rut, I will do something creative for our house, like build a coat rack, paint some walls, do some sort of home project that's creative yet lets my mind free from the pressure.  Then something will click during that project and I'll have a reinvigorated  vision of what I want to paint next.

6) What would you like to be doing with your art ten years from now?  

     Things can really change over time.  It has for me from ten years ago to now.  The way I see the world, my approaches to my technique and how they have evolved, my outlook and inspirations, etc.  So, I suspect that things may change ten years from now.  But I have no clue as to how and what that will look like.  It's an evolutionary process and that to me is exciting.  So I'll have to say, to be continued........

7) Do you set goals for yourself concerning the making of your art?

      Well, I made a deal with myself.  If I don't have any deadlines and I've got some time that I'm not filling up with big, finished work, I will make small scale studies or paintings everyday so that I'm always connected to my art. 

8) Are you happy with your job choice as an artist? Do you have any regrets in this career choice or things you would have done differently?   

      I love to draw and paint so there is always a pull towards it.  I never see it as a "job", I see it as an opportunity.  Sometimes in the day to day grind, it can be challenging to get into the studio and do the work.  But, frankly, it feeds my soul.  I'm sure I'm not alone with this idea, but, I can't stop thinking about it.  It's something that I have to do.  It's very therapeutic! 

9) Any fun or interesting facts about yourself that you'd like to share?

     I am pretty active in that I go to the gym as much as possible and power walk.  I find it to be helpful in flushing out a lot of the traffic in the brain and it helps me to be more focused.   Travel has and always be part of my life and now as my young kids are getting older, I want them to have that same experience and wonder about our world.  And since my mom is from Sweden and most of my family lives there, I want them to have that connection to those relatives and their heritage.

10) Best piece of advice for other artists?  

     Always listen to your inner voice, in your art and in the business side of art.  And never stop learning=)

Spotlight on Dennis Farris, Texas Top Ten 2016

"Fred (Pa), Haunted House Volunteer"  36x38.5, oil on panel

Name: Dennis Farris
Current City: Fort Worth
Website: farrisart.com

1) When and how did you first become seriously interested in Art?
I have been drawing since I was a child, so it has been a constant all my life
in some way or another.

2) What is your training, and what medium(s) / subject matter do you work in?
I have a BFA in Commercial Art, plus I had a tremendous art program in High School.
The Art teacher Janice Malott, exposed us to drawing and painting, in water based and
oil paints, as well as air-brush, pottery, sculpture. We really had a chance to experience
a wide spectrum of media and develop a skill level in each. I also was taught by the artist Bob
Byerley when I was a teenager. He is a virtuoso with paint, his skills as a painter and storyteller were very influential in my artistic foundation.

3) What do you try to express in your work?
I am attracted to dramatic lighting and tend to convey that in my work. In my landscapes
I love to paint atmosphere, and in portrait or figurative work I like a lot of contrast between
the lights and darks. I like to paint things that make me go "wow".

4) What artists/professionals have been your biggest influences?  
The two I mentioned above were very influential. More recently the Hudson River School
of painters has had the most influence in my landscapes. I love the work of Sargent, and
Sorolla, although I have a very difficult time creating the big juicy brushstrokes they have,  I keep trying.

5) What do you do to gain new inspiration for your work?
Traveling is always good for new
inspiration when possible. Getting out of my everyday environment always sparks new ideas.
If travel isn't possible I will go through my catalog of reference photos and "revisit" a location in the studio to gain inspiration.Museums and art shows and nowadays perusing new artists on Facebook
are also options for getting out of a creative "funk".

6) What would you like to be doing with your art ten years from now?
I hope to be doing better paintings, to keep learning.

7) Do you set goals for yourself concerning the making of your art?
I think goals are very important for me to keep moving. I like to set a destination,
achieve it, and then reassess, and set a new destination. Art can be very fluid, so long term goals
for me tend to be broad, so if opportunity arises along the way I can be ready to see where it leads.

8) Are you happy with your job choice as an artist? Do you have any regrets in this career choice or things you would have done differently? 
I have absolutely no regrets. Sometimes I feel a little guilty that I am doing what I love, while so many people can't,
or won't, but I can't think of anything else I'd rather be doing.

9) Any fun or interesting facts about yourself that you'd like to share?
I love cycling, riding a bicycle is like an expression of freedom...and I love to get to the top of the hill first.I also love
volunteering and acting in Hangman's House of Horrors, a charity Haunted House in Fort Worth.Jumping out and
scaring someone so much that they scream out of the room is such an adrenaline rush...especially when then pay
to get in.

10) Best piece of advice for other artists?
Learn from everyone, but be yourself.

Spotlight on Gaye Sekula, Texas Ambassador

While waiting to hear from the rest of the Texas Top Ten Competition winners, I thought you might be interested in knowing more about me,  your Texas Ambassador.

"Abigail", 7"x 5", Pastel

Name: Gaye Sekula

Current City: Converse, Texas

Website: sekulastudio.com

Blog: gayesekula.blogspot.com

1. When and how did you first become seriously interested in art? I don't have a reference point from which to answer definitively but, it has been at least 10 years and has been almost all consuming.

2. What is your training and what mediums/subject matter do you work in? I have taken, and continue to take, workshops with the best artists I can afford. I also have an extensive DVD collection and library. I have spent most of my waking hours for the past 10 years studying and/or creating art. It is a labor of love and a source of pure joy. I am currently most interested in portraits, with landscapes running a close second. Vignettes of both are my passion.

3. What do you express in your work? I try to express a sense of place or personality, depending on the subject. While I admire fully rendered paintings, I much prefer the look of sketches/vignettes, which give the viewer the chance to fill in the blanks and create a story of their own.

4. What artists/professionals have been your biggest influence? Artists who have been most influential are Carolyn Anderson, Nicolai Fechin, Robert Liberace, Laura Robb, Joaquin Sorolla and Jeffrey Watts. Other professionals include Twyla Tharp and Dorothea Lange.

5. What do you do to gain new inspiration in your work? Head to New Mexico! When that isn't possible, I go through my collection of art DVD's, look at a favorite artist's work online or in books and, if I am feeling blocked, I take a workshop in a totally different medium.

6. What would you like to be doing with your art ten years from now? I find setting goals too far in advance to be a hindrance. If I wrote done goals for ten years from now, I would be too focused to notice other paths or opportunities that may open in the meantime. I try to keep my goals set to one year at a time. As I accomplish one goal, I immediately add another. Using the S.M.A.R.T acronym, (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely), has been one of the most effective things I have ever done.

7. Do you set goals for yourself? I do and rarely share them. Sharing goals seems to invite unsolicited advice. Keeping them to myself insures that I am hearing my own voice and staying on my own path.

8. Are you happy in your job choice as an artist? Do you have any regrets in this career choice or things you would have done differently? I am very happy with my job choice. It's impossible to live with a few regrets but, since we cannot change things, it is best to look forward rather than backwards.

9. Any fun or interesting facts about yourself you'd like to share? I would like to answer with a quote from Georgia O'Keeffe, "I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing that I wanted to do".

10. Best piece of advice for other artists? Your voice is just as important as anyone else's. Be who YOU were born to be!

Spotlight on Annie Walker, Texas Top Ten 2016

"The Hidden Person of the Heart", 20"x 16", Oil on Linen

Name:  Ann Kraft Walker
Current City:The Woodlands
Website: AnnKraftWalker.com

1) When and how did you first become seriously interested in Art?  

My mother was the most creative person I know. She made everything she touched beautiful. From an early age I was aware of many creative art forms. A fourth grade art teacher told me I should be an artist, so I tucked that away as a prospect. I majored in Art History in 1977 at UT ( the degree was chosen based on no math requirements ). Fast forward to the early 90's when my husband's job moved us and our three young children to northern Germany for a few years. It came over me all at once, standing in front of a Dutch floral painting in the Hermitage, St Petersburg, Russia. At that moment, I desperately wanted to learn to paint.

2) What is your training, and what medium(s) / subject matter do you work in? 

I began fooling around with paint in the mid 90's, but only tried my hand at folk art. I was mostly wife and mommy, so not much time went to art for many years. I gradually grew bored with folk art and began shifting toward realism. Progress was very slow, as some years I would only paint one work. My first oil painting was a still life, and I continue in oil and predominately still life work, but I love portraits too. In 2010 I began taking workshops and the learning curve accelerated.

3) What do you try to express in your work? 

Just beauty. I love plain, simple beauty. 

4) What artists/professionals have been your biggest influences?  

 I took a workshop from Casey Baugh when I knew next to nothing and I was so excited by what I was learning I could hardly stand it. I have been privileged to take from Rob Liberace, David Kassan, Jeff Hein, Michael Klein and most recently Josh LaRock.

5) What do you do to gain new inspiration for your work?  

I pray a lot. Often inspiration comes unexpectedly, almost subconsciously. Sometimes an idea will be planted as a tiny seed and grows slowly, or sometimes it hits me all at once.

6) What would you like to be doing with your art ten years from now?  

The same thing, only lots lots better I hope! I would like to focus more on portrait and figurative work and tackle more ambitious projects.

7) Do you set goals for yourself concerning the making of your art? 

A very important goal of late has been seeking balance in life and art. The first year or so after InSight Gallery took me on, I could not catch up to save my life. I became overwhelmed and stressed with deadlines, show entries, commissions and other commitments. That took a toll, robbed some of the joy and some very mediocre work resulted. I made some major changes and I've got the peace and joy back. I hope my work will improve as a result.

8) Are you happy with your job choice as an artist? Do you have any regrets in this career choice or things you would have done differently?  

Totally and completely happy. I am incredibly grateful for this privilege of making art!

9) Any fun or interesting facts about yourself that you'd like to share? 

When I was a little girl I had a pet raccoon that slept with me.

10) Best piece of advice for other artists? 

Although shows, competitions, accolades and such are all wonderfully fun, the very best and sweetest part of it all is just being at the easel. The process is a mixed bag of highs and lows, successes and failures and a zillion other things which make up a multifaceted gem that is solid joy. Enjoy the process!

Spotlight on Phil Boatwright, Texas Top Ten 2016

"Caroline", 30"x 20", Oil on Linen

Name: Phil Boatwright
Current City: Mesquite, Texas
Website: http://www.philboatwright.com

1) When and how did you first become seriously interested in Art?

I first became interested in art when I was a kid. My Dad was a part time artist, so it probably started there. It's all I've ever done and wanted to do.


2) What is your training, and what medium(s) / subject matter do you work in?

Going way back, I first started taking oil painting lessons at the local art and frame shop when I was 13. I studied with Bruce Greene, the western artist when I was in high school in the late 70's. We're from the same home town. I majored in illustration at East Texas State University which is now Texas A&M Commerce and was a freelance illustrator for 13 years before I discovered commissioned portrait painting, which I do full time now. I'm somewhat self taught, but had the opportunity to visit with Joe Bowler on a couple of occasions. He taught me more in two hours than I had learned the previous 25 years. I work primarily in oils. Most of my time is spent painting portraits, but recently have been doing more of my own painting. (Landscapes, old structures, cows and horses)

3) What do you try to express in your work?

I try to express or capture the essence of the subject I'm painting.

4) What artists/professionals have been your biggest influences?

My biggest influences are Rembrandt, Velazquez, and Andrew Wyeth. Their work really moves me. The way they use abstraction and interesting surface textures to create a very realistic image is what I'm after.

5) What do you do to gain new inspiration for your work?

Inspiration comes from a lot of different sources for me. I pour over art books a lot, study hi res images of paintings I like on the internet, art museums, even music videos and old photography. I spend way too much time on Facebook discovering new artists I like.

6) What would you like to be doing with your art ten years from now?

In ten years I hope to be painting more for myself, and less commissioned portraits.

7) Do you set goals for yourself concerning the making of your art?

The only goal I have as far as the making of my art goes is: Strive to make the next painting better than the one I just finished. I love to discover new things that I think will improve my painting.

8) Are you happy with your job choice as an artist? Do you have any regrets in this career choice or things you would have done differently?

I'm very happy painting commissioned portraits. It's a great way to make a living as an artist. No regrets.

9) Any fun or interesting facts about yourself that you'd like to share?

Years ago I was attending a Portrait Society Conference in New York being held at the Met. I got lost one morning in Central Park and missed Simmie Knox's presentation on painting Bill Clinton's official portrait for the White House. No iPhones back then.

10) Best piece of advice for other artists?

Have an insatiable thirst for knowledge about art and painting. That's how you grow.

Spotlight on Steve Ko, Texas Top Ten 2016

"My friend and mentor, Matthew",  16x20", oil on canvas

Name: Steve Ko
Current City: Lewisville, TX
Website/Blog: http://www.stevekoartstudio.com/    

Instagram: stevekoartstudio

1) When and how did you first become seriously interested in Art?  

Ever since when I was seven, I have always wanted to be an artist.  My grandfather who was a professional photographer took me to art museums every chance he had.   That's how I became interested in art.

2) What is your training, and what medium(s) / subject matter do you work in?

I went to Art Center College of Design (Illustration major) where I received classical training from Burne Hogarth, Harry Carmean, Gary Meyer, and Steve Huston just to name a few.  I work with every medium but oil has been my favorite.

Portrait painting has been my main subject matter because of my business but I love painting landscapes as well.

3) What do you try to express in your work? 

The more I paint, the more I realize painting is philosophical.  Through colors and brush works, I try to bring out different emotions and rhythm - softness, boldness, etc.

4) What artists/professionals have been your biggest influences? 

I must say John Singer Sargent has been my greatest influence.  While I love many artists, Sargent's brush works have been the most inspirational to me.  I've learned how to sculpt my paintings through him.

5) What do you do to gain new inspiration for your work? 

Looking at paintings of old masters and contemporary masters truly helps me stir up my desire to paint all the time.  Thank God for good artists out there.

6) What would you like to be doing with your art ten years from now? 

Well, I would love to paint in my studio staying healthy. Hopefully, I'd love to see some grandchildren painting next to me as well.  As much as painting gives me joy, there's nothing like the happiness that my family brings.

7) Do you set goals for yourself concerning the making of your art?

Yes.  Without goals, I don't get anywhere.

8) Are you happy with your job choice as an artist? Do you have any regrets in this career choice or things you would have done differently? 

I am absolutely happy that I am an artist.  I heard that art is the most popular thing that people do after they retire.  I am glad I started early.

9) Any fun or interesting facts about yourself that you'd like to share?

My family and friends know that I love driving big cars like buses or trucks.  Don't be surprised if you see me driving kids around in a school bus one day (My wife says, "not now").

10) Best piece of advice for other artists? 

I really think there is no short-cut in art.  Every time you work on paintings, you will get better.  Wouldn't you agree?

Spotlight on Daniela Werneck, Texas Top Ten 2016

Who Cares?... 11x14” Watercolor on clay board

Name:  Daniela Werneck
City: Houston
Website: www.danielawerneck.com

1. When and how did you first become seriously interested in Art?

I’m an art lover since I was a child. I studied drawing and painting techniques in my teen ages in private classes. I hold a bachelor degree in Interior Design, area in which I worked for about 10 years in my hometown (Rio de Janeiro).

After I moved with my husband and kids to Australia in 2008, I committed myself full time to my passion, WATERCOLOR. Since that most of my work has been commissioned portraiture, until recently, when I decided to bring forth my experience painting portraits with my artistic view of people.

We’ve been living in the USA now and I have limited my commissioned portraiture to a minimum number so I can dedicate all the time I can get available to my art.

2) What is your training, and what medium(s) / subject matter do you work in?

My media is and has always been, for the most part, watercolor. I can also work with acrylics and pencil, but they never had a big impact on me as watercolors. My training, as long as I can remember, has been portraits and the human figure.

3) What do you try to express in your work?

My work has always been around portraiture and my children have been the epicenter of most of my themes, among other kids in the family and also the kids of close friends. I love watching my kids around the house, how they interact with each other and I pay close attention to their personalities.

Observing my own kids has given me the chance to convey to my watercolors all the aspects of their behaviors along with their interaction with the world have been clearly brought into perspective when I paint people.

4) What artists/professionals have been your biggest influences?

Wayne Thiebaud, Norman Rockwell, John Pike, Andrew Whyeth, Mary Whyte…

5) What do you do to gain new inspiration for your work?

The simple everyday routine, which I love to quietly observe. I love to find the delicate features of people around me and also meet the soul of a simple moment while making notes on my minds of how I can put that into my paintings.

6) What would you like to be doing with your art ten years from now?

Being in an artistic environment is very new to me although I’ve been exposed to art since a very tender age. I have lots of expectations but the main one is to have my work recognized.

7) Do you set goals for yourself concerning the making of your art?

I’m a perfectionist person and I do set goals to myself constantly. This is something I take pleasure and get highly satisfied when I come to a completion of any given work.

8) Are you happy with your job choice as an artist? Do you have any regrets in this career choice or things you would have done differently?

Yes, I’m happy with my new choice. Sometimes I think I could have started it earlier, but this is life. I would never have had the same opportunities in an art carrier in my country as I do have in U.S.

9) Any fun or interesting facts about yourself that you'd like to share?

I’m very shy and I’m not comfortable to talk about myself, this is something I should work on.

10) Best piece of advice for other artists

Work hard and also rest;

Be curious and persistent;

Visit other artist’s studios;

Books, films, leisure;

Try to keep your eyes open wide enough to see inspiration anywhere.

Spotlight on Brenda Hash, Texas Top Ten 2016

Thoughts of Elberta, 24”x36”, pastel

Name: Brenda Hash, PSA

Current City: Houston

Website: www.brendahash.com  

Blog: https://www.brendahash.com/blog/

1) When and how did you first become seriously interested in Art?

I’ve had a need to draw all my life, but it wasn’t until my first child was born that I seriously pursued fine art. I was in my mid-thirties, and it wasn’t an easy thing to leave my job as a software engineer and balance motherhood with my new artistic pursuits.

2) What is your training, and what medium(s) / subject matter do you work in?

In an effort to combine my interest in art with my interest in technology (and to have a job that would pay the rent), I studied computer science in college and received a master’s degree in computer graphics. That was when Star Wars was new. My thought was to go to work for Lucas Film doing computer generated imagery for the film industry. Instead, I ended up working for Shell Oil writing software to display 3D images of the earth. After having my first child and wanting to be home with him, I left the oil business and took drawing courses at the Glassell Studio School in Houston. But, my life changing moment came when I took a workshop with Daniel Greene. I learned so much about lighting and posing the model and the use of pastels, it blew my mind. The pastel medium really fit my life situation. Not having brushes to clean or paint to mix, pastel was ready at a moment’s notice, even if I only had 30 minutes to work. For the following fifteen years a worked only in soft pastel creating commissioned portraits for clients in the Greater Houston Area. About five years ago, I felt I had reached a ceiling in pastel portraiture and needed to add oil painting to my skills to get corporate or institutional commissions. I studied with Robert Liberace and the instructors of Studio Incamminati: Stephen Early, Lea Colie Wight, Kerry Dunn, JaFang Lu, and Natalie Italiano. Now, my studio is split in half; one side devoted to pastel and the other to oils. My favorite subject is still the portrait. Coming in second would be still life. I’m working on landscapes, but they just won’t hold still.

3) What do you try to express in your work?

In my portraits, as well as my still lifes, I want to evoke curiosity. I want the viewer to be persuaded to wonder, to look deeper, to desire to know more.

4) What artists/professionals have been your biggest influences?

Daniel Greene’s clarity in describing his approach was exactly what I needed when I was entering the art world. His engineer-like approach to teaching resonated with my thought process, since my training and my natural bent are very analytical. I even had the pleasure of introducing Mr. Greene at the Portrait Society of America’s Conference several years ago. As for Rob Liberace, I joke with him that when I decided to pursue oil painting I followed him across the country to be able to paint with him. And, I actually did…from Philadelphia to Whidbey Island, WA and several stops between. I continue to learn so much from him about the quality of line and edges. The instructors of Studio Incamminati also influence my oil painting. I’m losing track of the number of trips I’ve made to Philadelphia to study with these awesome artists. I have even partnered with this atelier to bring their instructors to the Houston area for the last three years. You can see the influence of Nelson Shank’s color sensitivity in their work, and I want that to be evident in my work, also.

5) What do you do to gain new inspiration for your work?

I believe inspiration comes from being observant and staying curious. If something causes you to stop and be in awe, paint that!

6) What would you like to be doing with your art ten years from now?

My hope is that I’m producing more work and that each piece is better than the last one. I hope they are more interesting and more cause for the viewer to stop to get a closer look. If I am fortunate enough for them to be hanging in an institution, my prayer is that each portrait is a source of inspiration to the next generation.

7) Do you set goals for yourself concerning the making of your art?

Goal setting for my artwork seems to come in the form of commission and competition deadlines. That’s just the honest truth. Recently, I ordered a large set of beautiful, handmade frames for small works to force me to paint smaller images (smaller than 8x10”). I tend to work large, and it is such a feeling of accomplishment to work on something small that doesn’t take three to six months to finish. So the goal is to fill the frames…with a cohesive body of small works…that I could sell…to be able to buy more art supplies.

8) Are you happy with your job choice as an artist? Do you have any regrets in this career choice or things you would have done differently?

Being an artist is a dream job. Sometimes I wish I had been brave and studied fine art in college, but then I remind myself of two things. First, there was a serious lack of representational education at that time, and knowing me, I would have fought with too many professors to have been successful in their art world. Second, having a computer science background has been immensely helpful in my art business. I have the skill to put together my own website and to easily work out compositions that have to rely on photography by using software rather than doing it by hand.

9) Any fun or interesting facts about yourself that you'd like to share?

Being a mother and an artist has led to some difficult decisions along the way. While I’ve had a very supportive husband that has cooked many of his own meals during times when I was consumed by a painting project, I knew that I would regret missing important moments with my family. I had to decide a long time ago that my art career would take a back seat to raising my two boys. So… I was the room mom that made the over-the-top bulletin boards for the teachers. I was the mom that invented and ran the school’s weekly, gifted math club called Equations League. I was the mom that brought my boys to the science museums and the art museums and even went on Boy Scout campouts (and won the Best Female Shot Gun Award). I was the mom that painted ten, 8x8 foot paintings that were rolled out onto a football field for the high school band’s marching competition backdrop… one of which was a portrait of Lady Gaga. And, over the last two years, I was the mom that visited the colleges and helped my two boys move to Baylor University to study Computer Science. And that is where I discovered any empty space in a brand new building that screamed, “Put a portrait here!” The unveiling of Dr. Gordon K. Teal, oil, 36x48” was held at Baylor University last October.

10) Best piece of advice for other artists?

I’ll simply pass along the advice I received when I asked that question of Daniel Greene. I participated in a critique he gave years ago at the Portrait Society of America Conference. When my image came up for critique he commented that it could have been a finalist in the exhibition at the conference. Unknown to him I had entered it in the competition that year, but it had not been selected. So, I approached him afterwards to ask him how to push my artwork to the next level to get the attention of jurors. He looked me straight in the eye and said, “Paint, paint, paint”. 

Spotlight On Nancy Boren, Texas Top Ten 2016

 "Mamma Mia!"  oil on canvas, 30 x 20

Name: Nancy Boren
Current City: The Colony, Texas
Website/Blog: nancyboren.com

1) When and how did you first become seriously interested in Art? 

My father was a full time professional artist so I was very familiar with that life as I grew up. I majored in art in college, there was nothing else that I was interested in.

2) What is your training, and what medium(s) / subject matter do you work in? 
I have a BFA and have attended workshops by wonderful artists including Dan Gerhartz, Ned Jacob, Milt Kobayashi, Carolyn Anderson and Casey Baugh. I work primarily in oil, but enjoy printmaking (monotype, collagraph, and block printing) from time to time.

3) What do you try to express in your work? 

I try to express what I find intriguing and beautiful.

4) What artists/professionals have been your biggest influences? 
My father, and I greatly admire Sorolla, many Russian painters like Fechin and Akhipov, Sargent, the Taos Founders, and too many modern painters to name.

5) What do you do to gain new inspiration for your work? 

Inspiration comes from different places. Often when I need a painting for a competition or deadline and I am driving in the car, I let my brain start working on it and I think of things I want to paint. Sometimes I see something extraordinary and build a painting around that element. It is really helpful to go places I have never been and be exposed to new visual images.

6) What would you like to be doing with your art ten years from now? 

In 10 years I would like to have done paintings I have not even imagined at this time.

7) Do you set goals for yourself concerning the making of your art?

A few: more acceptances in shows I want to be in, doing larger plein air pieces, just painting better and better paintings.

8) Are you happy with your job choice as an artist? Do you have any regrets in this career choice or things you would have done differently?
Yes, I am happy. I have been blessed with a wonderful husband who has a great job, so I have not had crushing financial responsibilities to overcome while trying to paint.

9) Any fun or interesting facts about yourself that you'd like to share?
I was one of 5 finalists in the design competition for the Texas quarter. I had never before designed a coin or anything round for that matter and got to go to a party at the governor’s mansion at the quarter launch.

10) Best piece of advice for other artists?

Advice — do it because you love it.

Congratulations to the Texas Top Ten!

Texas Top Ten Competition Congratulations to the Texas Top Ten The "Texas Top Ten" was a FREE online competition open to members and artists living in the state of Texas and presented by the Texas State Ambassador, Gaye Sekula, in coordination with the Portrait Society of America. We are pleased to announce the winners of the  'Texas Top Ten' A special thank you to Gaye Sekula for organizing and implementing this competition as well as a sincere thank you to James Tennison, our juror, for reviewing all the excellent entries and making the selections of the Top Ten.