about the artist
Ginny lives and works in the foothills of the beautiful Sierra Mountains in Coarsegold, California. She is known for her strong use of color and imagery in pastel, oils, and watercolor.
She has received awards from the Yosemite Western Artists the Alliance of California Artists, Best of Show ACA 2009, the International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS), the Pastel Society of the West Coast (PSWC) signature member, California Art Club, Yosemite Renaissance, the Montana Watercolor Society. She was also a finalist in the American Artist Magazine 2013 art contest, and was a participant in the Sierra Foothill Conservancy Plein Air Event.
She teaches both pastel and watercolor workshops and classes.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I begin by walking in nature. A prospect, a color, a smear of color in the sky -- these things take shape in my imagination before I begin a painting.
Even when a painting is started from life, photos help capture the moment because light changes so quickly and the drift of water over stones can change at a moment's notice. The egret bending toward the shore waits for no artist. The sun has a maddening habit of crossing the sky and pushing the shadows across the land. Sometimes four or five photos will be clipped to my easel for reference -- but I never copy the photos. I think the best way to think of it is that I collage my photos in my head as they begin to appear on the canvas. I assemble the best parts into a composition that satisfies my eye.
And it is in the studio where the painting becomes what it must be. I used to laugh when I heard about artists becoming lost in their paintings, but that is exactly what it feels like when I am working: I am lost -- and I find myself inside, wandering the landscape that I am co-creating. Nature did it first, and I am making it new.
My paintings are meant to evoke a place each of us has inside: a memory, real or imagined