art by vinita

As a painter, my goal is to express the joy, romance and passion of everyday life. In my paintings I like to capture common moments; doing farm chores, sharing coffee, going window shopping. There is a romance to our daily events that is often overlooked. I absolutely love the medium of watercolor. There is an immediacy and directness to it that suits my personality. I want my paintings to feel as fresh as a freshly picked raspberry. I believe watercolor is the ideal medium for expressing the Oregon environment with it’s ever-changing beauty.

Exhibits and Awards

2008

• Grand Prize Winner, Mirror Pond Gallery National Pastel and Watercolor Exhibition
• Chosen for 2009 Greatest of the Grape Featured Artist and Poster Art
• Best of Show Award, “Hundred Valleys”, Umpqua Valley Art Association
• Two paintings in the juried show, “Hundred Valleys”, Umpqua Valley Art Association
• Achievement Award from the Watercolor Society of Oregon 43rd Annual Aqueous Media Exhibition
• Umpqua Valley Summer Art Festival
• Solo exhibit, Gallery II, Umpqua Valley Art Association

2007

• Solo exhibit, “My True Colors” in the Red Gallery, Umpqua Valley Art Association
• Umpqua Valley Summer Art Festival
• Salem Art Fair and Festival
• Albany Art Fair and Festival
• Three paintings in the juried show “Realism Redesigned”, Umpqua Valley Art Association

2006

• Three month exhibit at the Douglas County Main Library
• Paintings accepted in the Juried Show, “Hard Art”, Umpqua Valley Art Association
• Albany Art and Air Festival
• Umpqua Valley Summer Art Festival
• Featured in Oregon Crafted Guidebook

2005

• Umpqua Valley Summer Art Festival
• Umpqua Valley Wine and Art Festival
• Member of the the Umpqua Valley Art Association
• Member of the Watercolor Society of Oregon

How I Paint

As far as technique, I set my standards pretty high. That doesn’t mean I’m near painting perfection, it means I throw away a lot of paintings! There is a price to pay for a fresh looking painting; a high mortality rate. During a workshop I took from Frank Webb he said, “Watercolors always start out beautiful, but we slowly kill the beauty. Oftentimes painters cease being painters and turn into morticians.”

It’s true that the life of a watercolor is a very fragile thing! To maintain the immediacy that I’m after, I work in three major steps. The first being a wash that transitions in color, value and temperature with so sign of a brush stroke. The second phase establishes the mid-tones and has to integrate color and subject. This is by far the most difficult step and is often where failure comes. The final stage is my favorite. I use calligraphic brush strokes with dark or bright colors. Using brush strokes is one way to personalize a piece. The more I paint, the more I appreciate seeing the hand of an artist in a painting.

With every painting, I strive for more simplicity and abstraction. I want to portray as much as possible in as few brush strokes as possible. The result is a painting that engages the viewer. I’ve done my job when someone experiences a personal connection with a painting.

Art Education
I have studied with the following international and local artists through workshops and classes at the Scottsdale Art School, Art in the Mountains, Watercolor Society of Oregon and UVAA:

• Alvaro Castagnet
• David Taylor
• Frank Webb
• Mel Stabin
• Val Persoon
• Dale Kurtz