Bio:
Deborah studied art and art history in college at Western State College in Gunnison, CO and at the Fort Wayne (IN) Art Institute. “Art has always been a part of my life; in my education, in my appreciation of, in my own artistic creations, and in my personal collections”.
Deborah worked for several years representing artists at the various industry trade shows through out the United States. It was during this time that she became interested in the plight of the endangered Mountain Gorilla and the people of Rwanda after the 1994 Genocide. Through this interest, Deborah wrote a children’s book about the Dian Fossey’s legacy of protecting the Mountain Gorilla and wanted to illustrate the book herself. It was then that she “dusted off “ her own artistic talent and began painting mountain gorillas using photographs provided to her by Ruth Keesling of the Morris Animal Foundation and by Robert Campbell, well known National Geographic photographer. After completing eight paintings of mountain gorillas, Deborah painted a tiger, then a lion and from then on she was hooked. While wildlife remains her favorite subject, over the years, she has become open to any subject that calls out to her to paint including people, landscape and still life. Deborah uses her own photographs for reference material and carries her camera with her everywhere. She has donated work to several fund raising events for wildlife conservation and local organizations.
Deborah chose pastel as her medium because she admired the work of the pastel artist she represented as well as the great Masters. “I work on a special purchased veloue paper. I love the soft effect I get especially doing wildlife. I also work on Walis sanded papers and Pastelboard. I cover my entire surface with pastel and consider my work to be a painting and not a drawing” ( the category most art shows place pastel work in. Deborah loves to work in the Nu Pastel and various brands of soft pastel and combine both in many paintings. “I like pastel because I can work on a painting for five minutes or five hours”. She always has a painting in progress on the easel. Deborah has studied under Award winning artists Stephen Quiller; (Master Artist and Author) Tucker Smith, (Master Artist) and Lee Kromschroeder (Master Artist) at the prestigious Jackson Hole Artists’ Workshop (1999, 2000). Her work has been accepted in juried and non juried shows in the Northwest and other parts of the United States and has won many ribbons and cash awards. Deborah’s work hangs in private and corporate collections through out the United States, Canada, France and South America. She is a past member of the Northwest Pastel Society. And current member of The Arkansas Craft guild. In September of 2005, Deborah and her husband, Jesse, retired to Mountain Home, AR (from Washington), with three dogs and three cats. They have two grown children.
