Artist Bio

Born in the Pacific Northwest, I have been an artist all my life. My first major piece was an abstract painted on my parents' white closet door. My chosen medium was a tube of my mother's very red lipstick. While the piece was not well received by the critics … the painting reappearing above every subsequent layer of paint … my innate talent was recognized and the appropriate art materials were provided. Over the years I have been inspired to try many creative paths but always seem to return to a white rectangle and tubes of color. Today, I typically paint on canvas, paper or Yupo paper (a polyurethane 'paper') in a variety of mediums, especially acrylic and watercolor.

Growing up on Oregon's North Coast, with an expanse of sandy beach running north and south, the Pacific to the western horizon and the Coast Range in the east, I was free to explore the edges of rivers, ocean and forest, absorbing details of nature and small town life. I think this brings a dimension to my work that I would not have had I grown up in a larger city.

Most of the titles on my gallery pages are self explanatory but I would like to clarify the Stream of Consciousness page. I begin my Stream of Consciousness paintings with paint leftover from my previous painting. As the paint is quickly laid down on the new canvas, brush strokes and color blends begin to suggest a mood, landscape, or animal. I never know what until it appears. Often it becomes a background and I have to imagine what needs to go against it. These are some of my favorites to do and always inspire a new idea or technique.

I do some Plein Air painting, but usually just do a few sketches on site, take notes and plenty of photos (thank goodness for digital cameras), then finish up in the studio. I am also available for commissions, especially pets and children, and can work from your photos or mine. I use photos as reference only, and combined with 'real' models, memory, and an imagination kept honed by years of working with small children, have developed a style of my own.

Largely self taught, I am always working to refine my art. When asked what kind of painting I do, I find it hard to give a definitive answer. The truth is, I really don't know what style of painter I am … maybe a realist with impressionistic tendencies … or an impressionist with realist leanings. I'll let you be the judge. As for what I paint, if I may make a play on Shakespeare,--- All the world is subject matter and all the artists merely interpreters of it.

I hope you enjoy my interpretations.

Colleen Birch, Painter