Another new member...

[Pat Graham]

What a wonderful forum to happen across while I was surfing the net! It's exciting to have access to the wealth of knowledge that the talented members of this forum have.

Now, to jump right in with both feet....I'm Pat Graham and am a life-time resident of the Pacific Northwest for 49 years. My husband and I have 2 grown daughters, one with a learning disability who still lives with us. I have years of non formal and formal art training extending back to when I took my first oil painting class in third grade, many other courses in my younger years that my parents placed me in, 6 years of continuous art classes from 7th through 12th grades (I maxed them all out) followed by 2 years of commercial art training and a portrait oil painting class a few years later. I worked in advertising for several years then freelanced in commercial art doing mainly clip art, letterheads and commissioned portraits. Health issues arose which caused my eyesight to blur to the point where I couldn't see detail or distinguish color properly so I turned my creativity to other things; mainly clay work and crafts. During this period I also began working with Special Education students full time and continued to do so for ten years. 2 years ago, after quitting Special Ed. (Burn out is not uncommon at the 10 year point!) I was able to have surgery to restore my vision well enough to paint again. To be perfectly honest, this re-entry back into the art world is proving to be a bit scary as I'm being forced to face some of my fears and uncertainty regarding my work. The Best of Show award I recently won did good things for my confidence, however, even though it was not a portrait, but a charcoal of glassware.

I also grow orchids in my home, belong to a forum for orchid addicts and have included in a national orchid publication color pictures of my orchid drawings. Besides this, I have just recently been voted in as a member of the local Pacific Gallery Artists League and am enjoying the refreshing fellowship of other artists on a regular basis.

The attachment is of a commissioned pastel portrait of Rick Renick which I did before my vision went bad. Most of the work I've done recently is of non portrait nature, but I am beginning to venture back into this area again using charcoal, graphite and conte' crayon. Hopefully, before too long I'll be able to post another, more current, portrait.

Thanks for taking a peek and also reading my condensed bio.

Pat