Vickie has always admired and had the desire to learn to paint, but honestly, didn’t have the patience to make it happen. Even with Jeff’s encouragement to give it a try, she could never seem to find the right instruction to create the style she wanted and time always seemed to be a factor that won out in everyday life. She did pick up some art pencils and a few books and would sketch as she sat on the banks of the streams or rivers when she would accompany Jeff on a drive to the nearby mountains to do a little fly fishing. She enjoyed the creations, but hardly anyone ever saw the pages within her sketchbooks. They found their way to the closet. Out of sight, out of mind, but creativity never left her heart.
As their photography business grew into more of a fine art style, the desire to take their photographic images and push them into greater works of art began to occupy much of Vickie’s thoughts and desires. She and Jeff both agreed they wanted to take their already beautiful images to another level of artisanship. There is an instructor she had admired in the past that held in person workshops. The timing was never right to attend one of them, but in late Summer of 2019, she stumbled upon the announcement that this instructor would begin to teach on-line. The portal to join a limited community of like-minded artist want-to-be’s opened in the Fall of 2019 and there has been no looking back since.
Vickie has now learned to paint, but not in the traditional sense of what most think of when they hear the word painting. Remember that patience thing mentioned earlier? Well, traditional oil paintings take months upon months to complete because of the process of painting, drying, painting, drying…repeat! With the innovation of modern technology along with custom brushes derived from the knowledge of real oil paint, she now uses a computer screen as a canvas, a tablet as a palette and an artist pen/stylus as her brush to create stunning, bespoke works of art, that can be completed within several weeks!
Do not misinterpret – she does not use any filters or the click of a button to achieve her paintings. In fact, the process of painting through the use of multi-media takes many days and weeks to accomplish and accomplish well by painting every stroke, just as if standing in front of an easel. Finished paintings are then printed to a portrait canvas and framed into a stunning creation of heirloom art. Some types of paintings may also be printed to a fine art Aquarelle Rag paper then archivally matted and framed, creating a curated piece of family legacy.
Vickie's latest addition to her skills is learning embellishment. This is where she enhances and overpaints the printed canvas paintings by adding real paint brush strokes over the top of the paintings with gels and oil paints.