Deborah Palmer

I've won a few awards. I'm very grateful for them. While I appreciate them and enjoy receiving them, I feel that the best award is having someone truly enjoy looking at my work.

I don't have a true philosophy about art. I love looking at it...all kinds and all styles, especially ones that I don't do myself. There's always something to learn, enjoy, admire. I make art for the challenge and the pleasure of producing something beautiful, whimsical, just pleasant in some way.

I think my favorite artist is Vincent VanGogh. I saw one of his landscapes at the Pittsburgh Museum, and I didn't want to leave the room...ever. I love the impressionists and many of the post-impressionist and modern painters. I love looking at an abstract design and not needing to see anything representational in it...just see and enjoy the design for itself and the feeling it invokes.

I think most of us have an artist somewhere inside us. We may express it through painting or sculpture, but cooking, gardening, needlework, architecture, photography and so much more are all someone's art. My thanks to everyone who helps to make, and keep, the world we have a beautiful place.

I've been studying art since 1990. I've always loved to draw, but was never actually very good at it. In spite of a lack of natural ability, I was interested enough to give it a try. I found a wonderful teacher and stayed with her for 7 years. Between that and uncounted workshops, all with great teachers, I've continued studying. I think I really enjoy learning more than anything else. The nice thing is, you never learn it all, so you can keep going. I'm always looking forward to the next thing, whatever it may be.

Over the years I've done outdoor art shows and had my work exhibited in some very nice places, including the Lyme Art Association gallery in Lyme, Connecticut, the Southern Vermont Art Center in Manchester, Vermont, the Chaffee Center in Rutland, Vermont, and the Oak Ridge Art Center, as well as some private galleries. I still enter juried shows and paint almost every day.

By the way, I happen to be a Capricorn Sun with a Leo Moon, married to a Leo Sun with an Aquarius moon. It's been an interesting life!