Deborah K. RICH

I grew up in South Monterey County in California before heading north to the University of Puget Sound to study Economics, then east to Georgetown to pursue an MBA.  I worked in agricultural management and finance, raised two children and wrote dozens of articles for the San Francisco Chronicle on what I dubbed the intersection of Nature and Human Nature.

Then I began to draw and then to paint, and my house has never been the same.  Canvases dry in the living room, kitchen and dining area, and paint smudges nearly every door handle.

I paint from life alongside pickleball courts, at the beach, beneath oak trees, and in hallways.  I work with oil paints, and on the rare occasion begin with an acrylic paint base layer.

My paintings are my response to what I am observing, to how the paints are handling that day, to the changing light, to my sense of the forces of nature at play in the scene, and to what is percolating in my growing art knowledge bank.

My art has emerged and grown thanks to the incredible painters and teachers: Claire Thorson, Zoey Frank, and Brian Rego.

I regularly sell my work in theme shows at the Studio Gallery in San Francisco and have also been selected for gallery and art center shows in South San Francisco, Livermore, Salinas, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Carmel Valley Village, Hollister, Oceanside and San Juan Bautista.

I do not yet fully understand why good people part with good and scarce money for an object that will not feed, clothe or shelter them.  Yet I know that I am a better problem-solver, am more tolerant, curious, empathetic, and energized due to making art, studying art, and sitting with art.  I am deeply grateful for and humbled by the gift of painting.