Artist Background

I first painted with watercolors in junior high with my best friend, Lisa. Lisa was a terrific artist and took lessons every Saturday morning at the local art school in Tallahassee, FL. I often got to audit the classes because we had spent the night and I was tagging along. In high school Lisa and I were able to take the advanced art classes, which helped to strengthen my skills. In those days we spent many hours outdoors doing pen & ink sketches with watercolor washes. We painted plein air -- away from our parents and younger siblings. I used the cheapest paper and, can you imagine, the 8 color school watercolor sets? I continued my art training in college taking advanced art classes while I pursued a more "practical" degree in Math.

After college I began a computer programming career at IBM in Rochester, MN and raised my two daughters with my husband Tom.

I didn't paint for a number of years until my mother retired. She asked me to accompany her on a painting trip to Ireland in 1996 -- so I bought some new paints and paper and we had a terrific time! Our initial paintings were pretty bad. Ireland is so green and we tried to paint what we saw -- a lot of green paintings. Midway through the trip we happened upon a gallery and noticed that the artists used purples, golds, etc. to paint the local scenery. That sure helped.

Since then I have studied with a number of master watercolorist including:

  • Jan Fabian-Wallake - Athens, Santorini, Mykonos Greece
  • Judy Wagner - Amelia Island, FL
  • Sarah Schmerl - Paris Barge Trip - France
  • Karen Vernon - Tallahassee, FL
  • Alvaro Castagnet - Argentina & Colonia
  • Sterling Edwards and Don Andrews - Boone, NC (Boone in June 2008)
 Photo of Marian

Awards and Shows

Minnesota Watercolor Society Spring Juried Show - H2O Magic - Le Jour Commence - (The Day Begins)


Atlanta Artist Center Juried Show - June 2007, Light Expressions


Atalanta Artist Center 2007 New Members Show - Honorable Mention


ebay Artist Choice Awards 2006 - 2nd place Seascapes

Artist Statement

I am a creative person and especially love watercolors. I am constantly evolving as an artist. My work varies in size from miniatures to larger half-sheet watercolors.

I continually challenge myself with various subjects to keep life interesting. My favorite subjects are seascapes, wildlife, and florals. Right now I am focusing a bit more on figure painting.

I love loose, somewhat abstract watercolors with bright, transparent colors but find myself painting more realistically by nature. My continual goal is to loosen up. Though I often paint realistically I will not spend hours painting exact copies of photos and laboring over details. That would be too tedious for me. My paintings usually take 3-4 hours depending upon the size.

Because I began painting mostly outside as a child, I enjoy plein-air painting. It is very difficult to create a terrific painting on-site but I enjoy the challenge and usually have a wonderful time even when the paintings produced are not the best.

As technology advances, it becomes more important for a true artist not to simply reproduce images. For me the challenge is to work with the natural flow of watercolors, to interpret and to enhance the world around me.