Studio Stories from our WAOW Artists

Bets Cole • Oregon • Studio Stories

Bets Cole • Oregon • Studio Stories

Bets Cole

I think we are forever seeking ways to get back to what made us happy as a child. I found that I enjoyed being in the outdoors, tracking and observing nature. As I matured and became a painter, I found that the motifs and narratives of nature’s landscape offered me never ending painting ideas. The outdoors has become my workplace, my main studio.

I love to travel, or rather, to travel and paint. Artmaking is my way of exploring landscapes and places intimately, of studying the specific complexities of rock formations, landforms, vegetation-their structure, colors, and how the quality of the air and light them moment by moment. I like the feeling of a blank canvas and a new location. I no longer worry about making a finished painting. The time I spend behind my easel is about observation and the gathering of information.

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Painter Nori Thorne

Painter Nori Thorne

I love to paint in the American Southwest where time and erosion reveal the bones of the earth and ancient artists left their marks in the remotest canyons.  In my canyonscapes I try to capture the strong sense of place, of secrets suddenly revealed—a vista glimpsed through a redrock window, a water pocket shining on slickrock, the cold walls of a slot canyon reflected in a black pool. 

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Rotating Canvas . Painter Sara Bloodwolf

Rotating Canvas . Painter Sara Bloodwolf

I work on several paintings at once using one large palette.I rotate the canvases on the easel as they dry and as my inspiration and patience changes on each day.Even though i paint every single day I take a long time on each, my average painting is 3x3 feet and takes a month of daily painting and i mean every day. 

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