Fran White Shurtleff

As a child I loved to draw and would spend hours with my school pencil, colored pencils, crayons, typing paper, and construction paper, the only art supplies available to me.  A freshman year at college brought the standard drawing and design courses with all sorts of new media and techniques. Then I married and worked while my husband attended college and dental school.  I did attend some night art classes at the University of Washington .  However, I had more opportunities to look at art in galleries and museums than I had to create it.  

Next came mothering and raising three children, a life which allowed creative activities but only occasionally, some painting.  Widowed with the three children, I commuted to college and earned a BFA in Art Education after several years.  I supported the family by teaching public school art for a while and was able to become more active in the local art community where I lived.  A move and another job allowed more painting time, and I just kept on painting whenever I could.  Stopping and starting is certainly not the way to build a really great art career. Each stop would mean almost starting over from scratch.  The funny thing was, I just had to keep at it, I never even considered not trying to paint and always hoped that some day I could really get at it!  It has only been in the last several years that I have been able to spend more time doing the art work I truly enjoy.

My subject matter and style remain representational, but I like working with different materials.  The painting above, Mexican Buckeye in the Fall, is a small one done on watercolor canvas and sprayed with UV resistant acrylic coating so that it does not need to be framed under glass.  Lately I have enjoyed painting with watercolors on gessoed wood panels or illustration board.  I just like the way it looks!