" . . . painting the looser side of realism "

  • Founding member, trustee, past president & past Board Chair
  • Regional Editor "Fine Art Connoisseur" Magazine
  • Permanent Collections : Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio Supreme Court,
    Ohio Historical Society, Central Ohio Diabetes Association,
    Open Heart Recovery Unit, University Hospital, Baltimore, MD
  • Private collections: around the USA, England, France and New Zealand
        and Arnold Schwarzenegger

      "Debra Joyce Dawson paints colorful, evocative outdoor landscapes. She travels extensively, and her paintings can serve as a painterly travelogue to India, Bhutan, England, Ireland, as well as to her more local surroundings. Her medium of choice is oil, with preparatory sketches in graphite, charcoal, pen or watercolor. Some works are small and completed en plein air; other works are larger and more complex renderings done in her studio. Her energy and delight in color, light, and shape are dazzling. But she never surrenders her subject, and each building, boat, hillside, or human figure is carefully pinned to the picture plane in the context of its surroundings. This places her in the best context of American Impressionism, whether one considers John Singer Sargent or Ohio’s own Alice Schille or Edward Henry Potthast."
                Susan Talbot-Stanoway, Director Zanesville Museum of Art

You're Invited!

2010 Calendar:
  • January 24 - April 4 : "Encountering India and Bhutan"
    Richmond Art Museum, Indiana
    2-Person Exhibition with Ray Hassard opens Jan. 24, 2:00 - 4:00 PM
  • February 19 : Lecture with Ray Hassard, Cincinnati Art Club
  • March 5 -7 : Art at the Arnold, Columbus, OH
    
Debra won the top prize at this event!
Click on thumbnail to enlarge.

 "Ballroom Dancing to the Matrix"
 16" x 20", Oil on Canvas

  • April 24 : "Vernissage", Alliance Francaise of Columbus, OH
  • June 22 - July 13 : Painting in England
  • August : 5th Solo Exhibition, Sharon Weiss Gallery

2010 Workshop :
  •  May 8 & 9: 2-Day Plein Air Workshop, Sponsored by Sunbear Studios
      Email : debra@ohiopleinairsociety.com to reserve a space

Art Classes - 740.927.3078
  •  Plein air
  •  Mentoring classes
  •  Drawing and studio oil painting at my home studio

Publications:
       American Art Collector, May 2009
     Contemporary American Realism: 2008 - Exhibition catalog
      www.createbetterpaintings.com - an online artzine
         "Artist to Artist: interview with Michael McEwan", March 2008
     Tashi Delek Magazine, Druk Air's in-flight magazine
         2007 July - September issue - pages 38 - 44
         http://www.tashidelek.in/pdfs/july07.pdf
     American Artist Magazine feature article titled:
         “Painting En Plein Air in South India,” January 2006
     TimeLine Magazine, back cover, March 2005
     Plein Air Magazine, January 2005
     The Land We Call Ohio, full-color book 2003

Artist Bio & Galleries Below.

Personal Website: www.debrajoycedawson.com
 Blog : http://prismatic-palette.blogspot.com/
 

Artist Biography:
Energetic, exciting and colorful are all words that immediately come to mind when you first see Debra Joyce Dawson’s oil paintings. From her landscapes painted on location to her figurative works created in the studio, Debra’s artwork always conveys her passion for the mood and atmosphere she finds in her subjects.

Constantly challenging herself to keep her work fresh with new subject matter, Debra frequently travels the world in search of a heart-stopping moment of light on the land or an arresting face or costume. Having already painted extensively in Europe, Asia, Puerto Rico, and throughout North America, she has completed a third painting excursion to India and Bhutan in early 2007. In the past two years, Debra's work has been exhibited widely in several national shows including, “Contemporary American Realism: 2008” at the Ft. Wayne Museum of Art, “Viewpoint 2008” at the Wessel Gallery in Cincinnati, and in May 2009 at the “18th Oil Painters of America National Juried Exhibition,” in Santa Fé. Regionally, in June, Debra's work was featured in a solo exhibition at the Zanesville Museum of Art, and in July, Debra was a returning artist at the Door County Plein Air Festival, Fish Creek, WI. Spring of 2009, Debra's teaching credits include a painting workshop in Dehli, India for the employees at Adobe who work on the Illustrator Program. In recent years, she was also selected to paint in the national Plein Air Easton! and in the Door Country Plein Air Festival. Debra has served as Artist-in-Residence for Michigan’s Hiawatha National Forest, and was one of six central Ohio artists who worked on the 2003 Bicentennial Paint Ohio Project.

Painting since “Santa” brought her that first set of oil paints in 5th grade, Debra pursued formal art training in Maryland and New Jersey. Marriage brought her from her home state of Maryland to Ohio, where she returned to the study of art at Capital University, Denison University, and at the Columbus College of Art and Design. Today she continues her education by taking workshops with many plein air masters, such as Ken Cadwallader, OPA; Michael Dudash, OPA; Mark Hanson, OPA; Frank LaLumia, PAPA, OPA; Ken Auster, and Carolyn Anderson.

Debra’s dedication to excellence in art has resulted in numerous awards and accolades. Her paintings are included in the permanent collections of the Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio Supreme Court, Ohio Historical Society, Central Ohio Diabetes Association, Hiawatha National Forest, Munising, MI, Westerville Public Library and University Hospital, Baltimore, MD; in private collections around the U.S., the Caribbean, Canada, England and New Zealand; and have been reproduced as limited-edition prints, calendars, and greeting cards and in such publications as American Art Collector Magazine, American Artist Magazine, Tashi Delek Magazine, Plein Air Magazine, and a book titled The Land We Call Ohio, among others. For the past three years, Debra’s work has also been selected for inclusion in the prestigious Oil Painters of America’s national and regional exhibitions. A believer in giving back to the community of artists, Debra is a founding member, past president, and current Trustee of The Ohio Plein Air Society.

Debra’s fifth solo exhibition at the Sharon Weiss Gallery in Columbus, Ohio opens June 2010. The Pierre-Paul Gallery in Ann Arbor, Michigan also represents her work.

Galleries:

THE SHARON WEISS GALLERY
20 E. Lincoln Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215 • 614.291.5683
Hours: Thursday, Noon - 4:00 PM; Friday & Saturday, Noon - 5:00 PM; Sunday, 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
www.sharonweissgallery.com

 

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