Floy Zittin

Herons at Dusk, 19" x 30"

Fascinated with drawing and nature studies since childhood, Floy Zittin continues to be excited about depicting the natural world, and she enjoys the challenge of combining a faithful representation of her subjects with the unpredictability of the watercolor medium. She is well-known in the San Francisco Bay Area for her paintings of birds, trees, and local hiking trails. Because birds are often somewhat hidden in the landscape, she strives to convey that reality in her paintings. Splashes of color and interesting lines attract our attention and then we discover a heron or a woodpecker hiding "in plain sight." Her hope is that her paintings will bring attention to local wildlife and increase appreciation for our remaining open spaces.

Decay and Renewal, 18" x 30"

Floy majored in biology in college and became interested in watercolor paintings during a summer in Japan. She began working as a biological illustrator on a project for her Master's thesis and then spent ten years creating illustrations for field guides for the National Museum of Natural Sciences of Canada. While living in Canada, she spent some time in an isolated fishing village where she taught herself to paint by working on watercolor portraits of fish for the fishery biologists. After returning to California, she became active in the art community of the Bay Area. Her paintings have won numerous awards in national shows and have been accepted twice into the prestigious "Birds in Art" exhibition at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin. She is a very popular instructor, teaching several ongoing classes in watercolor, as well as occasional workshops.

Farewell, 18" x 30"

Nuttall's Woodpecker, 30" x 18"

Blue Heron, 30" x 18"

Visit Floy's blog to see more about her classes and link to her website from there, or go directly to her website to see more of her work.