Solveig Rimstad

Apple Blossom, 13" x 19"

Encouraged by her practical father, Solveig Rimstad entered the work world as soon as she finished high school, putting aside dreams of attending art school. But she continued to draw and sketch and after a period of illness in mid-life forced her to quit her job, she began to paint seriously in watercolor. She credits her good friend Aud Rye, a wonderful artist in her own right, with pushing her in the right direction, and she also took workshops in Norway with Americans Carol Carter -- whose work has always been exceptional to her -- and Rose Edin -- from whom she learned a lot of color theory. For a long time, in addition to classes, Solveig painted 12 hours a day to improve her skills. She works in transparent watercolor, usually layering on 6-8 washes, and she blends her paints on the surface of the paper to create vibrant color.

Trumpet Flower, 16" x 10"

Coconuts, 30" x 22"

Solveig continues to take workshops for technical development and also teaches in her home studio as well as traveling to give weekend workshops. She has had a number of exhibitions, both locally and in other places, including an exhibit at the Norwegian Seaman's Church in Los Angeles in 2002. Her work has been published in the Norwegian art magazines Kunst for Alle and Decor and has been included in two other books. Her paintings are held in private and public collections; she is currently showing work at Gallery 104 at Sandane, in the west part of Norway.

In 2009, Solveig and her friend Aud published a beautiful book of their floral paintings titled Blomster -- Naturens eget festfyrverkeri which translates to "Flowers -- Nature's own Fireworks."

Luke, 11" x 14"

Mother, 16" x 13"

Please visit Solveig's website to see more of her paintings and to get information on ordering her book.

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Myrna Wacknov

Frenchman (muted cool palette), 15" x 22"
watercolor on gesso-textured paper

Myrna Wacknov has had a lifelong passion for painting figures and faces -- doing portrait commissions while she was still in high school and then working as a charcoal sketch artist at outdoor art shows for a number of years. Her focus of interest has changed over the years to capturing an expression and gesture rather than creation of an exact likeness, and recently she has been pushing the design potential of her subjects by working in series, keeping the image constant and changing the combination of elements from painting to painting. Her eagerness to experiment with processes and techniques provides endless opportunities for exploring her creativity.

Sketchbook portrait, 5" x 7"
collage with pen & ink wash

Myrna attended Washington University and the Kansas City Art Institute and later received her degree in Painting and Drawing at San Francisco State University. Her work has been included in many national watercolor competitions and she has won awards in exhibits with the Rocky Mountain Watercolor Society, the San Diego Watercolor Society, and the California Watercolor Association, to name a few. In 2008, she won the CFS Medal at the American Watercolor Society Exhibition. She is a signature member of the National Watercolor Society and the California Watercolor Association. Myrna's work has also been featured in several magazine articles -- a feature on her portrait process in Watercolor Magic (October 2007), an article on 20 artists over 60 in The Artist's Magazine (March 2008), and a 2nd place in the self-portrait competition in American Artist (October 2008). Her work was also featured on the cover of Palette Magazine in January 2009. Myrna teaches several portrait painting workshops from beginning to advanced levels.

Rose, 18" x 24"
watercolor on Tyvek

Advanced portrait class variations, 15" x 21"
watercolor with dilute matte medium

Bill Cook the Housepainter, 18" x 24"
watercolor

Go to Myrna's blog to see more of her work and to find links to her website and gallery.