Genie Even

Camellia, 11" x 20"

For Genie Even, the greatest excitement about a painting comes with the initial concept, and the greatest pleasure comes when all the components in the process meld to form the painting she visualized. She is drawn to dramatic light patterns, strong values, and exciting color. After sketching from her photo compositions, she begins a careful process of underpainting, developing values, and adjusting the color using transparent watercolor pigments. Although most of her work is realistic, her subject matter varies from floral closeups and unusual plants to figurative works and still lifes. Her work blends a high level of detail with arresting compositions and clear, brilliant color.

Tree Study, 20" x 14"

Genie is a native Californian who graduated as an art major from Scripps College; the well-known watercolorist Millard Sheets was both her professor and advisor. When she returned to full time art in the early 1990s, she studied with many talented watercolorists, including Cheng Khee Chee, Lian Quan Zhen, Karen Frey and Jane Hofstetter, among others. She is a signature member of Watercolor West, the California Watercolor Association and the Texas Watercolor Society. Her work has won many awards, including Best of Show at the Palm Springs Desert Museum, and one of her paintings is in the permanent collection of the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, CA.

Pre-teen Cool, 20" x 14"

Since moving to Knoxville, Tennessee in 2005, Genie has won awards in exhibits at regional art centers in Oak Ridge and Fountain City as well as at the Tennessee Art Association and the Art and Cultural Alliance. She continues to exhibit in national shows, including the Transparent Watercolor Society of America and the Watercolor Societies of Missouri, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Texas. She is a member of the Tennessee Watercolor Society and the Art Market Gallery in Knoxville.

Croton, 28" x 20"

Fuji Reflections II, 14" x 20"

Please visit Genie's blog to see more of her work.

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.