Deb Pero
Artist Statement It's really all about the light, isn't it?Seeing the "light", how it flows over an object, how it illuminates and creates form and shadow - that's what
"zings" me.. it's what engages me in a landscape, and it's what I strive to capture in still life works. Every painting becomes another opportunity to observe the nuances of that light, to understand it's effects on everything it touches, and to continuously strive to create, with the modest tools of brush and pigment and canvas, a moment that sings with light and ever-so-humbly reflects the beauty of God's creation. I think that's a life-long pursuit, and perhaps a goal never quite achievable, but I am having a marvelous time on the journey!
Biography Deb is a relative "late-bloomer" as a painter.
After many years spent raising a family, in 2004 she begain oil painting classes at Sharon Arts, taught by Alex Farquharson.
In 2006, she and her husband moved to New Mexico, where she studied with Leah Lopez, a student herself of modern-day masters David Leffel and Gregg Kruetz. Deb says, " Leah changed the direction of my art - or perhaps broadened my understanding in a way that helped me to change it -to follow a chiaroscuro approach, and to devote more time to still life painting."
In 2007, they returned to New England, where she began a practice of "a painting a day", until a broken arm in the spring of 2008 "broke" the momentum. She still paints frequent 'not-quite-daily" works.
She has taken lessons from Jeanne Duval, and credits Jeanne with "relentlessly honing my observational skills."
Deb has become quite "addicted" to plein air painting, and while she is known mostly for her still life works, intends to
build her skill in her real love, painting the landscapes of rural New England and the West.
Professional affiliations:
Sharon Arts, Juried Member
Oil Painters of America, juried Associate Member
NH Plein Air
Monadnock Arts/Friends of the Dublin Art Colony