“End of the Season” by Debra Howard

“End of the Season”

8 x 10 in

Oil

Available from the artist.

An artist and adventurer her entire life, Debra Howard now resides in Crisfeld, MD, gateway to the islands of Chesapeake Bay. Of the surrounding islands, Tangier is a regular painting destination for the graduate of Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, FL.

“It’s a 14 mile ferry ride to visit friends on this remote, disappearing island where most of the buildings hover over the water. Crab houses, work boats and docks line the channel that guides one to the 400-year-old village. Hand-driven pilings and weathered crab shacks silhouetted by the brilliant morning sun, make for an interesting pattern of darks and lights,” explains Debra.

“There is a special quality of light and color to Debra’s work and her brushwork is precise, lending her paintings an ethereal quality. Like many other artists whose work I admire, Debra’s background as an illustrator and graphic designer underpins her art with a solid foundation in composition and design. Her work is equally successful on larger supports as well as small ones. Her vision and interpretation of her subject matter is unique,” says Alan Brock, owner of South Street Gallery in Easton, MD.

Debra began her career in San Francisco as an illustrator and designer. After 17 years she closed her studio to concentrate on fine art painting.

“I realized the career I had found so satisfying was being taken over by the computer. I missed the feel of the brush on canvas. So, I provisioned my Peterson 44 sailboat with art supplies and began cruising. After almost 27 years of traveling, sailing and painting aboard, I came ashore.”

Debra spent three years on Tangier Island as the artist-in-residence and then the executive director for the Tangier History Museum.

In 2016, Debra switched from sailing to camping. From April to November Debra can be found on the road in her RV, traveling to plein air competitions. She has been juried into events in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan, Maine, Delaware, New Jersey and Virginia. She is a member of MAPAPA (Mid-Atlantic Plein Air Painters Association) and has been featured in The American Scholar Magazine.

In 2017, Debra won First Place in five plein air events: Glen Arbor Plein Air, Dexter Plein Air, Clifton Plein Air, “Golden Hour” for Northport Plein Air and the Harford Plein Air.

She has been voted Best Visual Artist in Charleston, SC, and was the 2016 Artist-in-Resident for Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and the 2018 Artist-in-Resident for Big Cypress National Preserve.

Debra anticipates and looks forward to another busy year of plein air painting in 2018.

See more of Debra’s work and follow her blog at http://www.artistdebrahoward.com/.  Contact her via email at [email protected]


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