​When walking around the Washington State Capitol Grounds in 2001, I saw and watched some people painting.  They invited me to join them the next week.  So I bought some watercolor supplies and began painting with the Olympia Art League.   After taking a pastel class in 2006, I was completely hooked.  I love working with my fingers and with the numerous, vibrant and subdued colors.  My winters are spent in sunny Tucson in the richly diverse Sonoran Desert, and my summers are spent in Olympia near the sparkling shores of Puget Sound.  I am grateful to be able to paint in two beautiful places.  I also paint from photos taken on my travels.  Nature is delightful, and, hopefully, my art reflects some of her beauty. 

I began my art study at age 4, drawing with paper and pencil as respite from my family of 7. I continued with art in Junior High School. I went to Pasadena City College and got my AA degree but went no further. I was married and the following year my son was born. After 6 years I became a single mother with a full time job.

There was little time for painting, however I did paintings in oil from time to time. I took adult Education Art classes and classes from Art Center School of Design. I I am a realistic painter but have dabbled in abstract as well. I find more satisfaction in realism.
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After retirement We moved to Baker City, Oregon. My bucket list was to restore an old home. We could not afford the California prices and Oregon was perfect. We restored 3 homes in the 12 years we were there. I was on the Gallery Committee at the Art Center in town as well as the President of the County Historical Society. I showed art at Crossroads Art Gallery and Short Term Gallery in Baker as well as Blue Turtle Gallery and Arts East in La Grande, winning several awards. We bought a winter home in Green Valley and 3 years later moved there for better medical options. After being in Green Valley a few weeks I joined the Santa Rita Art League and headed up the Figure Drawing sessions and the Plein Air group. I taught pastel at the Quail Creek Art Center for 6 years and retired last year. I also joined Tucson Pastel Society. I have shown paintings at venues in Green Valley Recreation Centers, Community for the Performing Arts gallery and at the Desert Museum Art Gallery and St Phillips Church Gallery in Tucson. I have won awards and ribbons from many of the venues. Pastelis my favorite medium. I further my art education by taking workshops from renown pastel painters at Tubac Center for Fine Art, Center for Performing Art Gallery, Santa Rita Art League and Tucson Pastel Society.

The number one thing I remember since the age of 5  is coloring in my coloring books. That was magic to me. It was the beginning of a lifetime love affair with putting color on paper. I was a very active and athletic kid. I've had many interests over time. Many have come and gone, but my interest in art and color never faded.

Retired from teaching high school art and photography, I have settled in a beautiful spot in AZ and devote many of my hours to painting in my home studio.

I love abstract art and even though much of my work falls somewhere along that spectrum, I sometimes enjoy painting in a genre that is different from what I am used to.

When I'm not in my studio, I enjoy ballroom dancing, pickleball, badminton and horseback riding.

https://www.artjconant.com/

​Becky Neideffer is an artist with a life-long passions for art, she has worked in all mediums, but prefers soft pastels and colored pencils.  Her art is realistic with an emphasis on light in both mediums.  Her paintings are predominately landscapes but include still life, animals, figurative and floral subjects. She is a self-taught artist and has studied basic design, anatomy, landscape, charcoal, watercolor, pen and ink, conte, pastel and oil with professional artists.  She is President of the Tucson Pastel Society, which she founded in 2010, and is a member of the Pastel Society of America, the International Association of Pastel Societies, the Colored Pencil Society of America and the Tucson Colored Pencil Artists’ Association.

As a young woman, I enjoyed creating all types of arts and crafts for myself, family and friends.  I also took various classes in oil painting, fabric sculpture, clay and ceramics.

In 1990 I made a job transfer from Yuma to Tucson and that’s where I started focusing more intently on art.  My first home in Tucson was located on the northwest side and had such a great view of Pusch Ridge and the Catalina’s that it inspired me to paint them.  I took many classes of ‘Art for Personal Development’ and ‘Drawing Classes’ at Pima College.

After retirement I had more time to paint and produced many more works.  Favorite subjects are southwest landscapes but I feel I can learn and grow by painting all type of subjects.  I love the beauty of cactus especially when blooming and have started painting these quite often. 

 At the urging of a fellow artist, I decided to venture into pastels and started classes at Oasis and later Fran Odum at her gallery.  I found pastels a wonderful media for producing portrait and wildlife art.

I was a member of Southwestern League of Fine Arts and then I joined the Tucson Pastel Society in 2011 in hopes of getting more exposure and displaying my works in commercial establishments and galleries.  After joining the Tucson Pastel Society I started going on their plein air outings, before that I worked mainly from my own photographs.
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I found I really enjoyed painting and it made me feel good to create something I could be proud of and share with others.  I especially enjoy open studios with its casual atmosphere and where I can interact with other artist and learn from them.  I enjoy creating works of art in oils and pastels and sharing them with others.  

​I am a native of northeastern Massachusetts and have always been fascinated with flowers and the world around me - landscapes, gardens, plants, buildings, and urban streets.
 
Throughout my life, I have been drawn to art, and as a teenager even imagined becoming an artist.   As an adult, my husband and I raised three sons and built our careers leaving time for little else.
After I retired, we became snowbirds and I began to seriously pursue art, first drawing the botanical subjects I love.  Through personal exploration, art classes at the Morton Arboretum (Chicago), the Art Institute at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, and The Drawing Studio (Tucson) and workshops at TPS, I now find art an old friend providing great relaxation and pleasure.
 
This painting, Loch Awe is a fond reminder of a holiday Geoff and I took to Scotland. The moody loch, often shrouded in clouds, changed throughout the day. Here, in late afternoon the clouds had lifted and the peaceful blues, greens, greys, and purples so typical of western Scotland became evident.
 

Popular nature photographer John E. Baldwin was raised in Ohio and has a degree in Engineering from Ohio University. During his professional years working for du Pont in the photographic industry, he became educated in both camera usage and film manufacture. The advent of digital photography and image manipulation, combined with his love of nature, gave him the perfect opportunity to further develop his professional artistic skills.
He met Barbara Archer in 2011 and together, they blended their artistic talents of photography and acrylic painting.  They have published 2 books chronicling their joint artwork called “BrushedLens’s”

John has studied pastel painting under Barbara’s tutelage at her weekly class over the past 10 years and has developed an interest in landscapes and particularly in scenes where perspective, mood and lighting highlight the story.

His awards and credits include both photography and pastel pieces primarily in SW Florida Art centers of Venice, North Port and Punta Gorda.
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He tutors students in digital photography and photoshop editing and also provides artists with high quality digital images for creating reproductions or entering national on-line art shows.
He routinely posts images and activity on his Facebook page “The Brushedlens” ​