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. 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.
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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.
Most of my work emphasizes the formal qualities of art. Shape, line and color are most exciting to me as some of my favorite works are from the Cubism and Fauvism eras. I find it especially pleasing to reduce a subject to basic shapes while focusing on color, texture, and other elements. My paintings fall along the abstract spectrum but my subject matter varies widely. Since childhood, my life has been defined by variety in many ways and my art reflects that. I never tire of watching as colors and textures emerge with every brush or pastel stroke.
Retired from teaching high school Career Technical Education courses in digital art and photography, I now try to work in my art studio as much as possible. My work is featured at Cactus Wren Art Gallery in Tubac AZ and Petroglyphs: A Tucson Emporium in Tucson, AZ.
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. 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”
My formal education is in Electrical and Systems Engineering. After retiring I took up woodcarving and took instruction from three world champion woodcarvers in carving and painting.
I became a docent at the Desert Museum and took pencil drawing classes there. In August 2022 I began taking Pastel lessons from Karyn Vampotic at All Seasons Senior Living. I prefer painting realistic portraits of pets and other animals. I became a member of TPS in October 2023.
I am mainly a self taught artist. I started drawing at age 4 as a way to escape chaos at a home with 5 girls. I took art in high school and college but got sick after my freshman year and was hospitalized all of September. I had to drop the next term. Married the next February and the next year had a son. I oil painted when I could. Divorced after 6 yearsI found I took classes with adult education, classes at Art Center School of Design and also workshops. I have taken workshops with TPS, Tubac School of Fine Art, Center for Performing Art Center in Green Valley and workshops offered by Santa Rita Art League. I have won several blue ribbons at art shows and Artists Choice awards. I found pastel about 10 years ago and it is my medium of choice. I've tried about every medium but I like pastel the most as it is immediate and has a special luminous quality.
I cannot remember not drawing. As a child, I was left handed, dyslexic and attended a school with four grades in the same room where individual creative expression was not encouraged. While still in grade school, my sister gave me a Jon Gnagy art kit that contained small tubes of oils and watercolors, drawing supplies and small sticks of pastel along with a book on how to draw by using lines and cross-hatching for shading and modeling. I still have the book and some of the pieces of that kit. It opened the world of art for me.
I am drawn to Southwest region because I love the environment and the culture. The people, the animals, the flora, the fauna, mountains, boulders and vast blue skies, they all inspire me to paint.
Donna spent the majority of her college and adult years on the East Coast. She studied Fine Arts at University of Massachusetts North Dartmouth. Her love for pastel started in New Hampshire back in 2015. After taking an introductory class to the medium, the love affair started! Retiring in 2019 in Tucson AZ gave her time to devote to her beloved medium. She enjoys the immediacy and spontaneity of the pastels. 7 years later, she has successfully been juried into 3 shows with The Pastel Society of Cape Cod, The Tucson Pastel Society and the New Hampshire Pastel Society. In 2023, Donna was awarded Second Place in the Tucson Pastel Society show. She currently serves as the Workshop Chair for the Tucson Pastel Society.
Congratulations!!!
Fran received a $50 Gift card to the Arizona Art Supply, 1 yr's membership 2024-25, and the painting will be on the cover of the 2023-2024 Membership Directory. FRAN ODUM, PSA
As a child, Fran Odum’s passion for nature drew her to the beautiful countryside of her native France. Inspired by that beauty, she pursued an education in art. Over the course of her life as an artist, she has developed a unique style of pastel painting, which enhances the simple beauty of nature and showcases her acute sensitivity to her environment. Fran is known for her award winning paintings of wildlife and she approaches her work with enthusiasm. Her lifelong fascination with the outdoors has taken her on numerous field trips, as far as Idaho. Montana, Wyoming and British Columbia, In 1994 , she was commissioned to design the poster for the Fiesta de Los Vaqueros Rodeo, in Tucson. Memberships include the Pastel Society of America (signature member), the Catharine Lorrilard Wolfe Art club (full membership), the Pastel Society of New Mexico (signature member), the Pastel Society of the West Coast (signature member), and the Tucson Pastel Society. Exhibitions include Trailside Galleries in Scottsdale Arizona and Jackson Hole Wyoming, Bosque Art Classic in Clifton. Texas, Coors Western Art show, Safari club International, Ducks Unlimited, The National Art club, New York, The Salmagundi club, New York, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., Tucson Museum of Art, The Mountain Oyster Club, in Tucson, Western Art Spirit Exhibit, Old West Museum, Cheyenne, Wyoming and many more invitational and juried exhibitions. Her work has been published in Art of the West, Southwest Art , Paint Horse Journal, International Pastel Magazine, Master Artists of the World, Western Horseman Magazine and the Wildlife Art News Magazine. |
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September 2025
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