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About the Artist

A Florida native, Deborah Paris grew up with a love of the outdoors. She studied art at Wesleyan College and Florida State University, and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the State University of New York. Over the years she has studied with many of the best representational painters, including Ned Jacob, noted pastel landscape painter, Lorenzo Chavez, and Matt Smith. She credits Jacob with teaching her the importance of working from life .Jacob's tales of his days as a young artist in Taos also inspired her to explore the Southwest. Today, she maintains studios in Florida and Placitas, New Mexico.

Deborah's work in oil and pastel is grounded in the direct observation of nature and a life long fascination with its drama and subtleties. The artist is inspired by the long tradition of plein air painters and their work including the early Italian landscapes of Corot, the indomitable spirit of Pizarro, and the 19th century American painters such as Moran, Bierstadt, and Church who went out into the American wilderness with their paint boxes in hand.

Deborah believes that the purpose of the plein air sketch is to capture the reality and the truth of nature. However, mere copying is not the goal, but rather to translate into shapes and color what the artist and teacher John Carlson called the "landscape sense". "When I am painting outdoors," she says " my focus is on things as they are, as well as the idea or concept that inspired me to paint the scene in front of me. Later in the studio, the plein air sketch and other studies provide the material to complete the translation of nature into a picture which conveys the sense of the place, and also, if I've done it right, leaves something for the viewer's imagination to explore." Deborah firmly believes that the understanding of the particular reveals the universal. "I try to find the essential parts of the landscape, to bring that together with my response, and then to paint that..

Deborah Paris is represented by ArtStudio Gallery in Santa Fe. Studio visits are welcomed and by appointment only. Click here to send e-mail. To find out more about Deborah Paris, visit her Web site: deborahparis.com/

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