Rebekah is a young artist a couple years out of college. She took art classes during her high school years, first at Reidland High School, then at McCracken High School. But she didn’t fall in love with painting until her time at WKCTC. She took classes from Randy Simmons, and Tanya Gadbaw-Neitzke, who had the students underpainting in acrylic and using oils for the main painting. Rebekah started out using acrylic paint, feeling intimidated by some of the aspects of painting with oil, so she was uneasy about the whole idea. She found she fell in love with using oils. While at WKCTC she tried pretty much every medium she could, including photography and metal smithing and did some graphic design and illustration.
At the moment Rebekah is concentrating on her painting, wanting to sell and display her work. She sees beauty in small things. She wants to immortalize the things she sees and loves, to share that beauty and simplicity, and her religion, with others.
I asked her about her painting process and she said that, sometimes, she will sketch first but frequently she just starts painting, getting the shapes and colors down. She starts working with the darks and works up to the lights, leaving the whitest whites until last. Rebekah also said she usually starts on one area completes it before moving to the next.
Rebekah, likes several art movements, such as Baroque, for its elegancy, Rococco for its color scheme, Post Neo and Impressionism. She loves the relaxed element of Impressionism, the freedom and looseness that is Impressionism, to take a painting, or an image in the direction she wants, without feeling like she is locked into a precise recreation. With Impressionism, comes a freedom to be more fluid and more expressive. Some of Rebekah’s favorite Masters are Salvador Dali, Van Gogh, and Monet. A couple current artists she likes are Kathy Odom and Robin Sealark.
A couple interesting facts about Rebekah is that she is a fan of classical music such as Baroque, and opera and jazz swing, and horror films. Rebekah is an up-and-coming young artist with a fresh and warm look to her artwork. Make sure you make it into PAPA this month to look at her Featured Artist wall while it’s up.
