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Colleen Howe was born in American Fork, Utah. Soon after, she and her family moved to the Big Hole Valley in southwestern Montana. She learned to love the open landscape in the large, Alaskan-like valley on a 1,000 acre cattle ranch. A love for horses and being outside was also developed. "I can't remember when I wasn't drawing (mostly horses) when I was a child. It was hard to keep me inside the house. ..It was my universe to be explored in detail on the back of my pinto horse, Pinky. The landscape there had a vibrating quality. I could feel energy and life, and these feelings have stayed with me. I know that the landscape can offer an invisible kind of healing and strength to the viewer as it does for me. Eight years ago I picked up a small set of pastels that my sister had given to me and did a small still life. My interest in this medium grew with every painting. The immediacy and color- layering characteristics of pastel appeal to me, as well as textural affects I can get by using different edges of the pastel piece. I make many of the surfaces that I work on. My favorite is a gessoed, toned and pumiced board that holds the pastel particles very well. I try to work outside as much as possible. The color an proportions will be more correct than a photograph. I use photographs if I only have time for a small color study or pencil sketch. I try to capture an essence of place by simplifying forms and directing the viewer through composition and color to an area of special interest and energy, extending peace, order, quiet strength and renewal to those viewing the painting. To me, the landscape is a living breathing three-dimensional experience." AWARDS:
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