About the Artist
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About Connie
Fear can hold an artist back". "Fear that the piece won't come out right, or fear of not having enough confidence in what you're feeling". "I use to believe in not over thinking a painting, that it would
loose its freshness. Now I plan a painting more. I look at the temperature and values. Most important I have to like the feeling of what the scene or composition is making me feel.
She relies on an impressionistic Alla Primastyle. "The more I look at nature, the more colors I see". "I enjoy looking deep into nature or my subject matter and pulling out and enhancing the sometimes hidden color".
"When I paint from photographs that I have taken, I will remember a special cloud, or the way a tree falls, or the way the light flows over a wheat field, and I will often decide to put that in the painting just because it feels right and adds to the composition. I will also delete or clean up areas to draw and focus more on where I want the viewers eye to go.
"If I am painting plein air, the final composition can come from different memories of nature, not all from exactly what I see in front of me, and every now and then there are the "happy accidents".
Connie was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and grew up in Southern California where she also studied art. With her husband and small son, she moved to Northern Idaho in 1977. There, Connie studied watercolor under Al Knoke, Katherine Haynes and took workshops with Zolton Zabo, as well as at the University of Idaho Workshop on Wheels
Connie's mother painted in oils and her father was a part-time sculptor. Both parents gave Connie paints, pencils and paper, and urged her to paint along with them. "My mother was always sticking me in some art class", says Connie, "I think it helped me get more acquainted with the different mediums". "Probably the best part was getting lost and turning myself over to the painting". "As a young child you are not so worried about what others are thinking of your work or if it's good enough, everyone tells you that it's great". "As we get older we are harder on ourselves and worry if we got it right". "Now that I am older I've learned to give in as I did when I was a child". "To give in and let my feelings for the subject matter, the color, and my mood take over".
"I was passionate about watercolor and painted in watercolor for over 35 years". "14 years ago, after living with my great uncle's oil paintings for a long time and loving his work, I decided to try oil". In 2005 Connie took her first oil workshop in Taos, New Mexico with Leigh Gusterson. Since then, Connie has gone over to the Southwest and painted with a group who calls itself the "Ghost Girls". They get together every Fall for a week and paint the old pueblos and ruins of the Southwest, plein air style. They plan on doing this until they physically can't do it anymore.
Connie has also studied under Brian Buckwell and Neal Patterson both Canadian artists and John Cosby a well known California artist.
Connie is one of the featured artists in the "Artists Studio Tour" that takes place in Sandpoint and surrounding areas every summer. She invites you "lovers of the arts" to come by her studio, "Scherr Haven Studio", (please call for a appointment), and view what new paintings she is creating.
At Schweitzer Mtn, Resort.
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