Growing up on the Kansas plains, Marilyn felt herself part of the landscape from childhood. When she accompanied her father, a veterinarian, on his country calls he would call her attention to details of nature. She learned to appreciate the smell of sweet clover, the curve of a creek and the quiet rustling of cottonwood leaves. This attention to observation plus her love of drawing set the stage for the feelings she now expresses in her landscape paintings.
The career took longer to develop. It was while employed as a research home economist for a large food company that a chance visit to a traveling American Watercolor Society show changed her direction. Here she saw paintings that she enjoyed and realized, for the first time, that people were able to make this a career. She began painting with more focus and increasing the spare time devoted to it. In the early 1980`s she entered the professional art world, exhibiting and entering competitions.
In 2008, after living in a small town in Nebraska for over 30 years, they moved to Washington state, just west of Puget Sound. The majestic forests have replaced the expansive plains as her subject matter. Plein air painting is helping her adjust to the reality of painting this totally different terrain..
Honors include being selected for "Who's Who in American Art 2009" and also as one of the premier women artists of Nebraska for the book, " Impact - the Art of Nebraska Women." Her paintings have been frequent inclusions in the national Arts for the Parks competition. In 1997 her piece titled The Gift was selected for the top 100 show and tour. Her work has been featured in numerous national and regional competitions and corporate and private collections. She is a former member of the Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters, (RMPAP) and current member of the Peninsula Art League.
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