Artist of the Year 2016

by Judie Apablaza

Our members chose Devorah Friedman as our Artist of the Year, for her beautiful watercolor portrait, "Waiting."

Devorah is always growing and perfecting her signature specialty of portraits and figures. She stated that “Waiting” started out as a very uninspired and bland photo. She removed a figure and concentrated her focus on one man. She breathed life into her painting taking into account intensity, value and hue as well as lights and darks of the sunlight and shadows. Davorah is a stickler for detail and this painting seemed to meet her personal expectation and criteria. She also stated that the drawing must be correct. To achieve the best possible painting, Devorah feels that “value supersedes color.”

She has been painting with Fealing Lin for twenty years and feels that Fealing has become a mentor and a friend. Devorah states that she is very competitive and follows a long line of artists in her family who excelled in music as well as the visual arts.