Willamarie Huelskamp

I have been painting and drawing since I was old enough to hold a crayon. Today I paint in a beautiful loft style condominium. It is the atelier any artist would dream of. Wood floors, concrete walls, soaring ceiling, and the original expansive factory windows of what was once a chocolate factory in downtown Salt Lake City. A sturdy oak easel holds my latest unfinished work. My life did not always look like this. Once upon a time I was a structural engineer, however my passion for painting kept me up at night. Giving up my day job I became a full time artist in 1990, after completing a BFA at the University of Utah. For the next dozen years I painted landscapes, primarily plein-aire in watercolor. Gradually I moved into mixed water media, acrylic and collage. I paint with acrylics both as a liquid transparent medium, like watercolor, and as a thick opaque medium, like oil paint. Sometimes combining both of these two opposite qualities in one painting. Whether I am painting on canvas or paper I begin my piece with collage. Collecting various handmade papers. I love creating an interesting surface texture as a base for each painting. Flowing washes of transparent paint layered upon one another make up the next part of the painting process. Then I let the paint guide me into the next stage of the painting process. Much of my work will remain abstract, while some become images of people, animals or even landscapes. The images come from deep places some visually connected to our three-dimension word and others from a place of pure imagination.