Deborah Paris
Called one of the top fifty plein air painters in the country, Deborah Paris practiced law for over twenty years before returning to her first love-painting. A Florida native, Paris recently made a permanent move to New Mexico but still divides her time between Florida and the West as evidenced by her landscapes which pay homage to the Rocky Mountains as well as Florida marshlands.

Paris' work has been exhibited nationwide, and she has received the Best and Brightest Award and the Pastel Society of America Award among many others. She has been featured in American Artist, Southwest Art and The Pastel Journal. In December 2004 she was named an Artist to Watch by Southwest Art Magazine. Her work has been shown at the Laguna Art Museum, the Albuquerque Museum of Art, and the Panhandle-Plains Museum. She teaches plein air painting throughout the country and is the founder and Signature Member of Plein Air New Mexico. In 2006 her work was featured in two new books, Landscapes of New Mexico (Fresco Fine Art Publications) and Plein Air New Mexico (Jack Richeson Art Publications).

"Heaven walks among us ordinarily muffled in such triple or tenfold disguises that the wisest are deceived and no one suspects the days to be gods." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every now and then, there is a moment of transcendence, a kind of transparency when we are able to see something of what Emerson suggests. Every painting starts with an idea. This idea is suggested by something in the landscape, the point of inspiration, a moment of transcendence. It is this visual idea that inspires the painting and everything I do is in service of that idea. Emily Dickinson said "Life is a spell so exquisite that everything conspires to break it". My job is to not break the spell, to hang on for as long as I can. If I am successful, then the expressive quality of the painting will cast the spell once again, but this time on the viewer.

Shown:
Aripeka Evening Light
Pastel on paper

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