Area artist gives demo at meeting

The next Carson Valley Art Association meeting will be 1:30 p.m. Feb. 24 in the meeting room of the Douglas County Public Library in Minden. This month's art demonstration will be by watercolorist and mixed media specialist Ann Armijo who has lived in South Lake Tahoe and Carson Valley for a number of years.

"Ever since I picked up my first box of paints, I have been a colorist at heart," Armijo said. "Growing up on a cattle ranch in Colorado, I developed an early appreciation of nature, sketching or photographing the tiniest wildflowers and the widest panoramas. My style is mainly representational using the bounty of nature's subjects, colors, shapes, light, shadows, and reflections as my subject.

Armijo spends a lot of time capturing moments and scenes of the Carson Valley and Lake Tahoe with her camera, which she uses as reference for her paintings. Western themes and scenes are predominant in her work.

She received many art awards in junior high and high school, and went on to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of Colorado. She also studied commercial art at the Colorado Institute of Art. Currently, she is an active member of the Nevada Artist's Association and the Carson Valley Artists Association. Her work hangs regularly at the Brewery Art Center Gallery on King and Division Streets in Carson City, and at the Carson Valley Museum and Cultural Center in Gardnerville. She has also shown her work in CVAA shows and invitational shows in the area.

"I paint primarily in watercolor, finding the medium challenging and vibrant, Armijo said. "I use layers of transparent washes to create a depth and richness of color. I also enjoy fabric arts, especially batik, and use resist techniques in my paintings, combining mixed media that I sew onto my paintings."

Armijo considers every new painting an experiment, with the hope of learning something new. "

Of course, some experiments are more successful than others are," she said "but the process is one of learning and evolving each time."

For questions about CVAA, the meetings or the artist demonstration call:782-5606.