8ArtistInfo

Questions and comments about the artwork on this site are welcome. You may write or email the artist at:

Maureen Dean
PO Box 12282
Salem OR 97309-0282

Email: info@maureenswatercolors.com

"I am inspired by everyone and everything I see -- from the smallest child to the most intricate flower. We live in a world of such misery and pain, and hope is the only thing that keeps me going. Despite the troubles that plague our world, I still see beauty and hope all around me. These are the images I am compelled to bring to paper."

"I have yet to paint a portrait that I didn't photograph myself or didn't really want to paint. I just can't paint something I'm not excited about, or that I didn't "see" as one of my "moments" -- that is, my paintings are representations of what I call "moments" of things or people I saw that moved me. That's why the variety of my subjects is endless, and there are so many paintings that I have planned but not yet found the time to tackle."

Maureen works almost exclusively from photographs she has taken herself, and shies away from portrait work because subjects are often insistent on choosing the photograph.

Maureen was born in the Pacific Northwest, but has traveled internationally, and lived on both the East and West coasts of the United States, as well as in the south. She also spent two years working as a field supervisor on an archaeology dig in the middle east.

"Archaeology is a passion for me, second only to my painting, and although I have to be content at this stage of my life as an "armchair archaeologist" only, there are many sights and scenes and people I photographed and remember in my travels that I am still anxious to bring to life in my artwork."

Maureen is self-taught, learning and taking inspiration from books by Zoltan Zsabo, Jan Kunz, and Stephen Quiller. A widowed mother of five children, she began painting in 1994 (Shadow of His Wings) and painted briefly until 1997, when she put down her brushes in order to take a full-time job to support her family. She returned to school, earning a BA in French and Classics at the age of 49, and has worked as a legal assistant for a number of years. When one of her sons was seriously wounded while serving as a Marine in Iraq, she decided to begin painting again in order to produce a series of paintings as a military tribute (due 2009).