Colleen Underwood
Colleen was born and raised and has lived most of her life in the beautiful province of Nova Scotia.
She started painting as a decorative artist and quickly became involved with the National Society of Decorative Painters. This society, headquartered in Kansas, has a world wide membership of over 30,000 members. Colleen’s knowledge of the business, people skills, and attention to detail were assets as she served on their various committees and executive. It was through this society she traveled yearly to their national art convention to study and take art theory classes. Colleen also served as president of the Canadian Decorative Artist Network.
Through the last 35 years Colleen has taught art classes and has been invited to teach across Canada and the USA. From 1995 to 2002 she was co-owner and operator of an annual art convention which took place every spring in Toronto Ontario. This convention, the largest of its kind in Canada, brought in hundreds of art teachers and exhibitors from all over the world for one full week of classes; art related events, as well as a trade show. The demands left little time to enjoy her own art so in 2002 Colleen decide to fulfill her desire to work full time as an artist.
Colleen works primary in oils and enjoys still-life, landscapes, and portraits. Her style of painting can be described as classical realism and she uses techniques of the old masters to achieve realism in her work. Her work glows from within as the richness of color is slowly build up through layers of glazing transparent pigments over opaque layers of paint. Currently she has been exploring encaustic painting (painting with beeswax and damar resin) and continues to grow her artistic skills.
