| Arleta Pech |
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The striking watercolor paintings of Arleta Pech have received critical acclaim for their
high contrast, unusually intense use of color and exquisite detail. Pech's ability to achieve both
impact and delicacy in her paintings attests to her facility with her preferred medium - watercolor.
Born in the Midwest, Pech has lived in Colorado since 1960. Trained in fine art as a youth, Arleta began her art career as a commercial artist. Pech returned to painting in the late 1970's when she continued her training in watercolors. Pech feels the turning point of her career came in the late 1970's when she began to concentrate on floral subjects. At this time she began to receive recognition in local and regional shows and to receive awards for her art. Watercolor is Pech's medium of choice because she feels that she can control it and use it to best create the effect of light on her subjects: "I'm painting the light on the flowers, not just the flowers themselves." Her goal, Pech says, "is to create beautiful images that glow with light and to continue to take on new challenges and opportunities." Her lavish flowers look real enough to pick, bathed in radiant light and surrounded by cascades of elegant white lace. When Arleta paints lace, she really only paints the holes; she doesn't use any white paint. The only white seen in her paintings is the white of the paper! Although much planning and preparation goes into such artistic inspirations, Pech says, "Some paintings aren't planned; they are inspired by subtle happenings that occur when you least expect them. There are times when magic happens while painting, when the brushes and paint just flow, and the painting feels as if it painted itself! My watercolors are plays of contrasts - lights against darks, soft edges against hard - they are romantic images rather than harsh realities. I hope my paintings strike the emotional chords of their viewers, taking them into worlds of beauty and light." Arleta Pech is represented by several galleries and her work has been selected for numerous juried exhibitions and invitationals. She won the Colorado Watercolor Society Award in the 1986 Rocky Mountain National Watermedia Exhibition and a special award at the 1988 National Watercolor Society Western Art Invitational. She is a signature member of The Rocky Mountain National Watermedia Society and The NWS Western Invitational, and was invited to participate in the 1996 Great Women Artists of America Show. Her original paintings are included in many private and corporate collections, and her work has been featured in magazines such as American Artist and The Artists. Her paintings were selected for a series of plates by the Bradford Exchange as well as jigsaw puzzles and posters. |
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