Featured Artist Linda Harrison-Parsons

Artist Linda Harrison-Parsons offers a selection of wonderfully expressive charcoal and pastel animal portraits. See more of her portfolio on her website.

 

 

I always knew I would make art.

My mother saw the creativity in me at a very young age. She gave me paper, pencils, crayons and art coloring books during my elementary school years. My teachers also encouraged me to make art. I doodled on everything, including tests, writing assignments and workbooks.

 

 

Along the way a few teachers helped me expand my need to draw. I created bulletin boards, display cases and designed programs for school plays. One teacher even had me paint little winter scenes for her personal holiday cards (but I never did get paid for that job!)

 

 

Life sometimes gets in the way of dreams. After many U-turns and a few dead-end roads, I found that I needed to be brave and keep moving forward.

 

 

I’ve had many jobs that just paid the bills and I went to college part-time for years. I worked full-time and sometimes part-time too, along with being a single mother. I did small art shows and joined local art organizations. Over the years I remarried, and was accepted to Maryland Institute, College of Art (MICA), in Baltimore, Maryland.

 

 

I was thirty-something when I went back to school full-time. MICA, an art school filled with many talented young people, pushed me to become the artist I am today. A professor, Abbey Sangiamo, told me to create the work I love, that my audience will find me and my art.

 

 

Those words stayed with me. I still make the art that is important to my life. I earned my undergraduate degree in Fine Arts from MICA and went on to get a master’s degree in Fine Arts from G.W. University, Washington, D.C.

 

 

I’m an environmental wildlife and nature artist, creating realistic works using pastel and charcoal, and sometimes mixing them with other mediums.

 

 

Nature is my passion. It fills me with peace just as creating art does. I believe that Nature and the act of making art go hand-in-hand for me—both help keep me sane. I strongly feel that I will continue to travel this globe, teach workshops and make art for as long as my hands and eyes will allow.

 

 

Thank you for reading my story. I hope you enjoy my creations. You can find demonstrations of my techniques on the blog posts in my website.

 

Artist Linda Harrison-Parsons invites you to follow her Instagram, Twitter, her Facebook Art page and her personal Facebook page.

 

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