My Calendar

Please join us, Saturday morning at 11:00am for “Mimosas and Muffins” free demo by Debra Nadelhoffer, ASMA, AIS, SPS at the Quinlan Visual Art Center.

DRAMATIC BEGINNINGS OR ENDINGS TO THE DAY

Debra uses several surfaces (substrates) for painting with pastels. The scene in her photographs usually helps her to decide which approach to take. Since there are some wonderful surfaces for pastel, she likes to try different ways to begin on the chosen surface. She will set up 2-3 different surfaces and lay in beginning washes to see which would work best for her painting. She wants to show how making these decisions early on in the process can have a strong impact on the completed painting.

I have loved color and creating since I was a child. Rainy days spent inside coloring or painting were my favorite activities. Not much has changed, a rainy day remains an invitation to turn on some beautiful music and create at the easel. As a young adult I married and since we lived in a rural area, it was not easy or affordable to take art classes. I painted from home while raising my family, studying books and working first with watercolor, then pastels and finally oils. Each medium had its own strengths and I now use something from all of them to create my paintings. As my family grew, I went to work and began to take life classes in the evenings after my youngest child left for college. It was so exciting to be able to learn from wonderful artists. I painted at night and on the weekends working in oils and pastels. I was president of Southeastern Pastel Society for seven years and came into contact with some talented artists. The desire to paint from life sent me outside into the landscape to paint plein air. Painting plein air has enhanced my work beyond what I could have imagined. I continue to paint plein air for my own education, working on location and bringing information back into the studio where I remember colors, sounds and impressions that no photograph can duplicate. I have found my passion painting the landscape in oils and pastels with all of its many moods, trying to share my vision with the viewer. I particularly love painting the mountains, coast and water anywhere. My greatest compliment is when someone says my paintings make them feel like they are there. I was thrilled to receive the AWARD of EXCELLENCE for a Seascape in the 2021 OPA 30th National Exhibition in Escondido CA, I was accepted into the 18th National American Society of Marine Artists (ASMA) Exhibition travelling to 5 museums from March 2020-March 2021, the 2019 Eastern Regional OPA exhibition in Birmingham AL, the 19th Annual American Impressionists Society (AIS) Exhibition. I am a Signature Member of AIS, ASMA and Southeastern Pastel Society (SPS). My paintings have been included in the 27th National Oil Painters of America Exhibition, American Society of Marine Artists Invitational at Principle Gallery, my painting The Crossing won the Best Building in a Landscape award in the June/July 2017 PleinAir Salon competition, Oil Painters of America Eastern Regional Exhibition 2017, American Impressionists Society Small Works Show 2016, and I am one of Pastel Journals December 2016 issue, 10 Artists to Watch. I have had paintings accepted into OPA 2016 Salon, ASMA Seventeenth National, the Oil Painters of America 25th National Juried Exhibition, Southeastern Pastel Society 17th International, American Impressionist Society 16th National Exhibition, WPSE Fifth Annual Exhibition 2016, American Society of Marine Artists Regional and National, the American Women Artists 2015 National Juried Exhibition and one into Oil Painters of America Juried Salon Show of Traditional Oils at Beverly McNeil Gallery in Birmingham, AL in October. I participated in Olmstead Plein Air Paintout in Atlanta, GA 2016, the 2015 Door County Plein Air Festival, was an exhibiting artist at Southeastern Wildlife Expo (SEWE) in Charleston, SC in 2014, 2015 and 2016, and Plein Air Richmond and Callaway Gardens Paintouts. I think we all have a bucket list and one of the things on my list was to be an Artist in Residence (AIR) in Acadia National Park. I was awarded the AIR in 2012 and painted in the park for 2 weeks that fall. I taught weekly classes at Chastain Art Center in Atlanta GA for 14 years and conduct my own workshops a few times a year locally and along the coast. I am represented by Frameworks Gallery, Marietta, GA, Mackinacs Little Gallery on Mackinac Island, Michigan. If you are interested in my work or would like to take a workshop, please contact me at 770-887-8877, or email at debduster@bellsouth.net. My website is www.debranadelhoffer.com and you can follow me on facebook, instagram and my blog. Resume provided upon request.