Deborah Maklowski
Painter, Pastels & Color Pencils often combined with acrylic & gouache; Mixed media
Deborah Maklowski is an accomplished artist in colored pencil, pastel and mixed media. Her primary focus is on composition: combining shape, line, value, and color to draw the viewer into and around the picture plane, creating the illusion of three dimensional space in her representational works or a pleasing arrangement of patterns and motifs in her abstract works. She never has a “message”: she creates art for the challenges inherent in the process, for the satisfaction of learning to master the materials, for the fun of occasional happy accidents, and mainly for the sheer visual and physical joy of it, seeking to share with the viewer the beauty she finds in the world all around her, in forms both natural and man-made.
Education and Training
Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA: Bachelor of Fine Arts
Workshops: Liz Haywood-Sullivan, Terri Ford, Maggie Price, Susan Ogilvie, Richard McKinley, Albert Handel, Doug Dawson, Bob Rohm, Arlene Steinberg, Bonnie Auten, John Smolko, Eileen Sorg, and others
Professional Memberships
Signature Member, Colored Pencil Society of America (CPSA); Product Research Director, CPSA National Governing Board
Signature Member, Maryland Pastel Society (MPS); President, 2009-2012
Juried Member of Pastel Society of America and Miniature Painters, Sculptors, and Gravers Society of Washington, D.C. (MPSGS)
Member, Mid-Atlantic Plein Air Painters Association and the Cider Painters of America
Teaching
Instructor in colored pencil, Columbia Arts Center, Columbia, MD, and Sandy Spring Museum, Sandy Spring, MD
Galleries
HorseSpirit Arts Gallery, Ellicott City, MD
Recent Solo and National Exhibitions, Awards, and Publications
“A Connection” Invitational, Atlantic Gallery, New York, NY (2016); Philadelphia Watercolor Society’s 116th Annual Works on Paper, John H. Baker Gallery, West Chester, PA (2016); MPSGS International Exhibitions, Bethesda, MD (2011-2016)-1st Place (twice), 2nd Place, & Hon. Mention, Drawing category; MPS Juried Members Exhibition, Quiet Waters Galleries, Annapolis, MD (2015); International Guild of Realism’s 10th Annual International Juried Exhibition, Principle Gallery, Alexandria, VA (2015); “Pastel Unleashed,” a pastel+mixed media show, Strathmore Mansion, Bethesda, MD (2014)-Honorable Mention; CPSA International Juried Exhibitions: various U.S. galleries, (2004-2014); CPSA Explore This! Juried Online Exhibitions (2013-2015)-Staedtler-Mars Award for Excellence, 2014; MPS Shades of Pastel National Juried Exhibitions (2005-2013)-3rd Place, 2013; Paint the Town Plein Air Competition, Chestertown, MD (2013, 2014, 2015)-Best in Show, 2013; The Magic of Colored Pencil Juried Exhibition, Newport, RI (2013); Annual Strathmore Artists’ Juried Exhibitions, Bethesda, MD (2012-2015)-3rd Place, 2013; International Guild of Realism’s 7th Annual International Juried Exhibition, Carmel, CA (2012); International Guild of Realism’s “Leading Masters of Contemporary Realism,” Cape Cod, MA (2007); “Strokes of Genius: The Best of Drawing,” published by North Light Books, 2007