For Immediate Release Pull Date: July 17, 2006 Art by the Bay Camano Island’s Arts Festival Where: Utsalady Elementary School 608 Arrowhead Road Camano Island, WA When: July 15-16, 2006 10am to 5pm Contact: Stanwood-Camano Arts Guild Connie Hevly 360-387-5815 cjhev@earthlink.net PO Box 778 Stanwood, WA 98292 Online: www.StanwoodCamanoArts.com Art by the Bay Featured Artist: Bev Paulson By vote of the Stanwood-Camano Arts Guild membership, Bev Paulson’s watercolor “Ready to Unfurl” won this year’s poster contest for Art by the Bay, Camano Island’s Arts Festival. Bev is a watercolor artist with a sense of humor, along with a keen sense of form and design. Born at the end of the great depression, her parents strongly encouraged music and art, and to explore the fields that surrounded their Lockport, New York home. During summer vacations, Bev roamed the Canadian woods and river with her cousins. "These experiences were apparent in my earliest endeavors in putting pastels on paper." Bev explains, "I try to reflect in watercolors encounters with furry or feathered creatures, the love and exuberance of children, the wisdom and spirit of the aging, and majestic moods and textures of the outdoors." Often, she accomplishes these goals and adds a twist of whimsy, or with the tip of her tongue in cheek. Later, Bev moved west, finished school, and started her working life. Her employer arranged for her to illustrate a purchasing manual using pen and ink drawing for the State of Oregon, and urged her to study commercial art at Oregon Technical Institute. She was later employed as a production illustrator at Boeing Renton, rendering pencil isometric drawings of airplane parts. The company offered an after-hours class, where painting instructor Chuck Webster introduced Bev to the joys of watercolor painting. Bev married Bill, and the following fifty (yes, 50!) years have been spent at home raising two children, and entertaining five grandchildren with original stories and related illustrations. Bev returned to the work force, spending 11 years working for a picture framer and dabbling in painting for her own enjoyment. Bev and Bill moved from Kent to Camano Island in 2001. Bev is a member of Stanwood Camano Arts Guild, the Camano Arts Association, the Camano Roaming Artists, and the Brushes Brigade. She has won many awards at shows like the Stanwood-Camano Arts Guild Spring Art Show, the Stanwood Camano Fair, the Shoreline Arts Council Show, and has participated in numerous events such as Art by the Bay, the Stanwood-Camano Art Banner Project, the Roaming Artists Show, the Port Ludlow Art Walk, and PAS in Federal Way. Photo Editor: See the following web page for med-high resolution images you can use for publication. http://www.stanwoodarts.com/abtb/ABB-2006-press.htm