Women's History Month
March is Women's History Month and here at Prinz, we see that cause for celebration. Each week this month we will be highlighting one of the amazing women artists we have featured on our website so you can read about how they came to be the talented women they are today. Check them out!
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WEEK ONE || AVA BARRETT
Born in Ireland 1963, Ava Barrett moved as a child with her family to Holland where her Father worked as a botanist. In addition to her curiosity in her Father’s work, Barrett became inspired by the famed botanical gardens of the Netherlands. She attended Slade School of Fine Art in London in 1981 and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. She went on to travel Europe and the US, showing in galleries throughout the UK, Paris, New York, and Chicago. Barrett now lives and works in a small farmhouse in the West-land region of the Netherlands, still inspired by nature.
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WEEK TWO || CAROL ROBINSON
Carol Robinson is a native of Salt Lake City, Utah, but through the whirlwinds of life, she has been relocated to Alberta, Canada, where she has learned to love small town life, embrace winter in all its glory, climb the Rocky Mountains on a weekly basis, and live and breathe hockey.
Carol has always loved to draw and paint. Formal schooling took her through three years of university study only to gain an MRS Degree, acquire one wonderful husband, three fantastic children, five (and counting) grandchildren, assorted animals, and 26 years of learning to navigate the art world.
Carol feels that through creating artwork for various clients, and keeping up with the hottest trends, she has grown more as a hands-on artist than she ever did as an art student. Lessons learned as a professional artist have been invaluable and stretched her abilities far beyond anything she could have imagined.
Carol loves to experiment, and often combines many mediums with digital art to create her diverse looks. She has added photography to the mix and enjoys seeing the world anew through a lens as well as through her already keen artistic eye. Carol says that "virtually everything I see can inspire a piece of artwork and it is a marvelous way to look at our world."
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WEEK THREE || JILL MARTIN
Jill Martin was born in Massachusetts and has lived both on the East and West coast, with a 13 year stay in the farmlands of British Columbia before moving to Arizona.
Her mother’s appreciation and enthusiasm for art and culture exposed Jill to wonderful artwork at an early age with her many visits to the galleries and museums of Washington DC and New York City. Jill graduated with a BFA and MFA from the University of Arizona in Tucson and taught drawing in their architecture department for two years. She has been in numerous juried and invitational gallery shows and several museum shows. Her works appear in collections in Arizona, California and on the East coast.
Jill lives and works in Phoenix, AZ with her cat, Kermit.
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WEEK FOUR || LIZ JARDINE
Liz Jardine grew up in New York City, which is, as she says, “The best possible place on the planet for a budding young artist.” Her mother was a docent at an art museum, and kept her enrolled in a steady stream of art classes. She remembers being amazed by the restored Pompeiian room at the Natural History Museum in New York City, and discovered that New York’s Broadway shows heightened her creative senses to the endless combinations of color and light, fantasy and whimsy that would eventually be incorporated into her work.
As an undergraduate student at the State University of New York, Liz concentrated on textile design and clay forms. There, she developed an interest in incorporating fibers into porcelain wall pieces. Upon graduation, Liz began an apprenticeship at various textile and design studios in the New York City area. Many of her raw silk garment designs were sold through Horton Studio at several designer boutiques including Henri Bendel. In an effort to return to more traditional media, Liz apprenticed with a graphic design studio and developed skills in advertising art and production techniques. Eventually, she began freelancing and built a strong reputation as a skilled concept illustrator and art director. This work paved her return to watercolors in various genre as florals, landscapes, still life and abstracts.
Today, Liz flourishes in varied media but especially favors acrylics for their texturing and form-building abilities. Liz’s deep love and appreciation for nature inspire her creativity and inform her artwork. Nature’s beauty and infinite color palettes are an endless source of inspiration and ideas for her work. Liz’s favorite medium is collage of transparent imagery, combined with translucent water-based mediums, but she is constantly experimenting and buying new art supplies and mediums that she can use in her work.
Liz paints from the heart, and she believes her collectors can feel her love of the pigments and the composition. Liz’s joy in her artistic calling is evident and inspiring. When asked how she deals with artist’s block, Liz says, “I have never experienced that. I get up and practically run into my studio each morning, and I have for 20 years.” Liz’s hope is that viewers will feel the bliss that she felt while creating the work. At her home and in her studio, Liz’s walls are overflowing with her collection of her artist friends’ works. She believes strongly in supporting living artists, and purchases pieces at each and every show she attends. When asked if she was Felix Unger or Oscar Madison in the studio, she quips humorously, “Well, I will tell you I think I have ruined the beautiful hardwood floors in the studio; they are hopelessly caked and covered in paint along with every imaginable surface. Even my shoes are a work of art!” Liz makes no distinctions between her art and her life. She is always open to receiving inspiration, and on a deeper level she believes her life as an artist has allowed her to explore and fully realize her potential. When she’s not creating her glorious works of art, Liz enjoys life to the fullest in the fine climate and beautiful coast of Southern California. She practices yoga and enjoys a vibrant art community and her friends as much as she possibly can. Wanderlust has swept Liz to exotic countries both near and far. She has toured extensively throughout Asia and been on safari in Kenya. Says Liz, “I am a world traveler, I have been absolutely everywhere! My most recent adventure took me to India and it was fabulous – a life-changing experience.”
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