Robin Purcell is this month's featured artist

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California landscapes are the focus of this month's award-winning featured artist, Robin Purcell. Purcell enjoys interpreting the California landscape and finds much of her inspiration in the wine country of Sonoma County.  Vineyard Patterns, left, showcases this style perfectly.

The skies portrayed in her paintings typically take up a very small proportion of the composition, giving focus to the depths of the landscapes. "??I love to paint panoramas with high horizons and create an atmospheric perspective.... The distance in my paintings adds an emotional trigger for me of wanting to explore deeper into the landscape and the picture," Purcell recently stated in her blog.

She also stated that while many of her paintings appear to be from out in the wilderness, that typically she takes her inspiration from roadsides, or even urban sites, and simply removes buildings or other human elements such as roads, to give her painting the appeal of the beautiful, and untouched California landscapes surrounding her Northern California home. "California has always been a mythic land of sunshine that stirred my imagination." Her style of painting "simplifies what [she] sees and organizes it into shimmering patches of color."

 Purcell is the recipient of numerous awards and publications, and is currently showcasing her art at both international and national exhibitions.