ArtistsNetwork.com 55says. When the trees were dry, she painted the back-
ground in vertical slivers from the top down. “I started
with a dark blue mixed with a tiny bit of super dark
green,” she says. “When I got two-thirds of the way down
and everything was still wet, I added in a little green to
make the transition from sky to landscape, and then
I moved on to the next sliver.”
BECOMING ONE
After completing hundreds of paintings, Pitts still isn’t
quite sure where her ideas come from, but she’s quite
sure that art is in her being. Her advice for artists looking
for ideas and inspiration? “Take a walk, look around and
listen to that soft inner voice,” she says. “Ideas come in
through the side door, perhaps not fully formed or com-
pletely understood, and sometimes ideas that are initially
unrelated become one idea.”
Amy Leibrock is a Cincinnati-based freelance writer and
content manager.
Meet the Artist
Sharon Pitts (sharonpitts.com)
holds a B.A. in plastic and graphic
arts from the University of Illinois,
Chicago, and has studied at the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine
Arts, the Barnes Foundation and
Montclair State University. Her
work is featured in collections
throughout the United States
and in numerous exhibitions. As a
workshop instructor, she teaches at the Yard School of
Art, Montclair Art Museum, in Montclair, N.J., and gives
workshops around the world. She’s a member of Allied
Artists of America and Studio Montclair, Inc., and is
listed in Who’s Who in American Art.Turn for a demo
Mystery of Trees I
(watercolor on paper, 40x60)