Artist’s Statement

Art beckoned to me during early childhood, when I could be found most every day, indoors or out, with crayons in my hand and preferably plain, white paper … no coloring book for me.

When I was accepted to the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston at age 18, I switched to the opposite side of my brain and chose to enter business school.  It was the practical thing to do in the late 1950s. And then I married and raised four sons in a lovely town called Cohasset, on the coast of Massachusetts just south of Boston.

Today I am an active grandmother who can devote all of the time I choose to painting and spending many hours in a day behind an easel.

I am fortunate to live in a town with fine, regional art center. I have taken many courses and workshops in my hometown, as well as Maine, New Mexico and most recently, Italy.  My studies never stop. Every course I take teaches me something new about my art and life.

Recently, I was been asked to teach beginners’ pastels at a local gallery this spring.  I look forward to this challenge with great enthusiasm. And…I was very pleased to be asked by my peers to do this.

After trying various media, I discovered that pastel is my favorite.  I am a very tactile person, and the feeling of the sanded paper and my fingers holding the pastels with their slight grit and their new, spectacular color choices, makes me really feel that I am into creating something fresh and new.

There is no greater joy for me as an artist than to plunk myself down under a shade tree on a sunny, summer day to paint a marsh, river, farm or accoutrements thereof.  I start with a viewfinder to find the best composition.  I then do a thumbnail sketch of the scene followed by a value sketch.  I then transfer my composition to my pastel paper using a pencil or charcoal.  Then ... off I go!!!  I usually take a digital photo of the area in case I do not finish my masterpiece there and I finish the painting at home using the photo as a guide, taking note of the light source.  Landscape art is all about the light.

I am inspired by the light in the morning and at sunset, whether I am in my own yard, on the streets of Boston, the side roads of Santa Fe or in the hills of Rome.  Every new day brings with it a new beginning of a new painting.

All artwork is the copyrighted property of Yvette Rattenbury and may not be reproduced or copied without her expressed permission.