Member Biography

ARTIST STATEMENT

"My art reflects my enthusiastic approach to life. I build layers of colors and divide the saturated shapes with line. After the paint has dried, I start cutting with a sharp knife, lifting my subjects into the third dimension. Watercolor paper is durable enough to take the paper sculpting techniques; scoring, folding, bending, and weaving the paper into low relief, with the effects of light and shadow playing over the canvas surface becoming an essential part of the painting.

The choice of subject or content becomes a narrative on the world as I imagine it in my mind. It's stimulating to play with reality. The concept is my celebration of all that God has created. A question often asked is "How long does one of your sculptured paintings take to complete?" I don't track the hours, for time hardly exists when one is fulfilling a passion.

ARTIST BACKGROUND
Willadene is a native of the Pacific Northwest and it has been her ambition to be an artist since early childhood. In the beginning watercolor was her chosen medium; mastering the unpredictable nature of a pigment suspended in water. Now she works with acrylic and whatever else it takes to get the painting to look as she has envisioned in her mind's eye. Her art is in numerous corporate and private collections around the world.

RECENT EXHIBITON
"A Blade Cuts Both Ways" was featured at the Art Stall Gallery in the Pike Place Market of Sesattle during the month of August. The following is an excerpt from the Art Access publication. "Her form of Contemporary Realism combines cut paper, watercolor and acrylic gouache into an original art form. Torbenson is an expert colorist working with intuitive passion to create her one-of-a-kind works of art."

AWARDS

2005 MIVAL Memorial Award, Northwest Watercolor Society
2003 City of Kent Commissioned Art Award
2002 Juror's Award, Renton Annual Fine Art Show
2002 RAAS Purchase Prise, Renton Annual Fine Art Show
2002 Dan Smith Award, Women Painters of Washington
2002 Best in Show, Abstract, Women Painters of Washington
2001, 1999, 1994 City of Kent Purchase Award, Cantebury Faire
2003, 2001 Artistic Merit Award, Renton Art in the Park
2000 First Place, Renton Art in the Park
2000, 1998 Burien Theater Artistic Merit, Seahurst Annual Open Show
1998 MIVAL Memorial Award, Northwest Watercolor Society
1998 Western Washington Annual Art Show

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

2011-1999 Women Painters of Washington
2011-1994 Northwest Watercolor Society, Signature Member
2011-2006 Northwest Collage Society
2011-2005 Art Stall Gallery, Seattle
2005-1995 Seahurst Gallery of Burien

DEMONSTRATIONS

2011, 2009, 2006 Northwest Collage Society
2008 Northwest Watercolor Society "Sculptured Paper Art"
2006 Sequim Arts "Sketching Walkabouts" & "Sculptured Paper"
2005 Mercer Island Arts, "Sculptured Paper Landscapes"
2007,2006,2005 Daniel Smith Art Workshop "Sketching Walkabouts"
2004 Women Painters of Washington

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