Debbie Callahan paints traditional subject matter in an untraditional way. Her lines are often hazy, colors muted and forms simplified.
Debbie’s compositions are rarely complicated; she prefers to keep the focus directed on the subject without many distractions in the painting. She tries to integrate these components into a cohesive painting.
Mostly Debbie works in pastels, acrylics, watercolor and oil paint, but recently has been experimenting with some mixed media effects. She likes figure, still life, and some floral and landscape painting. Painting figures is her favorite subject.
To Debbie, artists are born, not created. She has always known she was an artist. She believes, in many ways, an artist’s skills are self taught. A formal art education can teach us many things about the process but only by having awareness and listening to our own voices can we develop our own unique style of expressing ourselves.
Some of the talented artists who have helped Debbie along this path are: James Hempel, Terry Stanley, Joy Moone, Pamela Scezniak, Kristy Kutch, and Fred Bell.
Debbie has been inspired by many artists who have come before her: Odilon Redon, Marc Chagall, John Singer Sargent, Alice Neel, Lucien Freud, and Louise Bourgeois.
She hopes to continue to have an awareness of her inner voice and an expression of it in her paintings.
