Landscape Painting in Pastels: About Deborah Secor

Faith and Family

I'm a Christian, a Jesus follower. He gave His life away for the greatest reason possible: so everyone could understand that we can have eternal life. As a follower, I give my life away freely, too, though not like He did (since I'm obviously not God.) My firm belief is that...God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners....For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

A disciple becomes like the one she follows, and I think about the neatest way I can give my 'life' away is to share my artwork and my faith walk with anyone who wants to read the blog. What I have is freely given. Jesus said, "Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be." Heart follows treasure... My treasure is Jesus!

I've been married to Dan Secor since 1986 and we have one adult son, Chris. I've learned immeasurably important lessons as a wife and mom, things that are of eternal merit, and I unabashedly state that I value my submissive (yes--the 's' word!) role as a wife, but I can only say that because Dan constantly follows Christ and "washes me by the water of the word."

Art and Writing

I began my art career in 1979 with a BA in Fine Arts from California State College, Bakersfield, and soon after began showing my landscapes in Old Town, Albuquerque. I permanently relocated to New Mexico in 1981, launching out to do art fairs and exhibitions, and showing my work in galleries throughout the southwest.

My choice to limit my work to soft pastels led to workshops with international pastelist Albert Handell, who became a mentor to me for some seven years, during which time I inaugurated The Pastel Society of New Mexico, as well as beginning to teach adult students how to paint landscapes in pastels, as I continued to do for 22 years.

In 1999 when two of my friends, formerly students of mine (though both credible painters already), Janie Hutchinson and Maggie Price, decided to produce a magazine, The Pastel Journal, I joined the team as a writer. I continued to write for the current parent company, F+W Media. My articles and interviews have been seen in The Artist’s Magazine and Watercolor Artist, as well as The Pastel Journal.

My paintings have been selected for inclusion in several books devoted to the pastel medium: The Pastel Painter’s Solution Book; Pure Color: The Best of Pastel; Painting With Pastels.

I also paint in gouache, a little understood medium that is watercolor with a twist. Opacifiers have been added to pigments to make the medium behave far more like acrylics or oils, yet results in a dusty finish very reminiscent of pastels. You can see more of my gouache paintings at Deborah Secor: Gouache.

A GIFT

I contemplated selling this book, but in the final analysis I decided that it was better to give. Jesus tells us, "Freely you have received, freely give." So I will. I hope you enjoy and benefit from it.

I'm a Christian, a Jesus follower. He gave His life away for the greatest reason possible: so everyone could understand that we can have eternal life. As a follower, I give my life away freely, too, though not like He did (since I'm obviously not God.) My firm belief is that...God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners....For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

A disciple becomes like the one she follows, and one day I realized that about the neatest way I could give my 'life' away was to give this book away to anyone who wanted to read it! But I couldn't afford to print it and send it out, so doing it online was the best way--on a blog it could be freely given. Jesus said, "Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be." Heart follows treasure... My treasure is Jesus!

With my blessings,
~Deborah

Maybe you know that God loves you, but you also realize that you’ve done things that are wrong—you’ve sinned. That sin separates you from God. Out of His great love He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to die as the sacrifice to pay for your sins. His resurrection is the ultimate evidence of eternal life. When you recognize your need and want to begin to live as a new creation, you can ask Jesus to be your Savior and Lord in prayer. There's no hocus-pocus here, just the reality of faith and new life in Christ. That is the real gift here!

MAKING COPIES

This book is not available in traditional print form. It is now available in PDF format, which should make it easy for you to print ONE copy for your personal use.

You may also use one of the eBook platforms (such as www.bloxp.com) to make a one-off eBook, which may be downloaded in any electronic format you wish for your own personal use.

Please don't copy and post it online anywhere without my express, written permission. (debsecor (at sign) gmail (dot) come) Instead, please use a link to the chapter you want to share. Thanks so much for understanding.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank Maggie Price for her help in conceiving and executing this as a workbook beginning back in 1993, and for encouraging and fostering my writing ability. I learned tremendous amounts writing under your guidance for the first five years of The Pastel Journal’s existence, and I’m so grateful for the opportunity you first gave me to begin writing professionally.

F+W Publications originally published several of these chapters as articles featured in The Pastel Journal, although many of them have since been further edited as I’ve discovered more about the subjects. I especially want to thank editors Maureen Bloomfield and Anne Hevener, each of whom has helped me along the way, as well as the entire staff of editors that have consistently corrected and improved on what I've written.

Many thanks to Philip Van Hulle for editing these pages. I’ve learned over the years that a good editor works hard to make the author look better than she is.

The people who have passed through my classrooms for over 20 years have acted as the catalyst for this book, constantly seeking to understand more, consistently asking excellent and engaging questions that required me to find the bottom line, and providing the enjoyment of watching them journey along the pastel pathway. I meant it every time I said, “It’s looking good. Keep going!”

A special thanks to my Thursday art gang who have kept coming back for many years of fun, work and growth. Some have come and gone, but you all know who you are. It’s a privilege to teach such a talented group. I couldn’t do it without you. You always make ME look good!

Pages

About Deborah Secor

CLICK ON "OLDER POSTS" ABOVE TO STAY IN BOOK ORDER