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DIXIE LEE HOWE
Portraiture

In the late 1950s, my father served three years in the United States Air Force in Mississippi. He met and married my mother, who is from Jackson, Mississippi, and brought her home to his native Southern California. In Orange County, my parents raised my brother and me.

I started sketching at age nine and have never really stopped. I received a lot of positive feedback from family, friends and teachers about my artistic ability. I can remember wanting to sketch faces more than any other subject.

I have had no formal training or art education, except two art history classes. However, I might consider taking classes in oil painting in the future.

Doing portraits is a passion and the only reason I didn't pursue it sooner is because I never felt I could support myself doing it. One of the things I did in my spare time for fun as a child, was take large photos of cosmetic models out of various fashion magazines, cut the face in half, glue it on a white piece of paper and sketch the other half of the face.

I also love literature and have several units of English and General Education from various schools. I met my husband in Santa Clara County and he is a native of Marin County, California.

Some of the things I will do in the future are various sketches of my native Orange County (for example ocean views of Newport Beach and Laguna, as well as, sketches with people other than just portraits). However, people, and in particular, formal portraits of them, are a never-ending source of creative inspiration for me.

As far as having a creative philosophy, I have a simple desire and it is to do portraits that will have a lasting quality and meaning for the client. With any other subjects I do, I only wish to do work that has a positive emotional meaning or response for people. For example, if I do something with flowers or animals, I want that sketch to leave a positive impact.

I will continue to learn or research a variety of techniques from other artists who have been working longer than I have. For example, I enjoy learning from Ann Kullberg. She is a pioneer in the field of colored pencil art/portraiture and has published many helpful books. I've also gained insight from Bernard Poulin, as well as Cecil Baird. Aside from that, I also learn from my own mistakes.