Arleta Pech's striking watercolor paintings have received critical acclaim for their high
contrast, unusually intense use of color and exquisite detail. Pech's ability to achieve both
impact and delicacy in her paintings attests to her facility with her preferred medium -
watercolor.
Born in the Midwest, Pech has lived in Colorado since 1960. Trained in fine art as a
youth, she began her art career as a commercial artist. Pech returned to painting in the late
1970s when she continued her training in watercolors. Pech feels the turning point of her
career came in 1980 when she began to concentrate on floral subjects. At this time she began
to receive recognition in local and regional shows and to receive awards for her art.
Watercolor is Pech's medium of choice because she feels that she can control it and use
it to best create the effect of light on her subjects: "I'm painting the light on the flowers, not
just the flowers themselves." Her goal, Pech says, "is to create beautiful images that glow with
light and to continue to take on new challenges and opportunities."
Her lavish flowers look real enough to pick, bathed in radiant light and surrounded by
cascades of elegant white lace. When Arleta paints lace, she really only paints the holes - she
doesn't use any white paint. The only white seen in her paintings is the white of the paper!
Pech is represented by several galleries, and her work has been selected for numerous
juried exhibitions and invitationals. She won the Colorado Watercolor Society Award in the
1986 Rocky Mountain National Watermedia Exhibition and a special award at the 1988
National Watercolor Society Western Art Invitational. She is a signature member of The Rocky
Mountain National Watermedia Society, The NWS Western Invitational and was invite to
participate in the 1996 Great Women Artists of America Show. Her original paintings are
included in many private and corporate collections, and her work has been featured in
magazines such as American Artist and The Artist. Her paintings were selected for a series of
plates by The Bradford Exchange as well as jigsaw puzzles and posters. Her work will be seen
in a book to be published by Northlight Books in 1998.
EXHIBITIONS: Rocky Mountain National Watermedia Exhibition
National Watercolor Society Western Art Invitational
Great Women Artists of America Show
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